Blue smoke on startup...

[Anonymous]

Hi,

not too familiar with motorbikes, would appreciate your help.

I have a 1981 GS450 that I picked up pretty cheap as a runabout, and I have had it a couple of months. It is a bit rough, but gets me from A to B without any real troubles. It occasionally has a bit of trouble starting, but always does start.

The only thing recently is that every so often (about 1 in 5 times) when starting it up it sends out decent amounts of blue smoke thru both pipes. After a minute or so it dies down and stops, then when I take off the first one or two times I accelerate there is some more blue smoke, however then it stops again and no more appears for the rest of the trip.

I realise blue smoke is oil, which is never a great sign, but any ideas on what this could be and does it sound serious?

(NB: I am a Kiwi who has just moved to London, and as I have not been here long have little or no access to any tools...unfortunately most repairs other than the very basic would probably include some shop time...grrr!)

Cheers
Vinnie

[focus frenzy]

that points towards worn valve stem seals.
if you let it idle for a few minutes warm, and then gas it does it puff a bit of smoke?

[scotty]

ditto

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help so far guys.

Worn valve stem seals, is that serious? Is it expensive or hard to fix? Is it something that can be ridden with or is it a immediate repair required? Any other symptoms to look out for?

By the way, no smoke after warm idling it for a couple of minutes. No smoke ever except occasionally when starting as described below.

Cheers
Vinnie