How long is the breaking in period on new bikes? How fast should you be riding during that time?

search and you'll find myriad of opinions basically dually divided into hard break in vs. soft break in

if you know nothing about engines, i.e., seating piston rings, etc, then just follow the manual

lastly, there's no "speed" at which to ride nor is there a time limit as you ask so.....the manual basically says keep it under 5K for the first 600 miles

The break-in period is done in stages. You CANNOT pass 6,000 rpm's for the first 600 miles. After that you must change your oil. After you have done so you still can not pass a certain rpm something like 10,000. If you don't break the motor in correctly you will be loosing a lot of horsepower in the long run. I have about 400 miles on mine and I have not passed 7k EVER and ive only passed 7k twice. Other than that I keep it under 6k, the max mph and this rpm in 6th gear is about 70mph.

Do it in stages is the best way, for the first 200 miles maybe stay under 6k RPM

300-600 miles stay under 8500 rpm (the thing redlines at like 14k rpm so that 80% rule is still safe)

after 600 miles start working your way up to redline as you feel fit. I generally don't go all out till about 1000 miles. But till then I still will give 90%.


Best practice is Vary your engine speed. If you have to do a lot of highway driving. Shift while doing it. start in 6 th gear speed up and down about 5-7 mph up then back down then about 2-3 minutes later shift into 5th gear and do it again. Heck even go down to 4th gear to help break in.

Holding a steady rpm for long period is the worst you can do.

What part of GA are you in? I live in Marietta.

As far as break in, I don't believe in it.
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I live in Warner Robins. Its like an hour south of Atl. Do you know where that is? Hey let me ask you did you buy your bike brand new?

Chace said:
I live in Warner Robins. Its like an hour south of Atl. Do you know where that is? Hey let me ask you did you buy your bike brand new?



Nope, my uncle got his 636 brand new, and I rode it more then he did, so i pretty much broke it in for him, and it dynos higher then my friends 636 who broke it in like he was told.

Never heard of it, well when we go to Atlanta maybe we could meet up one day, normally there are a lot of us.

Nope, my uncle got his 636 brand new, and I rode it more then he did, so i pretty much broke it in for him, and it dynos higher then my friends 636 who broke it in like he was told.



What do you mean breaking it in like he was told? Did your friend go with the user's manual or did he do the hard break-in?

do not follow the users manual to break in a bike, you will not be happy later on down the road. being gentle on the bike and just "varying the rpm" like the manual says will not seat the rings correctly, and will cause you to lose compression and burn oil.

i strongly suggest you use the mototuneusa method, or some other method of beating the hell out of the bike from day one.

my favorite way is to find a nice strech of open road, and do as follows:
get into 3rd gear, and do 3 runs, from about 3k up to about 7k. then do 3 more runs, from about 5k to 10k, and finally, 3 runs from 7k to redline. after each run, allow the engine to decelerate on its own, called engine breaking, as this further helps to seat the rings. then for the next 500 miles or so, beat the hell out of it, but try to keep it in the lower 3/4 of the rpm range most of the time.

advr4 said:
do not follow the users manual to break in a bike, you will not be happy later on down the road. being gentle on the bike and just "varying the rpm" like the manual says will not seat the rings correctly, and will cause you to lose compression and burn oil.

i strongly suggest you use the mototuneusa method, or some other method of beating the hell out of the bike from day one.

my favorite way is to find a nice strech of open road, and do as follows:
get into 3rd gear, and do 3 runs, from about 3k up to about 7k. then do 3 more runs, from about 5k to 10k, and finally, 3 runs from 7k to redline. after each run, allow the engine to decelerate on its own, called engine breaking, as this further helps to seat the rings. then for the next 500 miles or so, beat the hell out of it, but try to keep it in the lower 3/4 of the rpm range most of the time.



Thats not engine breaking. thats engine BRAKING. using an engines power to brake is what truckers are told not to do going down hills near residential areas because they make too much noise.

My local bike shoppe tuner/racer who used to race in europe says this....

Its a myth, racers give a hard break in because the need to wear the rings quickly and get maximum power asap for the race. thats why the bikes are given hard break ins. Most bikes in upper racing have engine rebuilds quite often so they are not concerned with durability, or long term reliability.

Idiot kids hear this and do this and so maybe they make a few more hp sooner. they are also damaging engine parts because the metals do not get a chance to heat cycle. In the long run the bikes with ThIS hard break in period will burn more oil and cause more problems.

... if u broke it in hard ur a sucker. read the manual... take it easy. that duno stuff is B S . every dyno is different on any given day. i broke mine in easy and it makes more power than a friends r6 who broke it in hard. we dynoed at the same day. so eat it. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/applause.gif

It's tough to know what to do. My sales guy told me to break it in hard. He said that I could ask any mechanic at the shop there and they would tell me the same thing.

