Bod
Guest
the title says it all, do they need to be run in ?
Bod
Use the search facility to check previous threads on this as there has been lots of similar discussions.
Some (including me) think the harder the better on a variety of roads. The worse thing you can do is labour the engine at too low revs or constant motorway use.
Use the search facility to check previous threads on this as there has been lots of similar discussions.
Some (including me) think the harder the better on a variety of roads. The worse thing you can do is labour the engine at too low revs or constant motorway use.
Fanum
Toubab
Just check the oil every day (and get used to checking it in exactlythe same way each time) then ride the chuffin nuts off it.........
Bod said:
Do as BMW suggest in the handbook. They know how the bike is made, they've got lots of highly qualified engineers to investigate such matters, they are morelikely to know the correct answer than posters on here or some US site.
(RIP) Yosi
Registered user
Ride it!!Ride it!!
Fanum
Toubab
birdseye said:
But they're also cautious and know that a lot of people won't check the oil as much as they should..in which case riding it hard could be a disaster......plus if you run them in as BWM say they know that it'll work.......
Running it in 'properly' though (read the link above for what I mean by 'properly') and you'll end up with a stronger engine IMO.
Running in
As your motorway/dual carriageway limit is 70 mph you won't exceed that at the 4,000 rpm reccommended max revs. As you have six gears there is never any excuse to make the engine labour. So just ride it normally - the only problem with too much motorway is that you are not 'running in ' the gearbox but in any case it will become smoother within a few thousand miles. Obviously check the oil more frequently than normal - but I never noticed any evidence of excessive oil consumption. If you don't cover your 6000 miles in the first year I would suggest that you have it serviced anyway - I found mine (after 7000 kms
smoother and quieter - & it didn't cost much.
As your motorway/dual carriageway limit is 70 mph you won't exceed that at the 4,000 rpm reccommended max revs. As you have six gears there is never any excuse to make the engine labour. So just ride it normally - the only problem with too much motorway is that you are not 'running in ' the gearbox but in any case it will become smoother within a few thousand miles. Obviously check the oil more frequently than normal - but I never noticed any evidence of excessive oil consumption. If you don't cover your 6000 miles in the first year I would suggest that you have it serviced anyway - I found mine (after 7000 kms
smoother and quieter - & it didn't cost much.
Dahoum
Registered user
birdseye said:
yea - we saw them when we went round the mbw factory
Clocked up 600 miles in two days, on A and B roads (up and down the gear box) in rural Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. I kept a reasonable weather eye on the upper rev limit recomended in the hand book. But not so much that I rode the bike like a 
. I didn't race it off the lights, but didn'y worry unduly if I exceeded the upper figure a bit from time to time when the bike was moving quite happily and no with great stress or strain on the engine.
Had its 600 service and then straight of to a Sunday track-day at Rockingham (thanks to Rapid Tracks
) where it hooned around on or about the redline in most gears.
Then off on 3,500 mile jaunt around the D / N roads France, northern Spain and Italy. Came back and went straight back to the Alps (gardening leave is )
Burnt some oil (which I was told to keep a regular eye on) but the engine, gearbox and drive are all 100%. All tightness gone and the oil consumption seems to be falling as the mileage increases (again something I was told would happen). Seems happy enough running on decent quality mineral or semi-synthetic oils (or a mix of both). I'm quite happy to keep the engine 'buzzing', well up in its revband in each gear, trying to avoid 'labouring' the engine through staying in too high a gear too long at lower speeds.
Did the same or very similar on all my Hondas and never seemed to have any problems, average milage per annum on each bike 9,000.
The Hondas (except my SP1) never seemed to drink much oil. I guess it's due to the in-line 4 engine configuration (or better tolerances
). The SP1 had tiny depth 'slipper' pistons thundering up and down; difficult to oil seal I guess 
A lot of modern bikes (pariculary sports bikes with redlines at 12.000+) are not run in hard enough IMHO ending up with glazed (polished) bores and notchy gearboxes. Look at the dyno graphs of many production bikes at the TT for instance. Many produce more power after the races fortnight is over than they did before they were thrashed.
