What your manual says is wrong, and can ultimately lead to power loss or even a broken engine. Your manual advice easy break in, staying below a specific amount of RPM’s for a certain amount of miles. But what should really do, is run it hard. At least that is what the MotoMan - break in secrets guide tells you.
The guide is very well written, and provides photo documented proof of the method. The image below shows two pistons; the right one is from an engine broken in by the MotoMan method, the other with clear signs of oil and gas slipping past the piston rings is broken in as your manual suggests. Scary isn’t it? Question is; do you dare do the exact opposite of what’s in your manual?. Apparently there’s no in between, and you have to do it straight from the dealer, so there’s no turning back.
Read MotoMan’s full guide to breaking in your engine here.
35 Responses to “How to break in your new motorcycle - the proper way”
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You know, an old biker buddy told me this same thing back when I started riding (I say “old” because he coulda been my grandfather).
He just figured it out from experience–after about 50 yrs. of riding.
Good to know he was right after all!
I am doing the same thing
because I am newb
Why be easy on a brand new bike, when that bike is still covered under warrantee?
Don’t think it’s a question of warranty or not, Steve. It’s about taking good care of your precious motorcycle, making sure it’s at its best. Not tormenting the shit out of it, just because it’s under warranty.
My ‘83 FLHTC Shovelhead Dresser was taken off the show room floor in December of ‘83 with 8 miles on it and ridden the 68 miles home running around 75-80 MPH and thru 3 engine and transmission rebuilds and 209,306 miles we never looked back. As with Dan a friend told me the same. Break her in right and she’ll never let you down. Well “Ole Bessie” and I are still giving the hell and probably will as long as we both get up in the mornings. Oh yeah, been down twice as we tangled with cagers.
Good stuff, Sarge. Nice to hear from a fellow shovel rider.
This is a pretty controversial topic. You know though from a safety point of view it probably makes sense to take it a little easy as if anything catastrophic is about to happen it’s likely to happen sooner rather than later. This reminds me of a study google did about hard drives where they found that if a hard drive didn’t fail within 1 year it would likely last 5 or more. From a racing point of view though riding it hard might just be good advice.
I’ve heard of this, and I holeheartedly believe it’s true. I just broke in my new Majesty using this controversial method, and it’s a strong performer. It’s gotta be a pretty good method!
[...] post by Jesper and software by Elliott [...]
I used this method with my new bike. Hope it works.
My motorbike diary: http://www.geocities.com/chrisrishermn32/motorcycle.html
My dad always told me the same, drive the same way you plan on driving it from day one. He is almost 60 now and has built every type of engine from a lawnmower to heavy equipment. He is one of those guys that it came natural to so if he said it, well then it was good enough for me.
i wish i read this 60 miles ago!!!!
this new method is quite kick ass. My bike (TTR 225) now runs better than my neighbours bike (XR 250) this happened just after i got my motor re-dun and then this method gave it more power, Thanks MotoMan!!
Nice, going mate.
I have new HONDA Supra X125R, now I have ride it 178 km, I seldom run my bike over 80 km,
is it to late for me to make “Moto-Man version” break in??
Or somebody else in here can give me a suggestion?
I’m an aircraft mechanic at a local airport and I’ve rebuilt several four and six cylinder air-cooled Lycoming and Continental aircraft engines. When the engine is reinstalled on the Cessna or Piper (or whatever), and ready for a test flight, we don’t hold back on the throttle during take-off and cruise. Full throttle right from the start is the only way to break in a piston engine.
when i first met my wife i rid her hard and years later she still performs well.
Biker, you got the right idea.
why when i first start the engine it seems like its having a hardtime starting up and i use the motoman brekin method.please help?
That could be a heap of things, 6rr, I suggest you seek out a local motorcycle mechanic and let them have a look at it.
thanks! jesper
[...] Helmet Hair covers the Mototuneusa breakin method of breaking in your bike. Now if I were rebuilding my bike every weekend and racing it, I might just do try out what MotoMan suggests. As it is I can’t really see a huge benefit as this isn’t a scientific test with controlled conditions. I don’t doubt that getting hard on it every now and then helps though. I’m positive the manufacturers have many reasons for the way they suggest to break it in, and I’m sure some of them are also legal reasons. Also I’m not really sure that it is as simple as the piston ring seal simply needing to be forced up against the cylinder walls. I’d like to see more scientific tests into this though. [...]
