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very (very) slight oil leak from rear of gaiter - diff to swing arm - slight trickle down to para arm.

do they usually go like this - starts v. slowly followed by major failure when all the oil in the diff comes out? or will it get progressively worse?

still seems to be plenty of oil in the diff housing so will see if it goes down much over next few rides.

any chance that the oil got blown past the seal as a result of going rather too fast on the way back from Burton? I can't see any sort of breather on the diff housing.

That'll be the pinion seal.... £125 to repair at BM dealer or DIY for the small sum of the parts, less than a fiver IIRC

Mine went at 18k and showed signs of failure again at 24k when the bevel bearing (?) was done.

Adam

Bern,chances are that it's the input shaft seal on the bevel box.
They tend to just weep when they've gone and generally don't get much worse.
But it could be the rear seal leaking on the gearbox too.Tell tale signs are the gaiter/rubber boot between gearbox and swingarm being slightly damp with oil.
You won't notice much of a drop in the levels of the bevel box or gearbox oil if either are leaking.A small amount of hot oil goes a long way.
When I changed mine(both failed) I took the old seal(oink oink) down to my bearings man and he found a double lipped seal in place of the BMW single lipped type at a fraction of the price.
Bailey.

On gazing at my slightly shabby look SS this morning noticed a smear of oil at the base of the gator, the front of the engine is also weeping at the bottom.

Noticed the back end weaving when cranked over when recently two up with luggage. We couldn't find any play in the rear when lifted using the side stand and I pretended that is was due to the tyre deflecting under the vast weight of 2 people + camping gear

my gut feeling is a bearing is on its way out - is this an easy job or an expensive trip to SL BMW?

PS Finally my browser lets me read the forum.

Ade.

If you're still in the warranty period then it'll be a free repair. - I had both ends replaced at different times last year (gearbox output seal and bevel input seal)

sadly those warranty days are over, I am now in the wallet abuse period

Twas indeed the input shaft seal.
Nice man at BVM in Stroud did it under warranty while I waited.
Fitter said it was only leaking a touch and would have been OK for another 50K miles.
yeh right when the warranty was long gone and then they would have charged me 3 hours labour.

Bern.

mmm. at the 24k service the nice man at SL motorcycles pointed out to me that there was very slight play in the main paralever bearing (is this right? the bit where it sticks out the back of the engine).

He cheerily told me it was nothing to worry about for now but made a note in the service history

Funnily enough the warranty had recently expired - reckon the imminent 30k service could be costly....

incidently, finally cleaned the bike and I swear the weave has disappeared.

Ade.