. I didn't race it off the lights, but didn'y worry unduly if I exceeded the upper figure a bit from time to time when the bike was moving quite happily and no with great stress or strain on the engine.Had its 600 service and then straight of to a Sunday track-day at Rockingham (thanks to Rapid Tracks
) where it hooned around on or about the redline in most gears.Then off on 3,500 mile jaunt around the D / N roads France, northern Spain and Italy. Came back and went straight back to the Alps (gardening leave is
)Burnt some oil (which I was told to keep a regular eye on) but the engine, gearbox and drive are all 100%. All tightness gone and the oil consumption seems to be falling as the mileage increases (again something I was told would happen). Seems happy enough running on decent quality mineral or semi-synthetic oils (or a mix of both). I'm quite happy to keep the engine 'buzzing', well up in its revband in each gear, trying to avoid 'labouring' the engine through staying in too high a gear too long at lower speeds.
Did the same or very similar on all my Hondas and never seemed to have any problems, average milage per annum on each bike 9,000.
The Hondas (except my SP1) never seemed to drink much oil. I guess it's due to the in-line 4 engine configuration (or better tolerances
). The SP1 had tiny depth 'slipper' pistons thundering up and down; difficult to oil seal I guess A lot of modern bikes (pariculary sports bikes with redlines at 12.000+) are not run in hard enough IMHO ending up with glazed (polished) bores and notchy gearboxes. Look at the dyno graphs of many production bikes at the TT for instance. Many produce more power after the races fortnight is over than they did before they were thrashed.
Mouse
Registered user
There's no harm in exceeding the rev limit from time to time when running in, that's far better than making the engine struggle. As people have said, I think the best running in environment is twisty A or B roads, using a wide range of revs.
The trouble with the "thrash the tits off it" theory is that while it may be great for seating the rings in the bore, it pays no heed to any other part of the engine. That may be fine for race bikes, whose engines are rebuilt every 100 miles, but I don't think it's a great recipe for longevity.
I ran mine in by riding it normally, no thrashing, not worrying about the occasional foray to 5000 rpm. It burnt oil for the first 20,000 miles of its life but so what? I'd rather have an engine that burns a bit of oil and lasts 100k than one with perfectly seated rings, an extra 1bhp, and a failed big end after 50k. There's more to a healthy engine than producing absolute maximum power.
The trouble with the "thrash the tits off it" theory is that while it may be great for seating the rings in the bore, it pays no heed to any other part of the engine. That may be fine for race bikes, whose engines are rebuilt every 100 miles, but I don't think it's a great recipe for longevity.
I ran mine in by riding it normally, no thrashing, not worrying about the occasional foray to 5000 rpm. It burnt oil for the first 20,000 miles of its life but so what? I'd rather have an engine that burns a bit of oil and lasts 100k than one with perfectly seated rings, an extra 1bhp, and a failed big end after 50k. There's more to a healthy engine than producing absolute maximum power.
nadeem
Guest
well put Mouse, have to agree with you there...
How many bikes (out of the tens of hundreds sold in the UK) make it to 100,000 plus in the hands of one (or even two or three) owner? Most be will be written off, stolen, broken up, left in garages or simply rotted away well ahead of that mileage. A quick flick through the sales columns of MCN or Bike Trader / Loot probably answers that question.
Of course there will always be some high mileage examples of assorted bikes around, mostly living in the hands of couriers where they will eventualy die.
Of course there is a difference with pure race bikes. My post was mainly aimed at trying to avoid people being too timid in the running in process / simply trundling 600 miles around the M25 (or wherever) in sixth or asking the engine to pull from 700 RPM in sixth up hill (because they have read about the torque available).
A quick flick through the sales columns of MCN or Bike Trader / Loot probably answers that question.Of course there will always be some high mileage examples of assorted bikes around, mostly living in the hands of couriers where they will eventualy die.
Of course there is a difference with pure race bikes. My post was mainly aimed at trying to avoid people being too timid in the running in process / simply trundling 600 miles around the M25 (or wherever) in sixth or asking the engine to pull from 700 RPM in sixth up hill (because they have read about the torque available).
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