New bike break-in

I've read recently that breaking a new bike in hard is the optimal way to do it.  I've always followed the manufacturers guidance regarding this.  Which way is better?  Just looking for some insight.  

As a rider and an employee of a Kawasaki Yamaha dealership, I can tell you that the freinds I ride with have blown up engines from the 10,000-20,000mi range.  Treat your bike nice from the 600-1000mi range and it will last you a lot longer.  

Did my K4 1000 gixxer in Mototune way. Warmed it up at dealer's and then trashed it for 90 km (about 60 miles) and changed new oil. After that normal use and another oil change at 500 km (about 300 miles). Since then I have been following service manual, 41000 km (about 25000 miles) and no problems.  
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jiji

Until Mototune starts engineering his own bikes, puts his name on it and gives out warranties I'll stick with the advice from the 1,000s of engineers at Aprilia, Buell, Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Triumph, Yamaha.  

Corporate policy must be what it is because of liability issues, they don't want you to damage the bike or yourself in an accident. I believe it is essential to seal the rings very fast or they won't seal at all.

Mototune method is not too much different from  this one.

I guess good results can be achieved going by the book. But where's the fun in there, lugging along for 600 miles  

Oh yes, I also did my wife's 2005 SV650 the same way. As it was too high for her to ride from the dealer's I got to ride it home and after that ride & oil change considered brake-in done. Nice bike btw.  
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jiji

Kawasaki puts a sticker on the bike that says: 0-600 miles, do not exceed 4'000 RPM.  600-1000 miles, do not exceed 6'000 RPM(if I remember correctly).  Yamaha depends on the bike.  2006 R6:  0-600mi, no prolonged operation above 8,300 RPMs.  600-1000mi, no prolonged operation above 10,300 RPMs.  The reason why to all these break-in cautions is so that parts can wear themselves to the correct tolerences and rings can seat themselves properly.  It's not a liability issue.  The reason why is so you beak in your bike the right way.  If you don't you,will be crying about it and call the warranty hotline.  And everytime they warranty something, they eat the cost for parts and labour.  But most of the time they'll flat out deny you warranty claim if it's not a factory defect.  But sometimes they cut you some slack if you have the extended warranty, like my friend who hydro-locked his R6 while stunting.  My point is that the factory doesn't want to pay for your bike, so they will tell you the proper way to break it in so you won't have problems down the rode and expect them to pay for your mistakes when you didn't read the warnings.  

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Kawasaki puts a sticker on the bike that says: 0-600 miles, do not exceed 4'000 RPM.  600-1000 miles, do not exceed 6'000 RPM(if I remember correctly).  

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The funny thing about the sticker that Kawi puts on their bikes...  Is that they put the same sticker on EVERY bike.    It doesn't matter if it redlines at 7k rpm or 16k rpm....

That said, I generally followed what Kawi says.  I did cheat a little.  And after the 600 mile service I cheated a lot more...    What I really tried to do was to get a lot of heat cycles into the engine.

Maybe AT will poke his head in here.  This might make for an interesting article.  Get a couple bikes.  Break one in per the manufactuer and one hard like that motoman method.  See which one makes more/better power.  And see which one has fewer issues.  Granted 2 bikes isn't much of a sampling....


Chris  

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Kawasaki puts a sticker on the bike that says: 0-600 miles, do not exceed 4'000 RPM.  600-1000 miles, do not exceed 6'000 RPM(if I remember correctly).  

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The funny thing about the sticker that Kawi puts on their bikes...  Is that they put the same sticker on EVERY bike.    It doesn't matter if it redlines at 7k rpm or 16k rpm....

That said, I generally followed what Kawi says.  I did cheat a little.  And after the 600 mile service I cheated a lot more...    What I really tried to do was to get a lot of heat cycles into the engine.

Maybe AT will poke his head in here.  This might make for an interesting article.  Get a couple bikes.  Break one in per the manufactuer and one hard like that motoman method.  See which one makes more/better power.  And see which one has fewer issues.  Granted 2 bikes isn't much of a sampling....


Chris

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oh yeah, that would make for a good read i think SR should go ahead with that for their future issues & put this debacle to rest once & for all, anybody else like to see an article about that? speak up & be heard!    

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Maybe AT will poke his head in here.  This might make for an interesting article.  Get a couple bikes.  Break one in per the manufactuer and one hard like that motoman method.  See which one makes more/better power.  And see which one has fewer issues.  Granted 2 bikes isn't much of a sampling....


Chris

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like my friend who hydro-locked his R6 while stunting.

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My friend is to stunting in parking lots where you go slow.  He's doing a slow wheely, sets the bike down and turns it off.  Then he loads the bike on to his truck and leaves.  When he starts it, my friend hears the engine turn over maybe once, and a loud "clunk" after words.  He brings it to the shop and later we find a bent rod and a broken rod. The broken rod scars up the engin cases too.  Needs a hole new engine.  What happened was when he was doing he's slow wheely, the engine oil pooled in the back and side of the engine.  The oil started to burp through the emissions hoses back into the air box.  Then the oil was sucked into the cylinders.  If he kept riding after the wheely, the oil would've been burned out with the fuel.  But since he stoped the engine the oil stayed in some of the cylinders and hydro-locked the engine when he went to start up his bike.  Now he unpluged the hose from his airbox and runs the hose to a plastic coke bottle tied to his bike frame.  No more hydro-lock.  

This is the advice I like to pass around. When I bought my ZX9r this is what i did and never had any issues with over 60,000 miles.

http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

cheers  

I figured there'd be more to it....  And what I'd be most interested in anyway is longevity.  It's not like you guys are going to be able to put 40,000+ miles on both bikes in a reasonable amount of time.  And what moto-journalist would be caught dead on a 2 year old motorcycle.  

Maybe you could explain why all of the manufactureers have a different method or limit...  They can't all be right can they?


Chris  

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I guess good results can be achieved going by the book. But where's the fun in there, lugging along for 600 miles  

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No, no, no, no, no.  Lugging is even worse than revving the piss out of it during breakin.  

Didn't we go through all this once before?  

I would guess that all the manufacturers have different methods because they use different materials for the pistons and rings and other parts, and different coatings on the cylinder walls.

AT