Hi there, all!!
Newbie here, just posted an introduction in that section, now I have a technical question:
My 2001 Road Star has 12,100 miles on it; 8,600 of which I put on it in the last year since I bought it. I've "wound it out" a few times, nothing that I would consider out of the ordinary riding, I don't race it or anything. There has been two accidental activations of the "rev limiter".
It is all stock except for the Cobra exhaust which was dealer installed, carb jetted.
A couple of months ago I was riding with some friends and one mentioned he thought he saw a little smoke when I was coming to a stop. Well, I didn't think much of it until a few days ago, my son was riding behind me and told me at a stop light that he saw smoke, too.
There was another stop light close by, I only got to second gear (fairly high revs) before slowing down and as I slowed, I looked in the mirror and definitely saw blue smoke.
I've been a mechanic for many years, but this is the first bike I've owned and don't know anything about the specific assembly of bike engines. What I can say for sure is that it only seems to happen at lower speeds, lower gear 1st or 2nd, at higher revs, when slowing. I had my son look closely as I tested it by accelerating hard. There was no visible smoke as there normally is not.
I'm thinking valve seals, but as I said, I don't know bike engines real well.
Other than these isolated incidents, I've never noticed or had anyone else say they noticed smoke. Any ideas?
Oh, also it is due for an oil change, well, that is it's been about 3,000 miles since I've changed it. I was unable to find Yamaha's 20/40 that they recommend for it, so I used a combination of 20/50 and 10/40. Could this be it?? Semi-synthetic if that matters.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I am planning on changing the oil tomorrow if I get the time and will let you know if that seems to change anything.
I'm just in panic mode, I love this bike, am on a budget, and would hate to think it needs a motor rebuild.
Thanks again,
Carmen