fatneck

Thanks, that does give me some hope! The oily mess on the floor looks like golden syrup, so it might actually not be oil and possibly just crud its picked up whilst dripping down the downpipe. (Its on a ZX6R not an SV, but these are the best forums!).

What I'll do is replace the hose, fill it up again with coolant and see what happens. One end of the hose seems to disappear into a horrible mess of scary looking engine type stuff, that I may not be able to reach. Is it ok to chop the hose and somehow (jubilee clips?) attach another hose onto it, at least to get it to the bike shop and get it looked over.