As you have probably read all over the forum I collect my new blade Saturday. The sales man tell me not to worry about running the engine in, In his opinion I would not tax the engine anyway so just ride it as normal? Is he right?? What have you guys been told or indeed recommend. Also what other than new tyres do I need to be careful of, does the chain need any special attention when new etc etc?
First of all, warm it up. There are many conflicting ideas, some on here have thrashed it running it in, some have gone by the book, not over 6k revs for 600 miles etc... It's confusing to say the least as people will say different things. As for the chain, I adjusted mine before the 600 mile service anyway because it stretched slightly. Just ride it as normal is my advise.
As Si says, loads of different opinions. I'd suggest the statement ref riding it normal during the first 600 miles depends on your normal riding style, I wouldn't let my pal Russ ride my bike even now and it's done over 9k! Personally, I'd follow the manual.
Not certain whether bikes are different from cars, but my pet mechanic insists on giving new brake discs a bit of time before abusing them. I suppose he's implying that there's some kind of hardening process at work that too much heat at once can effect, but I'm not certain of the physics of it. The pads will definitely need a bedding in period, I'd have thought. A new chain will always stretch further in the first couple hundred.
I personally think that hammering it from the off can't be good for it... i sort of stuck to the manual, but think if you stick to 8rpm till first service then change the oil, roll out the dealers then ride the granny off it, this cant be good either? what i done was 200 miles not above 6k, another 200 at 8k then the last 200 taking up to 12k but at no time labouring the revs at a certain level, this way (in my mind) you wind the engine on nicely and bed it in. my dad told me to do this with my little derbi when i was 16 and it run sweet as a nut, my pal had exactly the same bike and from the off let everyone thrash it, mine was 5mph quicker then his despite him being pedrosa size! that 5mph meant everything to me then, (prob just the bike and not the running in) but convinced me it was the way forward.
Things that need to be run in with care - brakes and tyres due to the protective oils used for storage The idea of running the engine in is not to hold the engine at the same speed for long periods for the first few hundred miles, obviously your not going to be doing 170mph constant for 200miles but apparently you could also ware your pistons if you did 70mph for 200miles down the motorway so basically if on a straight road ajust your speeds up and down. Or just go for long bendy roads where you have to ajust speed. Most importantly give the bike a good warm up before riding
Never been lucky enough to have a brand new bike, but my mate has had plenty, and the advice he's always been given is to not worry too much about revs as such, but more about the load being put on the engine. So, for the first 600 miles or so, he will let the bike rev to 3/4 max, but only on very light throttle... basically let it gently swing up the rev range on as little throttle as is practical. Seems to work, as his bikes have always been trouble free, never smoke, and never used oil.
yes, indeedy stacks of stuff all over the net about this here is one school of thought - no idea about the validity of the tecky bits What's The Best Way To Break-In A New Engine ?? The Short Answer: Run it Hard ! Why ?? Nowadays, the piston ring seal is really what the break in process is all about. Contrary to popular belief, piston rings don't seal the combustion pressure by spring tension. Ring tension is necessary only to "scrape" the oil to prevent it from entering the combustion chamber. If you think about it, the ring exerts maybe 5-10 lbs of spring tension against the cylinder wall ... How can such a small amount of spring tension seal against thousands of PSI (Pounds Per Square Inch) of combustion pressure ?? Of course it can't. How Do Rings Seal Against Tremendous Combustion Pressure ?? From the actual gas pressure itself !! It passes over the top of the ring, and gets behind it to force it outward against the cylinder wall. The problem is that new rings are far from perfect and they must be worn in quite a bit in order to completely seal all the way around the bore. If the gas pressure is strong enough during the engine's first miles of operation (open that throttle !!!), then the entire ring will wear into the cylinder surface, to seal the combustion pressure as well as possible. The Problem With "Easy Break In" ... The honed crosshatch pattern in the cylinder bore acts like a file to allow the rings to wear. The rings quickly wear down the "peaks" of this roughness, regardless of how hard the engine is run. There's a very small window of opportunity to get the rings to seal really well ... the first 20 miles !! If the rings aren't forced against the walls soon enough, they'll use up the roughness before they fully seat. Once that happens there is no solution but to re hone the cylinders, install new rings and start over again. Fortunately, most new sportbike owners can't resist the urge to "open it up" once or twice, which is why more engines don't have this problem !! An additional factor that you may not have realized, is that the person at the dealership who set up your bike probably blasted your brand new bike pretty hard on the "test run". So, without realizing it, that adrenaline crazed set - up mechanic actually did you a huge favor !! But the idea o0f doing 200 miles at 6k then 200 miles at 8k etc sounds sensible to me
When I got mine the dealer said not to take it over 6K for the first 600 as it has a lighter running in oil in it. I never took it over 5K and to this day it doesn’t burn any oil and that’s 17K miles later. tbh as painful as it sounds if you just stick to the speed limits (obviously not in first gear ) then you should be ok.
see the old man is an engineer and would understand all of the above, but that is exactly why he only bothered to tell me the very last sentence!! ha ha
Agreed - i would run in and ride gently - better to be safe then sorry - after all it is a NEW bike.. If your bored ride down to London
I did that last week, went to the ace for a blade/ forum meet, not the best trip 110 miles down the a1 !
Just don't keep constant throttle / constant revs for first few hundred miles... If you DO go over 6K, 8K, 10K RPMs, not a big deal, just dont go grabbing the next gear... ease off the throttle and let the revs come back down in the same gear... The gear box has to run in as well...
No full throttle starts, let the engine overrun and vary the revs. Other than that I let her have it.
Have a read of this, see what you think afterwards ; Break In Secrets--How To Break In New Motorcycle and Car Engines For More Power
I have had a few bikes and the blade is the only one that only needs 300 mile run in thank god .I have had two ZX10s and beleive me running with your mates keeping to 90mph for 1000 miles isboring .Keep to 6 thousand revs go up and down the box as much as you can don't go chuggin up hills in 6th .The thrash it from go wont make much difference to you only the poor sod that buys it later with 20k on the clock .I have always run my bikes in to the book but some times have sneeked a few extra revs on overtaking and never had any issues. The other thing i do subject to funds is change the oil and filter at 1500 /2000 miles and when i feel the need .Enjoy your bike you cant break it .Dont they get the tits reved off them at the factory prior to boxing up?