To me it's hard not to trust what Suzuki has in the manual.

now who should we trust. dude with grade 12 education who did his mechanics courses at centennial and now is a suzuki mechanic? or engineers with thousands of hours of engine design test and research. Easy one for me.

Just Bought mine Wednesday. 76miles breaking mine in too. its like hav'n a Ferrari you cant drive

I'm keeping mine under 6k until 400 miles, then 10k until 700. Just what my mechanic told me... http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

I was told to heat cycle for 15-20minutes and then let cool down then take it out again and get the RPMs up Higher this time for 20-30 minutes then keep letting it heat up and cool down and go up RPMs each time

And to not keep the RPMs constant, said I should do alot of in town driving while break-in

I just got my new 600 Tues, and the manual said to keep it no higher than 7500 for the first 600.

I've read the breakin hard/soft pro/con articles, and I'm going to break this bike in like my last one. Change the oil ... dino only ... at 50 miles to get that initial crapola out of the motor. Keep the speed to no greater than 7500 with constant engine breaking. At 600 change the oil again ... dino .... and this time goose it every now and then to 10K. At 2000 miles it should be broke and then its sythn oil for the lifetime of the bike.

Worked before, should work now. If I was a racer I may do things different, but this is my everyday commuter that I use to go to work. I may cruise on in one day and raise hell the next. A few horsepower from a chancy hard breakin isn't worth it. Esp since I don't have a factory to buy me a new bike if this one locks.

My manual says 7000 revs for first 600 miles then 10,000 revs till 1000 miles.

I have been pretty much sticking to 7K but every now and then I have accelerated to about 9K and back down again. When I say every now and then I mean about 6 times in 240 miles. So far so good. I am not being too fussy about the 7K sometimes I might see the needle hitting 7.5K or 8K but I am sure it is fine on a motor that starts to redline at 14000 revs.

The people who tell you to break it in "Hard" have no stake in the company's success, therefore I don't trust the information.

know what I mean? http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/flipa.gif

it's your bike, break it in however you want. i used the www.mototuneusa.com (http://www.mototuneusa.com) method. i read my manual and it says "recommended break in method". i have found more logic in the break it in hard method than i have in the break it in easy method. time will tell if i made the right choice.

I just went over 650 miles on my 04 600 and got to open it up a little bit 1st 2nd and 3rd up to 10K....holy sheet this thing is quick. I couldn't even imagine what a 1000 is like.

Well I have never bought a brand new bike but when I bought my TLR the guy only had 218 miles on it so I had to finish breaking it in and I did a combination of both easy break in and hard, I stayed at the recommended rpm range but everyonce in a while while riding I would goose pretty good evn did a few wheelies but up until the bike was stolen I never had any problems with it and by then I had about 4000 miles on it.

i am going with what a Suzuki Industry guy told me. he has grade 12, has 7 years designing, has many years building, has many years racing and tuning. i very much trust him. i also trust myself having built a few motors over the years for various vehicles and bikes and things have changed alot. the method the manual uses is 20 years old. metals and parts and tolerances and such have changed drastically over that time and to the better. maybe its time for the industry to re-write its manual procedures. this is also what he told me.

let me tell you all one thing....I work for a guy that goes to the Honda Plant in Japan every year for being one of the Top 5 Honda Dealers in the US. He says they walk them all over the building, including where they build the engines. He says at random, the inspector will grab an engine off the assembly line, hook it up, turn it on, let it warm up to running temperature....and then ring it's neck for about 20-30 seconds at redline. As long as he doesn't hear or see any problems with it, he sends it on down the line....TO BE PUT IN A BIKE!!! As far as break in, they put in print 600 miles because what consumer wants to have to spend money 20 miles after they buy the bike to change the oil. It really depends on how often you want to change the oil in the beginning. If you want to wait for the first oil change, break it in easy as there will be less metal and junk in the oil. If you want to run her hard, be ready to change the oil earlier. http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif...to each his own....

G6K4 said:
i am going with what a Suzuki Industry guy told me. he has grade 12, has 7 years designing, has many years building, has many years racing and tuning. i very much trust him. i also trust myself having built a few motors over the years for various vehicles and bikes and things have changed alot. the method the manual uses is 20 years old. metals and parts and tolerances and such have changed drastically over that time and to the better. maybe its time for the industry to re-write its manual procedures. this is also what he told me.



So what did the Suzuki Industry guy actually tell you, you should do for the break In http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

just pay the 400 or so dollars for the extended warranty and do your break in how you want.

besides, with todays bikes getting better and better you'll probably either,
A: sell your current new one in 2 to 4 years to buy the latest greatest same cc model or,
B: get tired or your 600-750 and want a 1000.
C: pay some shop to install better pistons, cams, maps exhaust, etc. so you can have a 200X that'll hang with the newer ones.