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A little smoke...

After taking my 03 softail deuce for a quick ride around the neighborhood I noticed a little bit of smoke coming out of the engine. I had a little bit of trouble starting it before the ride so maybe I flooded it a little? any advice is appreciated because I just got it and seeing the smoke was a little disconcerning...
 
desertbiker; unless you're bike's on fire - you're probably OK:help...seriously, more details = better assessment/response.
 
As others have said, knowing where the smoke is coming from and what color it is means everything when trying to help you. Has it sat up for awhile, is it carbed, did you have the enricher on (if carbed) was the engine fully warmed up,etc. Gotta have a bit more input from you before help can be forthcoming from this end----jack
 
Sorry about the lack of details previously. It wasn't much smoke so it was hard to locate the exact area, but it seemed to be coming out the top of the motor, just underneath the gas tank. I shut it down and waited a couple minutes and then started it again and let it idle, no smoke this time, but i didnt try to ride it again. It is carburated, and I may of flooded it a little when I started it the first time. I have never owned a Harley or air cooled bike before, but I never had any of my jap bikes smoke up on me so it made me concerned. Thanks for everyone's help and advice...I'll be scouring the self help section!
 
I was just going to say, besides the smoke, oil, fuel or electrical or exhaust have a distinctive smell as well...so besides an attention getter, it could be smoke signals for something more "sinister" based on what, if it repeats and the amount.
 
Sorry about the lack of details previously. It wasn't much smoke so it was hard to locate the exact area, but it seemed to be coming out the top of the motor, just underneath the gas tank. I shut it down and waited a couple minutes and then started it again and let it idle, no smoke this time, but i didnt try to ride it again. It is carburated, and I may of flooded it a little when I started it the first time. I have never owned a Harley or air cooled bike before, but I never had any of my jap bikes smoke up on me so it made me concerned. Thanks for everyone's help and advice...I'll be scouring the self help section!

Being carbed, you may have had a little extra gas that got on the filter and the engine may have coughed when starting, letting a little fire get on your air filter and causing a bit of smoke, or just smoke from the intake when it coughed,if it coughed on start-up. There seems to be a little trick when staring carbed Harleys and you have to find the trick that works best on your particular bike. The way I start mine is; one twist of the throttle, then, enricher, then hit the starter with no throttle, works everytime for me, but only on this particular bike. On my old Harley it took two twists then just barely twist the throttle and hold that position and KICK it over on compression stroke with your whole weight. (don't miss that anymore)
 
I'm guessing you might have heard a backfire, or "pop" when it happened. Bike didn't start then you seen smoke rising from the tank? - I've seen that before, its just a backfire when starting. Your timing might be a little advanced, and you likely gave it a little more gas than it wanted when trying to turn it over. Sometimes they'll fire back thru the carb, happened to me once. Check your timing (or have it checked). Also, i'd guess you have the keihn (cough) CV carb.
 
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