[...] lot of times in the Motorcycling world there are very opinions on debates such as: How to break in your bike properly, Synthetic vs. Non-synthetic, How much Power bikes should have?, What grade of motor oil to use? [...]
My geocities website is down. I start a new one at freewebs. It is about my Hi Bird Chinese 125cc motorcycle.
http://www.freewebs.com/rishers/motorcycle/index.html
Well, i`m braking in my new Buell City cross, and i`m not taking the risk. I`m going with the owners manual… Maybe this method is good if u race every weekend as it is said above, i`m not taking the chance.
salut.
Yea, Dog, it’s a pretty tough decision isn’t it.
I disagree with the majority of comments here. I am sure MotoMan does not have an R&D department as big as say Yamaha, nor does he have years of experience. If this method was “right” than it would have been in the manual. Not saying that you should baby your bike, but riding balls to the wall off the showroom floor is just plain stupid.
http://nuBiker.com
Thats the thing though. His method isn’t abuse it from the first second. You let it warm up, ride up to second gear, let RPMs rise from 40% redline to 60% and then fall back to 40%. Do that three times and step up to 40% to 80%. After doing that three times you do three sets of 40% to redline and down and you are broken in. Ride through the gears a few times to get everything settled out. Then change the oil. It seems pretty relax to me. It isn’t like the advice is to run out, redline it cold and ride there for 1000 miles. There really is no abuse in the method moto man describes. The factory takes it to redline on a dyno before it leaves the shop.
You don’t have to follow it if you don’t want. There is no theory expressed why riding it easy to start is better. Every race team worth anything does it Motoman’s way. That isn’t because it just makes more power. It is because it makes more power and is more reliable. Very few racers would risk continuously losing if their break in method was dangerous on a motor. Not finishing is worse than being slow.
Again do what you want. It is your bike. I don’t suggest you abuse it but at the same time I don’t suggest you baby it. I wish I were in the position where I could buy an hand full of the same bike and give a side by side of different break in procedures but Im not. That said I will do it the moto man way. No matter how you decide to do it change the oil often those first few miles. I think that may be the biggest part of it, more so than the RPMs the motor is ran at.
im breaking in my 2008 hayabusa and for the first 500km i did 100-160km runs from 1-6 gear changing every now and then,i let it warm up good and opening the throttle every now and then doing a few rolls ons but im going up to 6000rpm
hay 6rr there are 5 parts to motomans breakin read them all….you just need to clean your throttle body right under your air cleaner there is probably a bunch of crap build up from the break in and your idol should be bout 950 to 1000 rpm
http://mototuneusa.com/thanx.htm
6rr heres the folling 5 break in from motoman
new to riding, got myself a ninja 250, a have about 100km on the clock and i have ridden it soft to that distance. is it too late to change to MotoMans method
I had a 2006 Kawasaki ZZR 600 that I bought brand new and broke it in the way moto man says. I rode it like I stole it, I would powerban a wheelie no problem (no clutch). But after about two months of sometimes hard riding, I could see a huge difference from when I first bought it. I had to pop the clutch just to get the front wheel off the ground. I just bought an 08 CBR 600 RR, and I am definately following the manuel on this one. I suggest anybody wanting to keep their bike do the same.
Follow the money.
Manufacturer’s are going to recommend whatever is best for the bike. They don’t want to be swamped with warranty repairs which COST THEM MONEY.
I think I’ll stick with the manual. Just because the Motoman method doesn’t cause problems doesn’t mean it’s better.
The manual for my 08 Suzuki C50 sounds like normal city or country driving will be acceptable. You vary the throttle in curves and at redlights and rarely keep the engine at the same rpm. My dealer told me that it didn’t matter how fast you drove during break in, just don’t cruise at the same speed.