Freeway travel for new bike

[olRocket]

Although I am excited to get on the road and do a 5 day trip with my amigo, I'll only have about 700-800 miles on my Sprint by then. I've read the lapping in theory and have adhered fairly closely to it. At around 500 miles everything is working well, temperature is good and I'm quite happy.

Will it do more harm than good for extended 70-80 mph speeds at this tender age? I will change the oil (again) before I leave, but should I be slowing, downshifting and going through the gears every so often?

I realize opinions are like lower body orifices, but I'd like to know what the community offers. Fire away.

[SR1]

Can't you find a backroads way to go for another 500 or so? I would do that, if I could.

[dolson]

At this point in time I really wouldn't hold a steady RPM and loafing for long periods. There's nothing wrong with giving it a blast every now and then. She does need to be worked.

Don

[duckie]

At that mileage range most of the lapping has been done but it's still not great to keep the bike at a steady rpm at those speeds yet. For the last few hundred miles up to 1,000 you don't need to keep changing gears, just modulate your right hand so that you don't stay at the same rpms (doesn't need to be much i.e you don't need to be varying the rpms much more than a few hundred rpm).
Of course this will get really boring but you can alternate it with some nice blasts up hills - try and do this in 4th, 5th or 6th as long as you don't start any lower than 3,000 rpm and go all the way up to the rev limit on the run-in chart (sticker on your tank). SR1's idea of taking the backroads is also a good way of finishing off those few hundred miles...

[olRocket]

Thanks.

So...what constitutes a "long period of time"? Should I vary things every 5 minutes? Less than that or more than that?

[duckie]

When I was running my sprint in, I was modulating the throttle constantly when on any highway stretch at highway speeds. Just a gentle and slowish rocking motion with your right hand - makes the bike feel like you've got bad gas in it...

[amanger]

Years ago I bought an ex highway patrol car with a turbo six (Holden with a Nissan Motor) everyone told me I was mad cause they dont run them in properly.ie the car gets flogged from the moment it goes out the gates.
I bought it with 60k klm on it drove it to Sydney and back 6 days a week and sold it with 300k klm on it.It never missed a beat and never had anything done to it other than oil/filter changes every 10k klm.
Dont know that running in a motor is such a big deal as it was in the 50s when engineering tolerances weren t so crash hot.
:???:

[steventhechef]

Have a look here Lapping in a new motor
Interesting read, but I am with amanger. New motors are alot different to the old engines that we used to have to deal with.

[Sport]

Now Dolson, being the professional pilot you are, you should know that breaking in an engine is VERY important.

In (general) aviation, we run our lycoming or Continentals for 3-5 15 min. sessions at just above idle. The 1 or 2 one minute sessions at near full throttle. After that we fly it at full rich and full throttle for 45 minutes.

Although there is much debate over the 'best practices' for break-in, it has worked well for us. The purpose; however, is more important.

Break-in allows time for the rings and valves to seat properly. Rushing the break-in may score cylinders and/or prevent a 'strong' seat, which may lead to pre-mature leakage.

Now if it were a turbine, kick the tire, light the fire, and go! :-D

[Alsworld]

olrocket,

I followed the manufactures break-in procedures to the tee, but then jumped on the slap for a 740 mile one way drive. It was more a necessity than my original plan. I talked to my dealer about this prior to the ride. I bought the oil and filter and changed it at my uncles house en route (580 miles on the engine). This was not preferable, but my dealer said it might take a few more miles to break in.

What I did was try and vary the RPM at speed (via gear changes), but mainly I did take many pit stops to change things up (stopped every hour and varied speed). I rarely exceeded the RPM limits set by the mfg, and only then by 200 RPM's or less.

No, not an ideal break in, but now at 7000 miles, I see no problem (so far...).

Bottom line is that I stayed within the manufactures limits and did my best to follow their rules to not screw my warranty. Not the ideal setup, but I know I remain under warranty.

Not that it is applicable here, but I did the same with my boat motor (two stroke) in 1994 (followed the manufactures instructions to the tee). It still runs like a champ with even compression on all cyclinders. My father has always followed car manufactures break in procedures (under 55 mph until certain mileage, etc.). He has gotten superb results over 200,000 + miles on numerous vehicles.

I won't disagree with the other threads, and even those people in the motor industry have varying opinions like we talk "loud pipes save lives". Who knows which is really correct?

For me? If I stay within the printed mfg guidelines and something goes wrong, they can see it on the computer that I was riding in accordance to their directions. It may not be correct, but it has worked for me.

I will not claim to be the expert with my first Triumph, it's just what I personally followed. I'm sure everyones results will vary significantly.

Be safe and enjoy your ride.