Ride it like you stole it?

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Nov 4, 2005
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Albuquerque, NM
Regarding breaking in a brand new bike: the manufacturers all instruct to limit
rpms in stages as miles are put on, and many stress "taking it easy" on a new motor as in avoid harsh acceleration,etc.
Yet some people in the motorcycle community take an opposite view and advocate riding a new bike "normally", presumably meaning if one feels like redlining it right out of the crate, then go ahead and do so. After all, the conventional and shadetree wisdom is often that if you don't break it in the way you will ride it the rest of its life, then it will somehow develop a "set"
or in effect be a underperforming machine forever.
Is there any evidence to support the don't baby the bike theory?
Or is this like "don't use synthetic oil in a new motor because the rings won't seat for a very long time compared to using regular oil?" - no validity to this?
 
I redlined mine on the test drive with no ill effects after 20K miles. It's not that I was trying to, it just got up there fast and was bouncing off the rev limiter before I knew it. I would have ridden it fast regardless. The only difference I noticed after a few thousand miles as compared to brand new was that the motor had loosened up alot and was generating considerably more horsepower. If you do run if fast, don't hold it there. Give the motor a chance to cool down. It's the acceleration that's fun anyway. One more thing. Change oil early.

Jackpine's words of wisdom: If you break it in fast, they are fast.:04biker:
 
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I waited until I had 3 miles on mine and it was "warm". Then I gave it a work out throught the rpm range. Slow acceleration and and slow deceleration all the way through the power band. Bike has 23k and and goes great, winds up very easily.
My buddy with the same ST, broke his in like a granny and when I rode it, I immediatley noticed that it felt "held back" when I gave it hard throttle. Could be my imagination, but I don't think so.
 
I did the contraversial break-on that's posted somewhere. It goes through a series of revs and never letting the bike drop to idle during it. Or something like that.

Unfortunately you're suppose to do it within the first 20 miles of the bike or something like that and some mechanic decided to use it for measuring the accuracy of another bike's odometer. Boy was I pissed. When I checked the bike on the showroom floor the week before it had 11 miles on it so I knew it had been ridden already but I thought that wasn't too bad. When I picked it up a week later it had 25 miles on it. I got the story when I asked and I was not pleased since I had been planning on trying this breakin. I did it anyway but who knows how much good it really does.

I thought about doing a compression test before and after on my next bike but you need a REALLY friendly shop that's willing to help with it unless you do it yourself in the parking lot before your ride.

Anyway blah blah blah

Curt
 
norton said:
Regarding breaking in a brand new bike: the manufacturers all instruct to limit
rpms in stages as miles are put on, and many stress "taking it easy" on a new motor as in avoid harsh acceleration,etc.

Honda changed from the graduated break in to the one in the current ST1300 owners manual in 98 or so (for the ST V4 anyway). They don't even mention max RPM and have buried the two sentences (all that refers to break in anymore) on page 178. The guidelines are now quite vague. I've been told by more than a few dealers and techs. that your bike has hit red line a few times before you even take delivery. I know that was true for the ST1100, they were pinned at the factory in every gear before they were crated. You're not going to do any damage by being gentle, but with todays tight manufacturing tolerance I personally don't think you're doing any harm with the MotoMan method as an alternative. All of my 4 ST's have been broken in with a slightly modified MotoMan method with no ill effects. Whatever you're comfortable with...... It's your bike.
 
I can't say whether it does or not...but on a parallel with metal and heating...

In my limited blacksmithing there are several methods to "treat" metal once you've completed the project. Cooling the metal using different treatments can produce a wide variety of effects.

But one blacksmith explained to me that using various types of oil to cool a glowing red hot metal will actually cause the oil to bond on the outer layer of the metal so that it becomes imbedded/intwined at a molecular level (not changing the metal but mixing it around the metal molecules) and only on the very outer portion of the block of metal. This allows for the metal to have a permanent oil on/in it, which helps protect it from rust...unless it gets scratched (the layer is VERY thin). I have tested this using different methods of when I applied the oil and then allowed natural weathering to see which method stayed clean the longest. So far, all of them rusted except the one that I treated in this way.

I suspect this is what super heating the engine does. Before the engine has a chance to build up too much carbon on the metal, if you super heat it and allow the oil a chance to bond with that extreme outer layer, it will always have a bond of oil, which probably helps the pistons move slightly more smoothly, prevents corrosion or pitting, etc...

I suspect we could probably validate this by using a high power microscope and somebody probably has done this.
 
This is a debate that's going to go on forever. My take on it is that Honda (and all the other manufacturers) spend hundreds of millions of dollars on engine development and testing. I have to think they know a little bit more about them than the Saturday mechanic building race engines for his brother-in-law. I also find the entire effort to compare the best technique for breaking in a race engine to breaking in your ST to be silly. A race engine isn't expected to last 100,000 miles. If a procedure gets a race bike an extra 1/2 horsepower at the expense of 4 rebuilds over it's racing life instead of three, that's probably a worthwhile trade-off. But for a street bike?

Manufacturers also apply a warrenty to the engines they build. Why would they deliberately give you bad advice on breakin?

The basic truth is that today's materials and manufacturing techniques are so much better than those of 40 years ago you can get away with a lot more abuse. But running the pistons up to redline before the rings have fully seated isn't good for the rings, now or ever.
 
Jeff F said:
This guy claims to have evidence - pictures included
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

The calsci site seems to agree.

This MotoMan guy also makes interesting claims. From his site:

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.

"Thousands of PSI" on the about 7 square inch of a ST piston area, that would be tons pushing down on the piston!

Maybe in the Red ones?
 
all wifes tales aside:
there is other components seating and wearing in other than pistons and rings valve train break in is much more critical than most people believe, a new engine allowed to idle for extended periods of time can and will ruin a camshaft, this is not speculation it is something i have seen firsthand, if you have compression the rings are seated enough, its all the other wear surfaces that need polishing and seating also.
just something to consider:
a new engine on an average car broken in to original specs is usually good for beween 150k - 250k, average race engine 500 miles(nascar, indy,) to 2500 miles, (full season in other organizations), and the recomended rpm for proper camshaft break in is 2500, anthing less is bad , anything more is unnessasary,
all rebuilt engines i have seen over the years have about half the life of the original due to the fact the machining leaves a rough surface to seat all the parts in , but hey its your bike do what you want!!!
 
I think there are many common ideas on how to break in an engine. Thrashing it is not good, but appropriate loading is beneficial. Going through a couple of heat cycles in a controlled manner makes sense to me.

Manufacturers have an interest in making sure ther are no problems during warranty period, which is only a small part of a bikes life. Taking it easy is a safe way to do it. I think that most bikes are run through some tests that would provide the basic bedding in of components from the assembly line. After this there is always the start of oil threads!!!
 
Killtimer said:
---------snip-------------
The guidelines are now quite vague. I've been told by more than a few dealers and techs. that your bike has hit red line a few times before you even take delivery. I know that was true for the ST1100, they were pinned at the factory in every gear before they were crated.--------snip

No wonder them doggone 1100 engines are only good for 200K.....
:)

Putt...
 
I believe Killtimer is right about the bikes hitting redline at the factory. I know that it's true with cars. I was at the Corvette factory in October. When it comes off the line they drive it into a booth onto some rollers. We watched through a viewing window as the tech took it to the rev limiter through the gears amongst other tests. You could see the numbers on a large video screen in the booth. :eek:
Ken
 
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