Yep , if that crud is dry and hard to shift it definitely isn't leaking fork oil . Best pop the dust seals / trim and see what lurks beneath .

 

That's rust. Either from the inside of the slider cover or water has gotten by the dust seal and caused the oil seal retaining ring to rust.

 

Too bad you are in UK...I would offer to sell my OEM lower fork sliders but shipping would be outrageous since flat rate domestic does not apply.


.

 

Another Brit here, long-time Harley owner! There are two levels of 'outrageous' where the cost of Harley parts and shipping are concerned - yours and ours! Second-hand parts over here are almost as rare as hens' teeth, so often are simply not obtainable. The cost of buying them in the USA and shipping to the UK - plus UK import taxes etc, are often the only way of getting stuff at lower than new cost. I bought new take-off sliders for my Glide on US Ebay a while ago, a bargain compared with a new pair, despite all the extra costs!

 

Well I no longer have my sporty so willing to help out a fellow forum member if he in fact needs the sliders. I am assuming his bike is a 2009....these sliders came off a 2011 XL1200L 25mm axle.

 

Yeah Harley parts finding in Europe is pretty hard - with that being said i have had some good success on ebay but its a lot of waiting and searching

So it should be rust cause the "leak" has not appeared ever since i cleaned it, Still havent popped the cap tho - should i replace the dust filter if it happens to be rust or jut let it be until i do the fork oil change its going to be due in another year or so anyhow

 

You have to remove the forks from the triple trees to replace the dust covers, so if they dont look bad I would wait and do it all.