Break in

S

Saleh Omar

New member
I am picking up my Streetfighter tomorrow morning. I know what the book says in terms of varying rpms and not going over 6000 rpm during breakin. I was curious what is the average rpm per gears that you ride in. I do not want to lug the engine.

Thanks
Ken
 
I know, I know, the manual says something completely different. That's what I thought as well, I talked to a couple service departments and they both said that the problems they saw coming back in were from engines that didn't seat properly (too low rpm).

I'd imagine the largest seller of Desmo's in NA must know something about it, no?

I just finished mine and while I had it over 5.5K often I made sure that I worked the gears a LOT, engined braked a LOT, and didn't do anything less than 100 mile rides to ensure proper heat cycles.

If you want to follow the manual, fine, I'm not saying don't, I'm just repeating what I've been told by several different service guys. And while the engineers build the things, it is ultimately these guys that spend more time on looking at them in use.
 
I figure I wont baby it but wont flog it either. I have had a lot of different bikes over the years and i think the worse thing you can do is be in the low rpms and lug the engine.

Thanks,
Ken
 
Engines are a mechanical contradiction as to what is needed for bedding in.

Plain rod bearings need slow steady loading
Valves need high speed
Gears need moderate loading
Pistons need gentile heat cycles
Rings need high pressure

For the first 100 miles do the moderate 1/4 throttle loading accelerations with long decelerations. 5000-7000 rpm is a good place to be. And some short duration sustained cruising at light loads ~4500 rpm. Then a few 3/4 throttle whack it's to ~8000 to pound the ring lands a bit to burnish the surfaces. DO NOT sit in traffic with the thing idling. KEEP IT MOVING.

After ~10 heat cycles change the oil. You'll see the sheen of tiny metal particles floating in the drain pan. It's not critical as to the number of miles traveled, it's the number of cold to hot to cold cycles.

For the next couple hundred miles load it harder while doing the same accels/decels. After about 400 miles occasionally whack it to about 9K WFO for short periods. Gotta let the internals cool a bit ya know.

Dump the oil at about 500 miles. There still will be the floating micro particles. Don't forget the long decelerations. This is for the ring flat surfaces and the ring lands. From new, run it up to say 100 mph and just start downshifting with no brakes. It's all about the pistons and rings. One thing to remember about Duc engines is that they use 0 degree piston pin offset. Therefore to more evenly load the pistons on both sides you must have the looong periods of deceleration.

I did mine this way and it has 2% leakage which is amazing for an engine with such stubby piston skirts that allow a lot of piston rocking.

Having said all this it still takes a Duc engine about 4000 miles to truly 'loosen' up.
 
Very good advice Slower than you. OR you could just say, have hour long rides in the mountains, (assuming you're lucky enough to have the terrain) which is perfect procedure imo and what I have done. And yes, the engine feels better and better approaching 4k miles.
 
I am still in the "break-in" period with my 1098S. I was told by my dealer to ride it how I would normally ride it. TRY to keep it below 7K RPM and do not flog it. At the 450 mile mark I find most of my riding between 3K-6K with more than adequate funnn!
Enjoy!
 
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