Strong oil/gas smell coming from front of bike only when running.

I recently had my 2012 NC700X in to the Honda dealer for the 8,000 mile service which includes valve adjustment, oil change, and other minor checks.

Immediately when I started up the bike to take it home I noticed what I thought was an oil burning or spilled gas smell. I figured they spilled some oil (which it looks like they did a little) down the side when filling it and didn't think much of it.

Well now it has been a couple weeks and the smell has not gone away or faded at all. I ride daily and there have been no problems with performance.

I have noticed the exhaust does not smell. The smell only comes from near the front of the bike, like if I stick my nose down toward the radiator from above my handle bars, I can smell it very strongly rising up through there. Once I turn the bike off the smell slowly fades away.

I park in a garage and there has not been so much as a drop of fluid on the ground.

Any ideas? I'm taking the bike back in this week to get tires and want to maybe have an idea what this could be before I bring it up.

Take it back to the dealership and have them fix whatever they did wrong.

To get at the valves for a clearance check, the coolant has to be drained and there may also be some oil spilled when the valve cover is removed. Perhaps there is some residual coolant or oil on the front of the engine that is getting heated up in close proximity to the cat. The two plug holes are in close proximity also and some oil or coolant may have spilled down there during the process ?

I would check to see if the crankcase breather hose was clamped firmly back onto the valve cover.

Oh, another idea or two- if any volume of gasoline went into the evaporative emissions canister (AKA charcoal canister) for whatever reason ie: over filled the gas tank and it purged a bit of over flow into the evap can, or the bike was over on it's side to any degree for any length of time (not to alarm you lol) then it can take a long time for the fuel vapour to really go away from a filled canister.

In theory the evap system is supposed to do just that, mitigate the vapours from escaping directly into the atmosphere, but they aren't perfect, and can be overwhelmed and you will notice the smell.

In the emissions spaghetti nest of stuff, if a connector hose came undone or a valve failed and stuck open, it may vent to the outside versus into the charcoal can. I think the US is the only country that has the extra emissions paraphernalia, so I'm sorry I don't know if there's a solenoid operated valve in the system off the top of my head.

check for the mounting rubbers on the head cover bolts. loose/forget to reinstall them and a small amount of oil will leak from the top cover