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Since I'm in the break in period now, I was wondering what everyones take is on the proper break in procedure. Right now I haven't got her much over 5 grand (per the manufactures specs....first 500m, keep under 5k rpm, 500m-1000m, keep under 7500 rpm and 1000m+ just keep it under redline)...I've heard a lot of people say to run it through the full rev range so the piston rings seal properly...whatdaya think?

I'd say follow the rev limits, but make a very strong point of ensuring that you run through the whole rev range that you are limited to, and alternate between high and low revs. The idea is load and then unload the piston rings to make sure that they seal properly. Don't baby it, but don't beat the tar out of it either. What I did when I was breaking mine is was take it up to speed, then slow it down and basically just try to hit as many different RPMs as you can.

I think this has some good info on it:
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

When I bought my Ninja 250, the break-in period was REALLY painfully difficult to adhere to. The Ninja 250 needs to be revved way up into 6000 to 8000RPM before it even begins to really move. Keeping it below 5000RPM was awful.

I couldn't take it anymore. So, went online and found the contact information for the main offices of Kawasaki in Irvine, California. I picked up the phone and called and spoke to one of their engineers. I told him, "Do I need to follow these break-in guidelines on the Ninja 250? It is SO HARD to keep the RPMs so low on this bike. I'm barely moving and I can't even ride it on the highway yet."

He told me, "Yeah. We get asked this all the time. Just keep the bike away from redline and you'll be fine. Kawasaki doesn't want to spend the money to make different stickers for the break-in period for every bike. So they made one blanket sticker to put on every model they make. We always tell the headquarters back in Japan to change it, and they won't do it. So just ignore the guidelines and vary the revs and keep it below the redline. That engine is made to rev a lot higher. You can go way above what that sticker says and you won't hurt a thing."

That's what I do now for every bike - keep it below redline and just ride it.

Sevulturus wrote:I'd say follow the rev limits, but make a very strong point of ensuring that you run through the whole rev range that you are limited to, and alternate between high and low revs. The idea is load and then unload the piston rings to make sure that they seal properly. Don't baby it, but don't beat the tar out of it either. What I did when I was breaking mine is was take it up to speed, then slow it down and basically just try to hit as many different RPMs as you can.

Got to go with Sev, use your gears to ride at different revs on the same spot of road. Day 1 60 kph in 4th, day two 60 kph in 3rd, if you get my drift. We have been doing hard break ins for about ten years now, cages and bikes. Even the little scooters.

sapaul wrote:

Sevulturus wrote:I'd say follow the rev limits, but make a very strong point of ensuring that you run through the whole rev range that you are limited to, and alternate between high and low revs. The idea is load and then unload the piston rings to make sure that they seal properly. Don't baby it, but don't beat the tar out of it either. What I did when I was breaking mine is was take it up to speed, then slow it down and basically just try to hit as many different RPMs as you can.

Got to go with Sev, use your gears to ride at different revs on the same spot of road. Day 1 60 kph in 4th, day two 60 kph in 3rd, if you get my drift. We have been doing hard break ins for about ten years now, cages and bikes. Even the little scooters.

Even better is to vary it more often, take one pass (3 or 4km) at 60 in 3rd then one at 60 in 4th. The more different ranges you can run the bike through the better off it'll be in the long run.

So basically, the consensus is to vary the revs, but not neccessarily stay below 5000 for the first 500 miles? Or should I vary the revs within the manufactures recommendations? I hope that makes sense...what I'd really like to know is if being really tedious with the break in procedure really even noticeably affects performance/reliability later on...

Yeah, simply put...just vary the revs as much as possible. This is most crucial in the first 50 miles. Try to keep about 1,000rpms south of redline, but you can get on the throttle hard up until that point, then engine brake as much as you can. Also, give the engine a chance to cool off every 20 miles or so in order to "heat cycle" the cylinders.

If you know of any hills around, go up and down those too. Hills provide the best way to put load on the engine. Remember for break-in, putting load on the bike is more important than the RPMs..

For the only bike I broke in, I kept below the manufacturers RPM range, but definitely varied speeds and accelerated briskly. It is pretty easy to put a 250 under load though

Cool, thanks for all the input guys. Has any here had any bad experiences that were caused by improper break in? Is it basically that not all the engine parts will have seated properly and this will result in lesser performance in the long run?

I agree that the key to break-in is to put a load on the engine. The cylinder temps and pressures needed to seat the rings show up when you're actually developing horsepower. Accelerating up a hill or into a stiff headwind will help increase the power output.

I've broken in 6 or 7 new bike engines over the years and, for the most part, stayed within the rpm guidelines listed by the mfgr. The one thing I didn't do was baby it. If the limit was 5K rpms, I'd accelerate right up to 5K, shift and keep accellerating until I ran out of gears. Never had a problem with any of those bikes and a few of them were still running strong at 70K miles.

The main thing you want to avoid during the first few hrs. of break-in are excessive idling and low power operations. To much of that and you will glaze the cylinder walls and end up with poorly seated rings. This will eventually result in ring blow-by and higher oil consumption.