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I remember hearing about this problem before on the forum, but couldn't find the link. Ran an errand this morning on the R90, parked it on the side stand, which does lean over quite a bit. Went to start and was greeted with large clouds of blue smoke from the exhaust on the left side. After a bit it clears up and bike has no smoke coming from exhaust. Got home, let it idle while on side stand, no smoke. Shut it off, waited a few minutes and smoke when it started. Is this a natural problem, bike has 110k miles on it. Short of a rebuild on either the top a bottom end is there anything I should check like a seal on a valve.

thanks,

gg

It's normal for some oil to get past the rings when parked on the side stand for awhile, but yours sounds excessive. I'd do a compression or leak down test to see what's what. Probably time for new rings...

I did a compression test a number of months ago. It was around 120 per side, looked at the specs and that makes it marginal.
Guess I will put an engine rebuild on the list too for this winter, cause I really have no idea if its 110 k miles on the clock or 210k. Looking at the wear on the peg rubbers, they are pretty smooth on top.

I swear it was coming from both sides after my errand, kind of embarrassing when it first fired up.

gg

I am convinced that if I ever got another airhead, I wouldn't worry about using the centerstand every time I parked.
I would rather put up with a little smoke than have [another] hernia repair.

But yeah, if yours is excessive or it has increased lately, you might want to check it out further.

It might have come out both sides if some got through the crossover tube.

I would chalk it up to having a bike with character!

How is your engine oil level? My /7 is more apt to blow smoke on start up if the dipstick shows full if the side stand is used. (horizontally opposed engine...oil dribbles into the lower cylinder). My /7 has been doing this the 24 years I've owned it. Compression is still good. Most times it doesn't smoke much on start up. Maybe that's all your trouble is a bit of a airhead character. My K RS even does this from time to time.

I was once asked if I smoked after sex. I said "I don't know, I never looked"

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

If I ever have sex, I plan to look.

Your sidestand is either too short or loose.
Maybe it was that way from the beginning.
Sometimes you only need a piece of pipe welded onto the little foot to fix the extreme lean, sometimes the pivot needs shimming...
or another sidestand.

The smoking has started recently. I have been riding the bike more, doing errands I used to do on the Triumph. Since it is in the garage, it gets first pick. I will check the oil level again, I guess they want the bike level, I do it on center stand and put a wedge under the rear wheel so it sits level. Did have some concerns about how blue the headers were getting, nice deep blue, bought a color tune set up, well the firing color matched the headers, blue. Plugs confirmed a good mixture, light brown, exhaust pipes exits are pretty clean too.
Character is good, rust on frame, cracked paint on tank, , rusty spokes, gets a surprising numbers of thumbs up when I ride it. The old gal shows it age, has a great patina.

Right. Bike should be level to check the oil.
Headers turn blue if you have to sit in traffic a lot...but you might check the timing. Late spark turns them blue pretty fast, even if the plugs show good combustion. Some headers are more prone to blue than others, a characteristic of the metals.