Breaking in your bike
No, I'm not referring to the act of taking a sledgehammer and smashing the poor motorcycle into its constituents. But you've heard this old, faded, tatty old joke before, right?
Most manufacturers recommend that you keep the revs low, but not constant, for an aeon or till first service, whichever is more inconvenient to run-in the motorcycle properly for best performance etc.
However, I remember a couple of Isle of Man TTs ago, one Suzuki GSX-R1000 scheduled to race seized and was rebuilt with a day to go by the engineers. An ex-racer who was found loitering about the paddock was hired to literally race the bike around the lap for most of the day. The engineer was quoted as saying, 'it's the best thing to do. The engine gets used to its parts in the actual race load situation, and ends up making the most power possible.' Or something like that.
Now, I've come across a similar thought process... read it here
6 comments:
Your experiences with motorcycling are really helpful for people like me who have both a need and an interest to drive bikes. Please tell me whether the suggested break in will affect the mileage of the bike in the long run in anyway?
The page that you have linked to is really enlightening in many ways. However the one doubt that I wish to raise here is the author of the page talks about increase in power and reliability. Please tell me whether there is any difference in the fuel consumtion of the bike also with an easy break in and the recommende hard break in. Moreover, another aspect that would be more centric to new bikes (in India) is the oil change recommended after 20 miles. Aren't new bikes test driven for that much distance or there abouts before coming in to the show rooms already. And what is the factory oil provided by most bike manufacturers in India. Do manufacturers in India provide synthetic oil or Petroleum oil.
If you're even thinking about fuel economy, the hard break-in is not for you. Does it compromise the engine's long-term reliability? Perhaps. Do I care? Not really. I want maximum bang before the big one. And then, I'm happy to rebuild/sell. As far the 20 mile oil-change goes, remember that's 20 hard miles. Most new models are tested for about 5-10 km by manufacturers for a while, before they start testing only random units. In any case, the hard break-in oil change is after 20 miles of you riding it.
As far as oil goes, the spec, grade and brands go, they vary with manufacturer and model. So far though, I do not think any motorcycle in India comes with synth as standard. Or even semi-synth for that matter.
Thanks for your paitence in facing the flood of doubts of a beginner ...
So what you mean to say is that the hard break in basically to extract the peak performance of the engine. So for the Indian commuters it is not so essential to give the bike a hard break in. However what I felt after reading the article was that the engine had suffered less damage after a hard break in and it it would thus have a better reliability and better efficeiency too. So would the hard break in any way help increasing at least the reliability and to a lesser extent the mileage for a bike meant purely for commuting in the city ...
No, for most purposes, a normal run-in boring as it is is good enough. The engine in the article, you forget, was a race engine. It needed to perform at peak performance (max power) for a short duration. If it blew six minutes after the race was over, no one would regret it. Or grudge it. Your needs from your engine are different.
Let me give you an example. Let us assume that you set out to tune a Gladiator. Let us assume that from the stock 11 bhp engine, you created a miraculuos 40 bhp monster. That much power will definitely compromise the reliability and durability of the motor. Now, if the bike was built to go drag racing and you had the budget, that would be fine. It would make 40 bhp for 400 metres. And if it blew up after that, that would be fine. Your budget would allow you built another 40 bhp from scratch. However, if your 40 bhp Gladiator was intended to commute to your office/college, the bike would be crazy. It probably wouldn't leave your colony without giving trouble of some sort. To go to office/college, the 11 bhp Gladiator would be better.
What I'm saying is, the hard break-in has a purpose. And it moulds engines to that goal. Peak performance, long term durability not being a consideration. Question is, is that you?
No, I am definitely not a racer. And no way can I afford my precious new Gladiator to blow up her engine on the middle of the road ... So well I think I would be happy enough bored to death with the easy break in for at least the life of my first new bike ... And Oh the tune ups and the Hard break ins can wait ... For maybe at least another 5 years until I can afford to blow up my bike right after a new engine just because I would relish the intensity it would give me in a drag ... Oh yes I do have a need for speed ... But aint having those deep pockets yet ... ;)
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