[Dirtnap]

Are any of you guys noticing any oil burning? Now that it's cold I'm needing to let the bike warm up a few minutes in the garage (door open of course) before I take off, and I'm noticing a distinct oil burning smell as the bike warms up at idle. The oil level has also definitely gone down on the dipstick, but I'm not seeing any visible smoke from the exhaust. Is this normal for these engines? I have to run it pretty hard to keep up with traffic here in Atlanta, but the bike only has about 1000 miles on it.

I’d be very interested to know if there is any accumulated oil residue in the bottom of the air cleaner box. That would throw a suspicious light on the crankcase ventilation tube, especially if the bike has been ridden for long periods at sustained high rpm’s. You’ve probably seen the fix mentioned if that is what you discover.

Personally, even though I have around 1300 miles on mine with a 16 tooth front sprocket, I ride it like I was a 12 year old borrowing it from my dad. It seldom goes above 8500 rpm for more than 30 seconds, and has neither shown any oil consumption on the stick or any visible or detected burnt oil smell at the exhaust.
It probably doesn’t matter, but I’m running Valvoline 10-40 wet clutch motorcycle oil.

If the issue persists but doesn’t show oil in the air cleaner box, a compression check would be interesting. (174 pounds at 300 rpm). I seem to remember they suggest that with a cold non-running engine and throttle opened.
Afterthought—oil burning would show on the spark plug porcelain, right?

 

[Dirtnap]

No doubt you’ll get this sorted.

I hope you post the outcome here. Selfishly, I admit to feeding off of the learned experiences of others. We’re kind of like a collective mind in that way.

Spark plug analysis can be like reading tea leaves, but it’s legit when the condition is chronic and severe.

For what it’s worth, I found a tight exhaust valve condition on another bike by comparing the cold compression to the same when the engine was hot. Just a guess, the lash was adequate when cold, but kept the exhaust valve from completely closing when hot? Checking the cold clearance, I found it to be below spec.