Burning smell - advice please.

Hi,

Went out on bike for a little blast this afternoon.
I got about 1/2 mile from my house and was sat at a level crossing when I smelt burning, looked down and could see smoke coming from front of the bike near radiator. So I pulled bike off the road and turned off the ignition to investigate. There was oily water dripping from the bottom of the radiator, the smell was a load of crud type stuff on the front of the exhaust (not sure how it got there!, or what it was).
I checked oil and all was fine, so rode her back home, stopped on drive and again could see dripping of oily type water (it didnt look like oil as it was to thin, but it was very dark in colour) it had not been raining either today when I was out on the bike.

I hav read about burning smell in other posts but is this normal or something bad, it doenst seem right to me to have oily coloured water dripping from the front and the rear of the bike.

any help or advice would be great as I am a noob and only had the bike a couple of months.

cheers.

[yorkie_chris]

Has it been stood awhile outside?

no, sat in garage for a couple of weeks

It's easy to worry about things like that when you first start riding. To be honest it's probably nothing. Was the bike left outside all night in the rain?
The smell was probably just mud baking on the exhaust, I get that all the time as I ride through lanes all the time.

bike is always kept in the garage.
the time I rode it before today it didnt rain, it was bloody cold though!!!! lol

I always warm her up before giving it some, and its been fine until now :S

I'd get the bike spotless clean, then run it and have a good look around for any leaks. I'd have thought if you had a coolant leak you'd have steam belting out though.
Just keep an eye on all the levels as well.

[Mr Speirs]

A foul smelling reddy/brown liquid coming from the front is it?

the liquid doesnt smell at all, the smell was from the burning crud on the fron of the exhaust. The liquid was almost black in colour but very watery.

Personally, to me, that sounds like the slime that comes up off the road after a prolonged bout of salting. Are your forks and rear wheel also covered in it?

Clean the bike and check for any leaks, most likely nothing to worry about but you need to be sure.