Breaking-in period ZX636R

According to the manufacturer's specification and the info given to me from the dealer, I am supposed to keep my new 636 under 4500 revs for the first 1000km, which I have to say is not easy

When riding the bike on the M4 on Friday, I had to stay at 80km in 6th gear just to keep the revs down.

Cath - and others who have recently bought a new bike - is it vital to stick to the rev limitation, or can I push it a bit more?

Ahh the eternal "How should I break it in?" question.

You will get some people telling you to ride it as per recommendations. You will get just as many people telling you to ride it like you stole it!

So here's my bit. I broke the 10 in by riding it comfortably hard. I didn't flog it, but I didn't baby it. It's had all it's scheduled services, but I regret that I didn't do an oil change after a couple of hundred kays just to be sure.

Having said that I've got 21,000km on it now and no problems. It had the same power as the other 10's on the dyno, so no hassles there.

So I reckon do what you want, but don't tell the dealer just in case they won't honour the warranty

My Understanding of it (and the way I broke in my 749) is that it's more a case of don't sit on one rev for too long, i.e. vary your revs constantly and don't over rev it. If the speed limit is proving to be a bit restrictive in 1 gear alter gears to adjust your revs



.... of course I could be totally wrong too but my bike doesn't seem to have suffered any

Check this out. I reckon this guy is right as long as the production tolerances are right in your bike. Apparently GMH runs their engines in on an assembly line- full throttle no load to run em in!

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I ran my GT in hard after I put rings in it recently. Done nearly 10000km since.

According to the manufacturer's specification and the info given to me from the dealer, I am supposed to keep my new 636 under 4500 revs for the first 1000km, which I have to say is not easy

When riding the bike on the M4 on Friday, I had to stay at 80km in 6th gear just to keep the revs down.

Cath - and others who have recently bought a new bike - is it vital to stick to the rev limitation, or can I push it a bit more?

Collete,

I bought my zx6 in April, i was a bit hesistant at first, but i rode the bike hard, even did a few runs on open speed limit to properly wind out the gears every now and then. As others have said just vary your revs etc.

No problems with my bike so far - 10k on the clock.

Also i have a sneaking suspicion the 4000rpm limit is there to make sure people dont kill themselves.

Just dont wait for the first 1000km before you change your oil.. I did mine at 50km, 200km, 400km, 800km then 1000km and did at 1000km intervals up until 6000km.

Hmm 700 ks in the hills on mine just vary the revs but dont try to break the tacho...say to 8000rpm is fine then i changed the oil and did a trackday and mine has 40000 on it and doesnt use a drop of oil.

theres more to breakin on a new bike though like the brakes and gearbox, my bike wasnt fully broken in till 2000kms i reckon.

Thanks guys - what is the reason for changing the oil so soon though?

It's to flush all the initial crap from the motor running out. if you change it after 100-150 km it'll have silvery flecks through it, this is the bits of metal that've worn off the pistons, the bore, any little burrs that were on edging of machinery, or any bits of metal that were left over after construction of the engine.

If you change it after 100-150 you've gotten the initial bt of running in done, and fresh oil will flush the crap out to allow the motor a better chance of bedding in correctly.

oh and i'd suggest as a run in, just run the bike lightly and not load the engine too much, i.e. not sitting in 6th at 55km/h and cracking the throttle going up a hill.

that 4500rpm i'd probably stick to for a max of 400km or so if you wanted to stick to it (it'd still be ok to work it a little bit above that, say 100 in top gear or so every now and then ), then slowly work my way up towards the redline, so perhaps the next 200-300km just edging her up towards 6500-7000 a bit, and working it up like that. Just gives the motor a fair chance of bedding in, but you're not babying her *too* much

Drop the Veggie Oil out of it real early Colette. Stay with a Semi Synthetic until at least 2000ks.

Don't baby it, I was too cautious with "Tiggr" & he's always been down a little HP compared to his siblings. Rejetting did some good but ......

So next one i buy will get a good Tickle up during run in period thats "fer cher"

I would say not to baby it too much, ride it like a commuter not a theif. And most of all enjoy it. Early oil changes are advisable.

Coming in at the tail end here Colette but I concur with most of the other opinions here. The specs in the owners manual are unltra conservative. As a guide I added about 50% to the recommendations ie 4,500 really meant 7000 etc. More importantly vary it around and run it up and down through the rev range a lot.

As Mick said mine and his were within 0.2 hp on a Dyno.

I run my ZX9 in like this and then after 1200k's basically flogged it doing ride days and it run really well.

just out of interest tho, doesn't changing hte oil yerself VOID the warranty ??

i will getting my 636 withint he next few days (i am really sick of waiting also) so u guys reckon basically

ride it to about 7000 each gear, vary gear changes often, wat is the HARDEST it should b rev'd too ?

changing the oil, void warranty? god i hope not and i seriously doubt it would void it. but when it came down to mechanical maintenence like brake caliper rebuilds, valve clearance checking/fixing. i think they'd only have any issues if it was proveable that you did something that was a direct cause for the part in question to break/fail/not do what it should.

hmmm that article is quite good, ride it hard! and it makes sense why to ride it hard also!

my bigget problem tho is, doign the oil and filter is all good and following those instrustructions cause they seem correct, but i sitll want to keep the warranty. and i dunno if the dealer will do that stuff cause they would only follow the manufactures specs.

hmmm well wonder why did the kawa dealer tell my mate with his ZZR that was new from dealer, was told that cause he did an oil change that his warranty was void.. thats why i assumed the same..

but the dealer told me, u can do exhaust, fender eleminator, and al these extra stuff, he said as long as u don't play with the engine u r fine!!