I appreciate all of the different perpectives.

I'm a bike newbie.....and out of diy maintenance for a while...didn't think about using the baking soada solution test. Will try that next time I see the splatter.

Broke out my DMM and took the following measures across the terminals;

12.47 Cold

12.04 Ignition on / beam high

14.04 @ idle

No apparent probably cranking / start up.....so I'm leaning away from changing the battery after I manage to actually get it out of the tray.....which I'm still struggling with.

 

I tried checking the dipstick, but not sure I'm doing it correctly.

Cars are wipe off, straight in, straight out, check the fill line.

Bike has the dipstick integrated into the screw cap.......do you insert until the cap hits the threads or do you screw it down and then back it out and check the fill line while the bike is on the jiffy ?

 

Check while on the kick stand, screw all the way in. Engine should be at operating temp. The maintenance manual is a worth while investment.

 

Did I miss the part where you said what the fluid looked like? That'd probably be the easiest way to tell.
It very well could be soap left after the shop washed the bike, (if they did)
Or breather mist (happens all the time)
Or just something from off the road.
You wouldn't be able to to anything by checking your oil, unless the whole side of your bike was soaked, which isn't really possible...

 

You can check the oil cold but I wouldn't add more than it takes to bring it up to the mid range point on the stick.

 

I bought a Clymers manual......is the HD manual more detailed ?

 

Well I don't know what's in the Clymers one but the HD one tells you exactly how to do things like checking oil.

 

Since you're in Florida and high humidity - and chance it was just water condensation?

 

NEVER check the oil cold on any Harley except a V-Rod...

Charging was 14.04 at idle....what is it at 3k rpm, if its over 15v then you have a problem.

 

Didn't get behind the old pickup truck did you? You know the one, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco ........spit!