Engine Break In

[Allen]

Picking up the bike today (finally...) and was wondering if anyone had some tips on engine break in. This will be my first new bike - so just looking for some wisdom.

 

[Ignaciob]

Covered here previously.

 

[Allen]

Thanks.

 

[Tinken]

Ride it normally.

 

[nev..]

Ride it normally. Don't give it full throttle. Don't bounce the needle off the rev limiter (aim to keep below 50% of the redline revs for at least the first 100 miles). Husqvarna suggest keeping it under 5000RPM for the first 600 miles. Don't ride in too high a gear and cause the engine to lugs. Keep the revs varied, winding mountain roads or unsealed forest roads are good for this. If you have no alternative but to ride long straight roads, shift it between different gears at the same speed for some variety. Don't be too anal about it. 5001RPM won't kill it. And most importantly enjoy the new ride, and soak in the new bike smell.

 

[RuggedExposure]

I changed my oil @100 miles, then again at 500 and 1000. Kept the revs at 3k until 500 miles.

 

[bluegopher]

I rode mine like I stole it from day one. I asked the dealer for their recommendation and they said ride it now like you're going to ride it forever. I wonder if that's why mine still skips a beat at 3k? I had the dealer do the 600 mi service and after RE's post about checking the valves at 6000 mi I'll be having them do that one too.

 

[Highfive]

Go run the living crap out of it!

Accelerate hard up thru the gears.....deaccelerate hard down thru the gears.

Shut it off and let it completely cool down.

Repeat 4 or 5 times, then change the oil & filter, and enjoy your new life....until you crash it & die.

Read up on it here: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Works great! Didn't believe it until I started doing it (several bikes ago), and inspected a motor myself.

OR go baby it for life. Either way will work out for you. it doesn't sound like you're racing Dakkar next weekend.

HF

 

[mag00]

HF, neither pictures in that link show a piston with proper break in.

As per my understanding, the first time you fire it up, you rap it up, decel, continuously for two minutes, not redlining it though. hard wind up and deceleration. That sets the rings. If you ride it hard, and have a burr or other small flaw in the driveling that may normally just fall or wear off, you run the risk of permanent damage, maybe not the instant catastrophic damage, but enough to get you past warranty.

Then just run it with minimal redlining and minimal abuse for the first 500 miles or so.

But to each their own.

 

[Highfive]

Dunno....I never rated the photos Magoo, they're not mine. Neither is that article.

Just been using the method, more or less, with excellent results for past 5 year (4 new bikes). I've personally inspected two of those top-ends, they both looked terrific. On one, I even installed an Athena big bore kit (WR250R) and used the method again for break-in. My motors have all run quiet, strong, & clean with no problems.

I really don't care what anybody else does. Just saying this procedure has actually served me well. It was too late for my Terra, because I bought the Demo unit. But come to think of it, what Demo didn't get the crapola run out if it from the git-go? I sure rung its living neck on my test ride.....and it only had about 75 miles on it at the time. I happily bought that very machine with no worries.

Most important thing: Do whatever helps you to sleep good at night!

HF

Ps. I do let the new motor come up to normal operating temperature before running it in hard, of course. That's just common sense.

 

[Trapperj]

Best advice so far....at cold start...allow the thing to run/idle for a bit before you hammer on it...otherwise ride it.
I have a old KLR ...rode hard & hung up wet but I still warm her up a bit before I spank her good.

 

[mag00]

There are two major ways to go about "breaking in" your bike.

1. The Obama way
2. The Reagan way

Depending on who you vote for will depend on which method you think is proper for your LIFESTYLE.

 

[Jonny B]

Dunno....I never rated the photos Magoo, they're not mine. Neither is that article.

Just been using the method, more or less, with excellent results for past 5 year (4 new bikes). I've personally inspected two of those top-ends, they both looked terrific. On one, I even installed an Athena big bore kit (WR250R) and used the method again for break-in. My motors have all run quiet, strong, & clean with no problems.

I really don't care what anybody else does. Just saying this procedure has actually served me well. It was too late for my Terra, because I bought the Demo unit. But come to think of it, what Demo didn't get the crapola run out if it from the git-go? I sure rung its living neck on my test ride.....and it only had about 75 miles on it at the time. I happily bought that very machine with no worries.

Most important thing: Do whatever helps you to sleep good at night!

HF

Ps. I do let the new motor come up to normal operating temperature before running it in hard, of course. That's just common sense.

Harder1 and myself used this("break in secrets" )method, and now very happy I did. My bikes runs amazing. Everone needs to look at his (Moto Mans) site. By the way, he strongly recomends not to throttle hard and decell hard with bike in neutral. It needs to have a load on the motor.

"Maybe you have a new snowmobile and it's not quite winter yet, or a new bike and it's snowing...

The temptation to fire up a new vehicle in the garage just to "hear"
the new engine run can be very strong.

This is the worst thing for a new engine, in fact, my advice is:
don't even start it up until you're ready to warm it up for the first ride.

The reason is that brand-new rings don't seat all the way around the 360 degrees of their circumference. The gas pressure from hard acceleration forces the rings to contact the cylinder around their entire circumference, which is the only way the rings can properly wear into the exact shape of the cylinder to seal the combustion pressure.

Now, imagine if the engine is run in the garage. There is no load on the engine, so the rings are just going up and down "along for the ride". Only a small portion of their surface is actually contacting the cylinder wall. The ring area that does contact the cylinder wears down the roughness of the honing pattern on the cylinder walls. Once the roughness of the cylinder is gone, the rings stop wearing into the cylinder. If this happens before the entire ring has worn into the cylinder and sealed, you will have a slow engine no matter how hard it gets ridden after that point.

The difference between what happens in an engine running in the garage, versus one being ridden is a hard concept to put into written words, so if I may use the sounds that we all can relate to: it's the difference between "zing-zing-zing" and "bwaaaaaaaaaAAAAAA"

During "zing-zing-zing" the rings don't get loaded for more than a split second, whereas during "bwaaaaaAAAAAA", the engine is in 100% ring sealing mode."

 

[bikehunter]

All this has been a good load of tried and tested procedures and from my end have run them hard but controlled once warmed up and they are correct, they seem to run much better in the long term. many demo machines are the better bike due to the way they have been ridden. Not heard of any demo's with engine problems, but it how you perceive this info and how you ride, either way it will be the perfect bike for you and only experience will give you knowledge!