side stand

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side stand

Postby rosmba » Sun Jan 10, 2016 6:23 pm

OK. big surprise after purchasing my new to me LT. If you park it on the side stand the heads fill with oil and it smokes like you have blown it up. Puting it on the center stand (02 pre hydrolic) is a adventure I am not enjoying. So question from the experts. How harmful is this smog screen system to the machine and if I persist on parking it on the side stand taking the laughs and snide comments of my fellow club members and the general public, how often will I have to add oil to make up for this obvious design flaw? Thanks in advance for your consideration


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Re: side stand

Postby mlytle » Sun Jan 10, 2016 9:40 pm

pretty normal for a K. i just use the center stand or lean the bike to the right slightly after shutdown for a bit before getting off. not a big deal.
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Re: side stand

Postby rosmba » Tue Jan 12, 2016 8:20 pm

really... you get used to it.. LOL... that is like saying my car horn blows for an minute or two after I turn it on, but I got used to it... #-o Guess when I ride with my club, I'll stay in the back so I don't smoke out the harleys and hondas
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Re: side stand

Postby ERC Scott » Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:04 pm

In my experience not ALL k-bikes will smoke on start-up, at least not the 95 K75 and 02 K1200RS that I had years back. I was pretty diligent not to overfill the crankcase (that can be tricky on some BMWs). Also, I used the centerstand any time the bike was parked other than for gassing up. Suggest you take your K12 to a dealership or one of our independent service shops, park it on the sidestand, and go in and ask for a quick look-see (call it a sanity check) of 1) your smoking issue and 2) the difficulty you have in employing the centerstand. I would expect this would be free, especially if you tell them you are new to beemers. Did the bike smoke when when you test rode it - if not ask the prior owner why that might be? My fingers are crossed that this will be a quick fix.

Meantime, you might try turning the engine off then keeping bike upright for 30 seconds before deploying the kickstand and leaning it over.

FWIW, I have had 10-second light smoking when starting-up some boxer-engined cars, but only when they had been idle for weeks/months. Scott
Last edited by ERC Scott on Sat Jan 16, 2016 8:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: side stand

Postby JimVonBaden » Fri Jan 15, 2016 7:43 pm

Some do and some don't. Either way it is not harmful to the motor.

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Re: side stand

Postby Georgeinva » Fri Jan 15, 2016 9:20 pm

A few simple things to try.
1)As mentioned it is very easy to overfill the engine with oil. If you can get the bike on the center stand put it up and leave it overnight. In the morning if the oil is anywhere in the red circle you are fine. Some anal retentive fools will try to keep the oil to the top of the red circle. Let it burn down to just above the bottom of the circle. Some bike will stop burning before you reach the bottom. If you keep it topped all the way up it will continue to burn. My K75 stopped smoking when the level was between the bottom and 1/4 up from the bottom.
2)Fear not the red line! After the bike is up to normal operating temperature twist the grip and hold on. Most of the smokers were pampered way too much. If you want trouble from your new to you Beemer shift before you are at 3,000 rpm.
3)At your next oil change use 10w40 non-synthetic oil.
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