Hi all, as mentioned above I am an idiot, because I have no mechanical knowledge. It's quite wet today and I took my monster for a quick blast through London to see a mate. On the way back I noticed a small bit of smoke/steam coming off the front of the bike from somewhere behind the front wheel when I was in traffic. When I got home I looked about and saw it seemed to come from the radiator. Really very small, and may just be that the bike needs a clean (which is this afternoon's work!). If anyone who knows about this stuff can give their opinion i'd be very grateful. The bike had the 15k service about a month ago by a reputable guy in London. I'm starting a basic mechanical course on the 27th so hopefully I won't ask quite so many embarrassing questions in the future... (which way does the petrol go in etc). Any advice massively appreciated!! Ed Smoke? - YouTube
you are right to be cautious Ted, and that's what the Forum is partly for. I haven't got first hand experience of your bike but that's the oil rad right? Do the fumes smell of oil? Keep a careful check on whether it stops at any time and particularly look meticulously around the area/under the bike after you have switched off. It may be water innocently evaporating off as engine gets stinking hot or it may be a sign of a small fracture to the rad or possibly at the union where a hose goes off to the engine. The actual 'female' union part of the hose is quite prone to this over time.
Ok so if you can try and establish if it is oil smoke or water vapour smoke. Oil smoke tends to be blueish. Steam is white. If steam then do the math, water on road, and water I am rain and hot bike. From m750 via 749 to ss all done that for me when moving slow in heavy rain and always when on lights in wet. When you move mist smoke gets blown off but also water is in smaller drops and most gets blown back. When you stop it starts dripping down on hot engine, radiator, exhaust to extent of helmet visor steaming up.
I'm good with spanners but would not do so well posting a You Tube video clip......we all have our different skill sets...don't put yourself down any more. you spotted it ....well on the way to being an engineer was the engine hot when the video taken ?......could be condensation evaporating off, if it was hot you have the smallest hole in your rad, the oil is under pressure so a larger hole would mean liquid oil all over the show. could be stone damage from the cars in front.
Thanks for the replies! Yep it was fairly hot, had just been through central in traffic and bad rain. I'll scoot down to the dealer now and be back in an hour - better safe than sorry. Back in a bit.
Looking at the vid, you have a black area in the core/matrix and the Smoke/Steam when you see it pass through the headlight beam has a blue tint to it which would suggest to me it could be oil. The smell would give you the clue as oil has a different smell to road grim/water, as not 100% sure but your bike is not water cooled, which would rule out coolant/antifreeze. brian.
My monster 1100s and old 696 did exactly this on the way back from the TT. I put it down to the wet roads and the hot engine. Both were fine after
Took it to David Robinson in Wandsworth, he knows the bike well from it's previous owner. Lovely guy, took a careful look at it and his verdict is that it's fine, just the oil radiator catching water from the front wheel and creating steam. Phew! Thank you very much for all the replies, much appreciated. Anyone London based?
"and water I am rain and hot bike" WTF? are u using a translator? like one of those Chinese electronics manuals.
