[XxdurtyxX]

Hello everyone,
I finally got the 899 Penigale (white) from Albuquerque, NM 2 days ago. Have not taken it out the garage since I bought it and have been looking through the info on how to break it in. I used to have a Ninja Zx6r and it "died" getting on the interstate some time ago. Some people told me it might be due to it not being broken in right or simply engine issues and now since I just bought this beauty, I dont want to go down that road (incase it wasnt broken in right). Im trying to get info from more experienced riders as in how to break this one in. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The info I got was:
-dont exceed 5k rpm
-ride for 2hrs and let cool for 2hrs
-dont be easy on the breaks, since you want to get rid of the film protecting it
-do this for the first ~500 miles
Again any help would be greatly appreciated since I'm not the smartest when it comes to motorcycles, I just love riding them.

 

[Infinwin]

Welcome to the forum. This topic is well documented already, here:

http://www.899panigale.org/forum/899-panigale-general-discussion/3178-break-will-they-know-if-i-rode-like-i-stole.html

My dealer said vary the revs for the first 600 miles, and don't hit the rev limiter. Other than that they said DO NOT baby it! I brought it up to 10k a lot, now I have 1,300 miles and she's perfect.

 

[andy899]

Google "break in secrets", I followed this ........

They have the balls revved off them in the factory, as long as you observe the 600 mile service you'll be alright !!!!

 

[XxdurtyxX]

Awesome. Thank you both!

 

[steveywright]

I was told ........ on and off the throttle to seat the valves. Congrats.

 

[cyphon68]

that site looks legit........ :-| I'd trust him a little more if he was a tad more qualified. He never answers the question of why they (all of the manufacturers) would even come up with a break in interval like the one outlined in the owners manuals. He simply remarks "That's a good question"

I dunno, I can see the mechanics of what he's describing, and the oil change after 20 miles actually seems like good advice...but revving the **** out of it seems like a really quick route to getting your warranty voided if something does break.

 

[draggin]

Google "break in secrets", I followed this ........

They have the balls revved off them in the factory, as long as you observe the 600 mile service you'll be alright !!!!

x2

motoman!

 

[rybo]

I was told ........ on and off the throttle to seat the valves. Congrats.

What you're looking for here is to vary the revolutions with a reasonably high load on the engine. One way to do this is reasonably big throttle openings in a gear or two too high.

It's the piston rings that you're trying to seat.

I would say most of the advice here is on par with what I've done with my bikes and race bikes.

I avoid:

Big RPM with little or no load (big revolutions in neutral or low gears)

"Cruising" - maintaining the same RPM for long periods of time

during break in

I try to:

If I have to maintain the same speed for a long period of time during my ride, I try to shift gears to vary RPM at that speed

Short shift - I use taller gears than necessary to be able to use reasonably large throttle openings for the speed I'm traveling, or to accelerate to that speed.

Hope that's helpful

Scott

 

[T-wizzle]

I did it the way the manufacturer recommended for the first 600 miles, taking it easy not over 6k rpm, it was very hard to do cause I wanted to get on the throttle, after having a new engine put in, this time I took it to the track and broke her in nice and hard! I would ride it like you stole it! Haha!

 

[Rowan]

When I got the keys there was a 3 minute briefing on the bike controls, that was it. I asked about break in and the general advice was NOT to baby it in a low RPM, but don't redline it either (change at the first warning light). Try to get through all the gears and bring it up to a decent RPM.

This will be hard in city environments. Find a straight lonely road somewhere and scout for any bumps and debris along the route. Then go back and ride the guts out of your bike and see what this fire breathing steed from heII can do. Do this a few times.

After that I just ride the thing aggressively in the mountains and enjoy it.

It's a Superbike. Ride it as nature intended.

 

[92GTA]

This topic has been so beaten to death, but here is what I posted on another forum:

The manual is a play it safe guide for the manufacture to avoid lawsuits and warranty issues from people doing stupid stuff, like revving it to redline with no load like newbs tend to do!

Generally with modern engines, you ride it hard to seal everything quickly. For a bike, NEVER keep the same engine RPM for very long. You should do constant acceleration then decelerations with it, while keeping it in the same gear for engine braking! This is the most important part. As you rack up more miles, you can get closer and closer to redline and 100% throttle.

Riding it hard seals the rings quickly, numerous heat cycles will season the block, heads, crank, etc.

Just try and strike a good balance. Honestly, if anything is going to fail, it will fail right away and then you can make a warranty claim. Keep in mind most makers run the engines on a motor without fuel at the factory to check things. Also keep in mind that most dealers can check the ECU for recorded "over revvs" and they can deny repair based on it. - Don't know if this applies to Ducati.