I just started the bike, it immediately started
smoking out of both pipes....
WHAT could be going on?
At first I thought it was from the cold air,
but nope it smelled a bit like burning

rubber or maybe oil, definitely smoke, when I shut it down
it continued to eek out both pipe ends.
Smoke is also coming out the front fairing around the
headlight area, though the photo doesn't really show
the smoke well at that spot, it is there....

This is the first hint of any smoke or trouble with this bike,
there is about 4300 mi on it.
Thinking back on everything I did with the bike yesterday,
the only thing that I think would remotely be related is that
when I was jacking it up onto the paddock stand while resting
on the side stand I tried a different way to push the stand down,
and would up dropping the bike to the right side.
Other than that, I had the left side vent fairing off,
and installed shorty levers and had the seat off a couple of times.

* Last updated by: Stratovarious on 10/25/2025 @ 7:18 AM *

I'm getting an error msg when I try to re-edit my
post to add the following, so I'm posting it in
a new post;

Should I reset the ECU?
I'm looking at my manual and don't see where
there might be a code on the screen.

I'm going to disconnect the batter for a few minutes,
probably won't do anything but I'll try it...

* Last updated by: Stratovarious on 10/25/2025 @ 7:38 AM *

Smoke is also coming out the front fairing around the
headlight area, though the photo doesn't really show
the smoke well at that spot, it is there....

Strat, I hope you're from Finland or someplace really cold. Are you sure that's smoke? I ran my Gen1 once in the dead of winter and the engine temp never came above one bar. When I shut it down, two streams of steam rose out of the mufflers for a few minutes...like a couple cigarettes in an ash tray. My personal feeling is, "If it's stored for winter, don't start it until you're going to ride it." My buddy Kruz likes to run his bikes in the garage during winter if he can't ride and I think that's probably ok because he lives in Texas where the winter temps are above 40° F. Personally, I don't start a bike unless it's at least 60° F and I'm going to ride it but where I live, it's generally rather cold.

Burning rubber smell, that's an engine that's about to overheat. The rubber parts are actually giving off an odor. I don't think that's what's happening, you seem to indicate it's cold where you are.

Burning oil? Could be. If you have the head cover gasket leak, the oil drips down over the exhaust manifold and burns right at the top of the headers. I had this issue with my Gen1 but never actualy saw smoke. I sure smelled oil burning though.

If it's really cold where you are, could be steam coming out of the exhaust but smoke from under the top fairing sounds like oil burning on the headers.

Remove the LH side fairings and check under the engine blanket for a film of oil coming from the head cover gasket.

Ok thanks this might add up, if I have
an exhaust leak some would suck back in maybe
and come out the tailpipes, explaining why
there is also smoke out the front?.....

I had some of the weight of the bike up via
the pipes a few days ago, but I ride it every am,
and NO smoke the last few
days, just all of a sudden this am, yeah it
smelled pretty strong a rubbery/oil burning
smell. I haven't smelled anything from the
bike before.
It's been low 50's here, and 48f this am,
in Arizona.

What is the 'engine blanket' ?

EDIT; The overwhelming amount of smoke though,
is definitely coming from the pipes.

* Last updated by: Stratovarious on 10/25/2025 @ 8:30 AM *

It started smoking as soon as I started it
and started walking away.

I took out the air filter and removed the left side fairing,
the filter is pretty dry, I'd cleaned it out when I
bought it, it had had 6qts in the crank case.
There is a lot of oily goop around the plastic
face of the filter though as it sits in the holder,
the drain tubes outside of the air box are oily
and so are the outside of the throttle bodies
(I think thats what they are, 4 'stacks' ?)
There is a small puddle under the middle of
the bike, at about the kickstand, it is brownish/tan
goop...

