Ladies & Gentlemen, I believe this is a contentious issue, however, everywhere I look, i get a completely different answer, so here goes.... I have a 2020 Panigale V4S and have completed the first 600 mile service whilst sticking to a max 6k rpm (as per the hand book). When I picked my bike up from Ducati, I asked them how to proceed with the reminder of the running in service, as the 2nd running in period is up to 1500 miles, and the handbook recommends sticking to 7k rpm? The chap from Ducati recommends increasing revs by 1k every 100 miles, up to 1500 miles. This seems sensible and I have been sticking to this, but having read the handbook again, should I stick to 7k rpm until the bike has 1500 miles? Surely this doesn't make sense as at 1600 miles the bike could be spanked up to 14.5k rpm without ever building up the revs over a prolonged time? So my question is, what's the best way to run in a superbike?
Assume that the manufacturer knows best. If you don't believe that then just dump the bike in a skip as it has been designed and made by people who don't know what they are doing.
Hi PerryL, that's my dilemma, the handbook states to stick to 7k rpm whilst the engineer at Ducati has told me to increase the rpm as the mileage increases rather than wait (as per the handbook).
Well, if you blow the engine (I know pretty unlikely, in any case) I would rather say that I followed the instructions in YOUR handbook, rather than say I ignored them but followed the instruction of some bloke at Ducati. I'm guessing that they don't just print any old sh1t in the handbook but follow the instructions of the designers.
Every guy I ever met with 'a slow one', babied it during the break in! You don't have to be an arse, but I would do it like your dealership guy advised.
I ran mine in at a Ducati day at Donington. Ok, I didn’t scream the tits off it all day, but I definitely didn’t run it in ‘properly’ either.
Do you want to keep the bike for longer than any finance deal you have on it? For maximum lunacy cane it from the off and chop it in after 2 years, if you want to keep it for the rest of your riding days follow the book (assuming you are not a film star and don't care about money) Back in the dim and distant 1980's it was said that golf GTI's were slow until 60,000 miles and I did experience that driving 2 of them almost back to back - but, if you caned your new golf GTI out of the showroom it was fast from the off (all relative to a mark 2 GTI being fast) You're unlikely to blow the engine but it will last longer if you follow the handbook The choice, as they say, is yours
Just get on it head 700 miles one way then come back using A or B roads as much as possible...head to Munich or Berlin or Gibraltar or Marseille or Porto or wherever ok maybe not spain but 5 days job done it’s run in piece of urine...just keep on the gear changes bet it’s plenty fast on real world roads too even at low revs Or go Cornwall then Scotland and back to Notts on the bendy roads 300 miles a day soon be done and see some good stuff
All the bikes I’ve ran in by the book have never felt that good. Some have burned oil and they’ve never made great power figures. Personal experience. now I get the oil hot and use the revs. I wouldn’t say I thrash it. But I use the Rev range entirely. Don’t bog the bike down, let her spin freely. Try not to stick to constant revs. Etc etc just as a side note. My gsxr was run in at Donington and the sump plug was pristine !
I bought a KTM 790 brand new during the first 600 miles I rode it as I would as run in bike, I wasn’t that precious about keeping to the book and rode it spiritedly but not beyond by much 3 /4 of the Rev range.
It’s pretty simple really do what it says in the manual after all they produce the bikes and build the engines
I think engineering tolerances are much finer these days and it’s not so important... except if it does go tits up the manufacturer can look at the telemetry of how it’s been ridden then no case to answer no warranty!
Yes to the first bit and no to the second.... Manufacturer’s will have to honour the warranty. And if it was that critical, ALL makers would slot in piss easy software mods to keep us on the straight and narrow during run in. And how come you don’t need to run in new cars?? Anyone that runs a bike in ‘properly’ needs a bloody good shoeing imo. Pah!
The main thing to watch out for is not to allow the engine to Labour, this puts undue stress on the engine and drive train. Remember you are also running in a gearbox. Use your common sense, you can increase revs for short periods, but don’t keep them there for extended periods. Also keep an eye on your oil level, engines use a bit of oil when bedding in.
It’s interesting that every engine builder worth looking at that I’ve ever spoken to has not stated to break the engine in by the manual. most bikes are run up on the dyno at the factory anyway (depending on manufacture but it is common and Ducati definitely do this). So babying the thing is a waste of time considering your new bike has been redlined in every gear from basically cold already. regarding the telemetry... I’m not sure what bikes we are talking about here but generally speaking stock ecu’s don’t store this info except maybe over revs. But you’re only really doing that if you’re crashing down the box at track speeds and backing the thing in. It’s not really doable unless you’re mentally challenged on the road.
Running in smooths out the microscopic troughs and peaks, left after machining. If this is done in an aggressive way instead of smoothing these off, small pieces will break out of the surfaces.
You need the engine under enough load early on to promote piston ring seal. A good few hard (not WOT, but useful "making progress") accelerations and decelerations will do this. Most manufactures (for cars too) will start and run either a percentage of new engines or all new engines, and then run the completed vehicle on a set of rollers at the end of the production line, but this is more a functional check (speedo, ABS, etc) rather than any particular performance test or running in procedure. Keeping the speed and load varied over the initial mileage is important, and low load is worse than using a few more revs than the book says, IMO.
I was told to stick to the handbook by a mechanic(I know) but giving it the beans occasionally doesn't hurt it.
Modern Ducati ECUs record a huge amount of data. The design changes made to the 1260’s power delivery and gearing was influenced by real life riding data captured from customers’ 1200. I was told, in a relatively recent warranty claim, a dealer was able to ascertain from the ECU data, an (air cooled) bike had been stationary, ticking over for over 40 minutes. No surprise things started to melt. A V4 Streetfighter I test rode recently that had less than 600 miles on the clock, the dash lit up like a christmas tree at about 7000 or 8000 rpm. My V4 (2009 MY) did the same and post run in, it will only rev to the 14500 rpm limit in 6th gear, the revs in the first 5 gears are limited. Not sure if this is something that was carried across to the 2020MY. Andy
