I drilled a hole in the sprocket cover, just behind the oil fill, which allows easy inspection of the front sprocket, without removing the cover or draining the oil. I found a plastic cap to fit thew hole at the local ACE Hardware outlet.
I would like to modify the cover to move the oilfill and allow sprocket replacement without removing the cover or draining the oil, but that is a bigger project. If anyone has a trashed sprocket cover I would like to get it from you to work up a prototype.