Site msg; ''too many links'' so here is the third;

I worked on the bike , taking fairings off and
inspecting whatever I could access, later road for
a while , smelled 'smelly' something at a couple of
stops and later got home with not much smell,
there wasn't any visible smoke to speak of,
it may have cleared out, not sure till the am,
when I duplicate starting it up at 5am +- .
The only significant event that I could come up with
as mentioned was the drop off of the paddock stand,
it dropped on the right side and sat for up to a
minute before I was able to get between it an the
wall to pick it up, and stop f ing this and that.
:smi

Lay the bike upright on the wall, both wheels on the ground. Look at the oil sight window to see where the oil line is. 6qts is too much.

It's been low 50's here, and 48f this am,
in Arizona.

It's warm by you but that might be cold enough to cause a little steam. It probably is smoke for the most part, especially if you smell it.

What is the 'engine blanket' ?

the filter is pretty dry, I'd cleaned it out when I
bought it, it had had 6qts in the crank case.
There is a lot of oily goop around the plastic
face of the filter though as it sits in the holder,
the drain tubes outside of the air box are oily
and so are the outside of the throttle bodies
(I think thats what they are, 4 'stacks' ?)

I'll bet the oil under the air filter slot is from the bike being over-serviced on oil. The inside of the air box is coated with oil too. If the oil level is high, oil blows up the throttle bodies all the way to the air filter. I ran mine maybe just a half quart high and all these things happened to me. As for oil on the throttle body duct clamps, I think my 08 always accumulated a film of oil there even when the oil was kept at the correct level.

The black plastic tubes are the ducts. The metal part with the cable spool on the side the ducts join to is the throttle body assembly.

There is a small puddle under the middle of
the bike, at about the kickstand, it is brownish/tan
goop...

That's probably oil that has drained out of the air box drain tube. It's more for water that might get in the air box but any liquid that gets in there will run to the back of the air box and go down the drain tube. That's how your air box will dry out. Believe me, it dries out like nothing ever happened. Not even a film of oil is left eventually. It will probably take a good deal of time to get bone dry though. You could remove the gas tank and open the air box access doors to wipe the inside of the air box out a bit. I kind of don't recommend it. Much of the unfinished inside surface of the air box has a rough, toothy texture and it will definitely snag lint off any cloth. The only concern would be lint or strings sticking in the intake somewhere. If the drainage looks a little goopy, that's probably just sludge from oil in the air box mixing with condensation. I remember seeing a photo of an air box that was very badly oiled up and it had sludge in it too.

later road for
a while , smelled 'smelly' something at a couple of
stops and later got home with not much smell,
there wasn't any visible smoke to speak of,
it may have cleared out,

Perhaps. Perhaps it will come back. If this is all due to oil running down from the air box, it will eventually dry out completely on its own.

The only significant event that I could come up with
as mentioned was the drop off of the paddock stand,
it dropped on the right side and sat for up to a
minute before I was able to get between it an the
wall to pick it up

OH--the bike tipped over! This might cause oil to gush up to the air box even if the oil level is correct. I suppose the oil could find its way up there if it laid on its side a while. Definitely, there's a direct path from the crankcase to the cylinders if the bike tips over.

Sucks! I dropped my Gen1 shortly after buying it too. Fortunately I was able to stuff my knee under it so all that really touched was the LH lower fairing and the mirror. I picked it right up immediately. I don't remember oil burning issues after that. I could definitely see that happening though. If oil flooded up into the throttle bodies and air box, it could drip back down and get sucked in with the fuel/air mixture. Like I said though, any liquid in the air box should drain out of the tube, assuming the passage isn't clogged (which apparently, it isn't).

I would just check the oil level and ride. I think you just have oil up there in the air box and it will clear itself. I'd think you'd see all the symptoms you described reduce within a week.

...and I would get a Heindl Engineering swing arm pivot stand or an Abba. ...or a forward handle Pit Bull rear stand (there is one model specifically for the ZX-14). You're not using a rear handle rear stand, are you? I have one. LOL I don't use it unless I've first lifted the bike on the swing arm pivot stand and I let the bike down in the same way.

