C14 Break In

[PH14]

*WINNER*   

Now let's    Did you switch to synth?  When did you?   

I don't use synthetic oil. I only use oil made from free range dinosaurs.

[VirginiaJim]

Just this one time I didn't.  Put Kwak 'normal' oil in it.  I hates it I does.  Going back to synthetic on the next change.  It's not as smooth on the shifts and it's noisier (purely subjective of course).

[Mister Tee]

In a former life I was on an engine R&D team.  We developed engines, did destruct tests, wear tests, established oil parameters, and optimal break in procedures.  There is no way in HELL we would "mototune" an engine that we expected to last several thousands of hours.

Accelerated hard break in procedures have been developed for race engines that only need to last a season, or in some cases, one race before they are rebuilt.  Normal break in procedures take too long for frequently rebuilt engines.

Problem with railing on the engine too early in the process is that one of the critical elements of engine break in, work hardening, has not occurred yet and clearances can be lost prematurely, and uneven wear patterns can develop on soft metal surfaces.  You -can- apply these methods to an engine and it -might- go 200,000 miles but it's a crapshoot.  You're just as likely to start blowing smoke out the tail at 2,000 miles.

[maxtog]

I am not sure if the factory recommended procedures are overkill or not.  Probably.  But I followed them to the letter.  They designed the bike, they built the bike, they wrote the manual, they have the warranty.  It just wasn't worth not following the procedures.

Besides, it takes me a long time to get used to a bike, anyway, so I felt no need to push it for quite a while after I got it.

[Pokey]

I am not sure if the factory recommended procedures are overkill or not.  Probably.  But I followed them to the letter.  They designed the bike, they built the bike, they wrote the manual, they have the warranty.  It just wasn't worth not following the procedures.

Besides, it takes me a long time to get used to a bike, anyway, so I felt no need to push it for quite a while after I got it.

Overkill yes, helped written by lawyers.......yes.

[PH14]

I am not sure if the factory recommended procedures are overkill or not.  Probably.  But I followed them to the letter.  They designed the bike, they built the bike, they wrote the manual, they have the warranty.  It just wasn't worth not following the procedures.

Besides, it takes me a long time to get used to a bike, anyway, so I felt no need to push it for quite a while after I got it.

I agree. I see no sense in going crazy with a new bike or car. I followed the procedure. It didn't really bother me to do it since I had it broke in in less than a day anyway. I figured I could wait that long. 

[VirginiaJim]

I went on an 1800 mile trip after I did my oil change and I drove it normally.  I'm not a wild and crazy guy on the road..  Blue Ridge Parkway, Interstate riding through NC, TN, KY, OH, WV, and back to VA in very hot weather....got as high as 52mpg and no I wasn't babying it.

Question to the membership:  Has anyone had an issue with their bikes that can be directly related to not breaking it in properly....such as warranty refusal etc...?   Also has anyone had engine issues (excessive oil usage) because they (subjective) feel they didn't break it in according to Kwak?

My answer is I haven't heard of anyone having any issues here on this forum.  What say you?

[Steve in Sunny Fla]

Having built hundreds of engines, I can absolutely say that the original post is correct in virtually all counts.  In fact I'll go one further - what most folks don't do during break in is short / hard accels with throttle closed low gear decels. Pull alot of vacuum to pull the rings up against the ring lands to get them sealed and broken in. When I break in an engine I get it up to temp, take it out on the road and give hard throttle, but only up to mid / high mid rpms. Hard decels over and over. you can literally feel the engine become more responsive on each pull as it develops compression. Change oil at 50 miles or less, again around 100, then again around 500. After that I go to synthetic. I've done alot of auto / truck engines this way, and also did my 1109 and a couple 1052 c-10's this way. ask the guys who ride the engines I built if they burn oil, if they're strong, and if they last.  JMO, Steve

[elektradw]

Steve you are very correct in the hard acceleration, then hard deceleration with throttle closed. I forgot to mention that tip in my post. The hard deceleration also helps to flush the cylinders with oil to help remove metal scrubbed off the cylinder walls. My C14 just past 35,000 miles and I do not add a thimble full of oil between 5,000 mile oil changes. Bike runs as good as it did new, maybe better.

Love to get the juices flowing. Nice to see all the comments to this thread. Keep them coming guys. Don't you just love controversy?

[MAN OF BLUES]

 

most folks kinda "ease" into the swing here....

this oughta be fun for a while...
 

[katata1100]

Question to the membership:  Has anyone had an issue with their bikes that can be directly related to not breaking it in properly....such as warranty refusal etc...?   Also has anyone had engine issues (excessive oil usage) because they (subjective) feel they didn't break it in according to Kwak?

My answer is I haven't heard of anyone having any issues here on this forum.  What say you?

Excessive oil consumption can be subjective. Kawa might say it is more than a quart every 1000 miles and I'd say that is excessive. I remember when Suzuki shipped out those Bandit 1200 bikes with defective rings, they said that was the spec and they'd fill up the bike with oil, put a special seal on the filler/drain plug and ask you to drive 1000 miles and come back. Personally, I'd consider a quart every 3000 miles to be pushing it. It has been 5000 miles since my last change and the oil is where it was at change time (I followed the manual to the letter). I bet if you were to survey, you'd get all kinds of variations of oil usage. If someone is getting a quart of oil usage every 3000 miles, I'd be curious to how they broke it in.

[Mister Tee]

The last three bikes I've owned including the C14 have lost no measurable quantities of oil between changes.

[stevewfl]

break-in is ride it like you stole it, unless you have a dyno mchine to break it in on such as we do our new track bikes

[martin_14]

I'm disappointed. I went on a trip for the weekend and was expecting to find this thread with 21 pages, locked or worse...

[VirginiaJim]

Sorry about that, Martin.

[twowheeladdict]

Having built hundreds of engines, I can absolutely say that the original post is correct in virtually all counts.  In fact I'll go one further - what most folks don't do during break in is short / hard accels with throttle closed low gear decels. Pull alot of vacuum to pull the rings up against the ring lands to get them sealed and broken in. When I break in an engine I get it up to temp, take it out on the road and give hard throttle, but only up to mid / high mid rpms. Hard decels over and over. you can literally feel the engine become more responsive on each pull as it develops compression. Change oil at 50 miles or less, again around 100, then again around 500. After that I go to synthetic. I've done alot of auto / truck engines this way, and also did my 1109 and a couple 1052 c-10's this way. ask the guys who ride the engines I built if they burn oil, if they're strong, and if they last.  JMO, Steve

this is kinda how I break in my new bikes.  I start out in 1st gear and excell and decell without touching the brakes or getting the RPMs up higher than recommended.  then I do the same in second and first.  Work it up for the first 20 miles or so.  Then I ride it like the MOM recommends.  I haven't put more than 50,000 miles on a bike before selling, but all was well with them.