it's worth pulling it off sometime...

The front sprocket cover that is...(you knew what I meant.)

Some one here recently was talking about cleaning the front sprocket ( gear) when cleaning the chain etc. Thanx for good advice and something I had not considered previously. Bike has done 10,000km now.

Well worth pulling off the cover and checking what is building up in there. I was amazed to see the build up of chain fling and road grit on the bottom of the cover. ( I hope this gritty gunk did not contain metal particles but it felt very abrasive)

It was slowly building and one could imagine it eventually coming into contact with the chain. Mess sat up about 1".

The actual sprocket was very clean tho' but I gave it the customary squirt with the WD40 ( CRC) and a wipe anyway.

Easy as job to do tho'.