I'm not sure why this post is visible to me now and
not yesterday, could be that since I was all over the
place yesterday, I failed to somehow read the right
notifications.
But yeah, I think this is exactly what took place,
it was laying down for almost a minute while I
got myself enough clearance to get in between the
bike and shed wall (scraped my knee pretty good
in the process) to pick it up, I was behind it
when it went over.
---
I put on those shorty levers and some new
footpegs and figured that since it wasn't
overheating and running to weird, there
would be no harm in taking it out for
a spin, I rode for 1/2 to a full hour or so,
got back and didn't see smoke, and it
only barely had the burning oil smell ,
almost undetectable.
Started it up at about 1:30 am, and no smoke,
then rode for an hour or so at 5 am....
-------
I wonder if it would be worth taking
the tank off and cleaning up the throttle body
area, maybe the heat has burnt it off already
anyway though, I'll have a look at it, the
oil didn't spread to the battery box or under the seat,
and I can't see any around the fork area.

I wonder if it would be worth taking
the tank off and cleaning up the throttle body
area, maybe the heat has burnt it off already
anyway though

You can wipe off the outside of the throttle bodies if you want. I'm sure some oil seeped past the clamps. The T-bodies shouldn't get hot enough to burn any oil. That would be oil on the inside of the T-bodies getting sucked into the engine where it would burn.

If you're cleaning the outside of the T-bodies and the duct clamp screws seem not tight, that's how they should be. The torque spec is only a few inch lbs. If you tighten them down, the clamps bend and could deform the ducts. Also, don't take those duct clamps off unless you really need to. There's a bunch of spacers between the clamps and if you pull that long screw out, all the spacers fall everywhere. I have a tutorial on T-body removal.

If you take the fuel tank off, the T-bodies are still cramped under the air box. You'd need to remove the fuel tank to get at the air box access doors to remove the ducts however...if you were going to remove the T-bodies.

I wouldn't worry about any oil inside the bike that might be where it's not supposed to be. It will drain back in time or drain out the air box drain tube. As far as burning, it couldn't hurt to eliminate as much oil from the air box as possible but it seems like the problem is already correcting itself. Your spark plugs might be very carboned up now but as long as it runs good, I wouldn't be in a big rush to change those either (unless they're due). no sense in changing plugs if there is still any oil burning.

Another thing, remember I said a bit of oil on the T-bodies and ducts seems fairly normal? I had the access doors off the air box a few times and I always saw oil on the butterfly valves even when running the proper oil level. Some oil is probably going to always to get up there and I'm sure some of it burns. That's probably one reason a lot of these bikes loose a little oil after a couple thousand miles.

I'll have a look at it, the
oil didn't spread to the battery box or under the seat,
and I can't see any around the fork area.

Nope, all th eoil's in the engine and some in the DFI system. If this is just a flood of the air box, the oil won't come out anywhere else.

I'd leave it and keep an eye on the smoke situation and the oil level. The smoke will probably go away on it's own.

Another thing, your bike probably has the PAIR system in place. That grey hose on the RH side going up into the air box from underneath. That might have gotten some oil in it and that feeds directly to the exhaust where it would burn. Also, that clean air hose on the PAIR is not sealed tight. Oil could seeppast that pretty easy if it pooled above and it could run down onto you exhaust manifold which would be the smoke that came out from under the top fairing.

I would keep an eye on the air filter. It seems very likely it got oiled although I know you said it didn't appear wet. An oily filter will get clogged up a lot faster than a dry one. If the filter is just a bit greased, I'd change it soon. I think the filter will work fine if it's oily but it will clog up quickly.

..and you probably want to replace that cracked lower. I'd take anything in good used condition off Ebay. Brand new OEM fairings for the Gen1 are no longer available. It was a long time ago that the lowers in any color were all sold out. If you go with aftermarket, I'd only use a highly reputable manufacturer like Bestem. Gonna cost a few but carbon fiber lowers would look cool. Otherwise buy a good used one and paint it if the color doesn't match.