I have an '04 TA. Last week I dropped it (grr argh to Edinburgh council who think putting bike parks in sloping corners off cobbled cambered streets is a good idea). It has engine guards, and the only visible damage was a broken indicator, which I've now replaced (new set works fine).

After picking the bike up again I rode home no worries.

However 2 days later when I went to fix the indicator I found a patch of oil on the ground. No obvious source, and lots of oil in corners so I cleaned everything up and left it another day, to see if I could spot where it was coming from, and also to make sure it wasn't just scottoiler stuff that had ended up in the wrong place after the drop, and slowly dripped its way back out.

No luck, it's still leaking (though not very much, and still not sure where from). Tried to fire it up to move it to somewhere I could get a better look and...it wouldn't start. First just a bit reluctant, and it's cold, so I used the choke. Which caused it to stop making any sort of bike-starting noise, and instead make a really nasty clicking/jarring sort of noise, not like anything I've heard before. Further attempts yielded either the same noise or nothing at all. The brake light flickers in time with the clicking... I haven't checked the battery yet (although it's been less than a week since it was last used, and I haven't had any issues with it before), but when my GPZ battery died the bike just failed to start, no weird noises!

Anyone have any suggestions, either about failure to start or about the possible source of the oil leak? Closest I can get for the latter is somewhere just in front of the oil filter, but not the filter itself. My big worry is that no oil means when I tried to start it first time everything seized up, but it hasn't leaked that much, and I checked the dipstick beforehand there was still some in there. I don't know much about engines though...

Laura