Triumph Sprint- smoking after crash Had an R.T.A yesterday, As far as I can work out I locked the front wheel and the bike went down on it's l.h.s. I was thrown clear, and slid down the road a bit. Fortunately my protective clothing and helmet did a splendid job and apart from scuffed leathers and a scratched visor I'm o.k, apart from a badly sprained right thumb and slight shoulder bruising. Anyway the bike was laying on its side with the engine running whilst I was laying on my on back on the side of the road wondering what had happened, and feeling generally glad that I seemed to be relatively unhurt. Someone, who was an ex biker, turned up on the scene and had the presence of mind to kill the engine with the kill switch, and once I had got to my feet we set about lifting the bike up. There was about ½ pint of oil on the road that had come from my bike and when I started the engine there was a lot of white smoke, but that didn't worry me immediately as I had an Enfield that suffered from 'Wet sumping' and cleared itself after a few minutes of running, so I was hoping that it would clear soon. The gear lever pedal had sheared cleanly off but I managed to put the bike in first gear and ride the ½ mile to a friends house where I could put the bike in his garage. The bike continued to smoke the entire ½ mile journey but not so much as the initial start up. Would welcome any ideas of the implications of an engine running on it's side for a minute or two. I presume nothing serious has happened as there didn't seem to be any untoward noises coming from the engine, Where did the oil that was causing the smoking come from, had oil got into the air box?
Glad your ok. i don't know the answer, but triumphtorque and triumphrat are good sources of knowledge. tt
I had an off awhile ago and the bike ran for a very short time on tick over revs before I got to the kill switch. Never had any subsequent trouble. Glad you're ok mate...
If oil split from the engine, where did it come from? Has a casing cracked? Its likely the smoking is just oil on the exhaust down pipes burning off.
I'd say thats normal enough after the bike was on its side with oil ending up in areas it wouldent normally be in.You only rode it half a mile in first gear. It probably needs a decent run. This is a good website Triumph Sprint Owners Club - Powered by vBulletin
Pretty sure no engine casing cracked. The fairings, that's another story Should clarify that the thick white smoke was emanating from the silencer, oil was being burnt in the cylinders! Just to satisfy my curiosity, I was wondering how it was getting into the cylinders to get burnt?
White smoke isn't normally associated with oil burning......should be blue...or black, even, in bigger quantities..........Seems to me more like water / coolant producing steam. Still....you know your bike better than me; so if it was oil (or water, even) how did it get into the cylinders? Possibly the oil drain holes (which aren't under pressure from the pump) from the head etc, were awash with oil from the sump...has it got down the valve stems into the cylinders? I doubt it.......... ..........I think more likely it got into the airbox via the crankcase breather which could have got filled when the sump contents got sloshed over; and has then got drawn in via the induction manifolds. If it is water / coolant, I would be worried. Glad you aren't all bust up. AL
Really sorry to hear mate but glad you are ok as you could have easily broken some bones - will you get ankle checked out? Re: bike, hard to say from what you've said but certainly oil from crankcase could easily start to saturate the lowest cylinder whilst inclined and this could take some time (certainly longer than you travelled) before it subsides.
Sorry to hear you've had an off, but glad it's nothing too serious. Don't think the oil smoke will be too much of a problem, as others have said, you probably need a bit more of a run for it to clear properly!
Rode it back home from where I had left it yesterday and It continued to smoke most of the journey, albeit not so much as it had initially, was just beginning to worry and then it all seemed to clear up after about 10miles. I'm going with oil collected in the airbox whilst it was lying on it's side . Thanks for all the feedback. Gave the Ducati a seeing too on the way back from Goodwood this morning, still can't pick up a pint of beer as my right thumb is still a tad swollen, but seems to be o.k with my quick action throttle!
Steve I was forced to drink with a combination of left hand and steadying with the right fingers on Thursday evening, but the strange thing was it didn't taste the same. Pete. My first vehicular accident was at the age of about 3 or 4 when I drove my pedal car down a small flight of concrete steps, and had to drink fluids and liquified food through a strange teapot like apparatus until my damaged mouth healed. Funny thing is that's the first time I've remembered that for over 50 years!
Chris I will be happy to supply the coffee and macaroon to get to find out what was the cause of the smoking, what's your explanation.
