Total Motorcycle Community Forums

BuzZz wrote:Honestly, no offence intended Verm, but....

You bought your bike a fairly short time ago based on looks and with no/very little research first, and you have an appointment at your mechanics tomorrow to get your frigging chain lubed.

Folks might want to take this in to account when they listen to any mechanical (or skills ) advice from him, eh.

oh yeah, i was just sharing my experience.

my response was to how i was able to manage to follow the owner's manual and still have fun under 6K rpm.

Come on guys, take it easy on Verm.

Im breaking in my cbr at the moment, I am using 80% of the rpm bandwith. I believe when breaking in a new engine one shouldnt "baby" it as per the owners manual. They also suggest 500 miles till your first oil change (with all the metal particulates floating around in there) are they insane? (I changed my oil/filter at 40 miles) the oil looked like metallic paint. This is normal.

It is a bad idea to "baby" the engine with no load, as the piston rings need to seat into the cylinder walls. There is a critical window of milage to do this (within the first 50 or 60 miles). It is the expanding gas during combustion that actually presses the rings to the walls, so it is imperative to not "zing zing zing" it in the garage, but to "waaa, waaa, waaa" it on the streets. (you must have a load on the engine!) Furthermore, use of engine for braking during this time is also nessesary for proper break in. Im not saying one should beat on the bike, just be sure to always vary the engine speed and use most of the rpm bandwith, at least for the first 300 or so miles.

Remember, most of these newer bikes have high performance engines, it will not hurt them to be treated as such. By the way...if you want to use synthetic oil, dont do it till you have at least 1200 miles on the clock, and dont use Fram oil filters. Shell Rotella T, Mobil Delvac 1300, or Chevron Delo 400 are good choices for oil, and Mobil-one, Purolator and bosch are a few of the good choices for filters. And of course, don't buy any oil additives like STP or Slick-50, you risk the chance of clutch slippage.

regarding synthetic oil...

i was talking to this guy on cycle gear who he said he was in a meeting w/ a castrol higher up person...

he said from the meeting that the question of when to use synthetic oil was brought up. the castrol guy said that you can use it from the start since he said most new sportbike engines from big name manufacturers are run hard for several minutes even before the frame is put.

do i believe him? i dunno.

anyway...why would the manufacturers put bad break in methods, wouldn't they lose money from extended warranties?

i don't care as much since i bought extented warranty and im sure engine breakdown is covered.

Like I said Verm, I wasn't trying to carve you, just to let the O.P know that the 'conflicting information' wasn't as conflicting as he may have thought.

No foul intended. But I do start shittin' kittins laffin', every time I think of you taking your bike in for a chain lube(later than recommended, too, Yaa! for following the manual )

It just strikes me as ultra-hilarious.....

quote: anyway...why would the manufacturers put bad break in methods, wouldn't they lose money from extended warranties?

I dont think the manufacturers would put in bad break in methods...I just think the methods may be a tad short of optimal.

My thinking is that (I stress this is my opinion only) even if one uses a "terrible" break in method, the engine would still last several years (easily surpassing the warranty time limit) without major problems caused by these methods. I just think the engine would not be as powerful and responsive as it could have been.

O.K. ... Im going out on a limb here... motorcycle manufacturers are in business to make money. That being said, it may be more profitable for a motorcycle engine to last 7 years rather than 15 or 20 years for reasons such as 1) Consumers would be more apt to buy another bike if theirs is broken down or underperforming. 2) Manufacturers would make less money selling parts and servicing their motorcycles if they always lasted 20+ years without any problems.

One can pose a legitimate argument by saying that it would be great publicity for a motorcycle company to have a "miracle" bike that never broke down.

Anyone who has had a bike serviced by a dealer or bought parts knows (by their bill) that this brings in HUGE profits for the company. So you can see there is a line between having a reliable product, and having a product that needs servicing and repairs.

From a business standpoint, It may not be hard to see how this senario can be possible.

You mentioned that you read that they run the engine hard for a few minutes before its even on the frame... Sure, I can see why they may need to run tests on the engine. I believe it.

Again...these are just some of my thoughts, and I look foreward to any comments or perhaps someone on the "inside" who may know if my thoughts are accurate, or so far off base that I look like an Idiot! haha

Peace out

Check this out, it goes against what your manual says completly http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm this is how i broke my bike in.

earwig wrote:Check this out, it goes against what your manual says completly http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm this is how i broke my bike in.

i've already seen that so many times.

anyway... it's useless for me to think what could have happened if i did the mototune break in method.

like the site said, the power gain is around 7-10%.

assuming what the site says is true, i don't care even if i lose that extra 7-10% of hp, my bike still has a lot of hp.

nice website

That is a great find! This guy seems to know his stuff.

It reinforces many things I believe and what I have learned on this subject, which is very reassuring.

peace out

hey Verm...

can you post a link as to where you got your gear?