Well I went out for a run on the Shadow this morning. On the way back a dear old lady pulled straight out in front of me from a side road, and I had to brake so hard I felt the rear lock up. when I pulled alongside and pointed to my eyes then to her, she gave me a lovely big smile, she obviously thought I was just being friendly..
When I got home I noticed oil had come out of the Shadows drive shaft breather and there was some on the rear tyre. I checked the level and about 40 or 50 cc's came out of the level plug, so not really overfilled. I went out again on it and no further leaks so it must have been caused by the hard braking.

Depending on how much oil it holds it could be quit a bit over full percentage wise,
though I would keep a close eye on it.

Thanks Ralph. Yes you're quite right it's only 150ccs, so it was a bit overfull. I'm just surprised it happened though as I've had other shaft drive bikes and never had this happen. Mind you I have filled those myself, whereas the Shadow is still relatively new to me.

Can the breather be easily removed?
if so have a look it may have a ball valve
and it could be stuck open.

No there's no ball valve, just a chrome-plated domed cover on top of the tube.

***just a chrome-plated domed cover on top of the tube****

Yes but very often there will be a ball in it, sat in a small counter sink/depression, to keep the crud out.
Any rise in internal pressure will lift the small ball to release it, ball drops back into counter sink..
Just a thought, if the tube can be pulled/screwed out may be worth doing and a qwik clean.
Lyn.

Ah, that makes sense. So further exploration is needed. The Haynes manual shows nothing about the casing or breather, only the internal gears, and on the exploded diagram I saw on a dealers site (I can't remember which now) it showed the domed breather caps for sale, but gave no further details. Does anyone know, does the dome thing just pull off?

Well I pulled the cover off with a pair of mole grips and there's no ball inside, it's just an empty cap with a tube part.
If there's a ball it must be in the cast-in casing tube, but it didn't look like there was. There was some dirt in the cap, and what looked like a small spiders web!
It's just strange that it managed to leak so much oil out. I'll have to keep an eye on it.