Breaking in?

The manual seems pretty specific;

During the first 1000 km (621.37 mi), keep an eye on
the rev counter. It should never exceed: 5,500÷
(included) 6,000 rpm.
During the first hours of riding, it is advisable to run
the engine at varying load and rpm, though still
within recommended limit.
To this end, roads with plenty of bends and even
slightly hilly areas are ideal for a most efficient
running-in of engine, brakes and suspensions.
For the first 100 km (62 mi) use the brakes gently.
Avoid sudden or prolonged braking. This will allow
the friction material on the brake pads to bed in
against the brake discs.

Applicable during the entire running in period;

So that the mechanical parts of the motorcycle can
adapt to each another, and especially so the life of
the basic engine parts is not affected, avoid harsh
accelerations and do not run the engine at a high
rpm for an extended time, especially uphill.
Furthermore, the drive chain should be inspected
frequently. Lubricate as required.
Important

and to rub it right in they repeat with a giant warning icon


Important
During the first 1000 km (621 mi) (Running-in
period), i.e. when the Odometer displays a value <=
(lower than or equal to) 1000 km (621 mi), the prewarning
area, indicated in orange (Orange area),
both for the bargraph filling and the display of the
relevant number, is displayed when reaching 6000
rpm. During the running-in period we recommend
not to exceed 6000 rpm, thus the instrument panel
will not display the bargraph "Orange area".

Point is, reading this thread everyone has an opinion and they might be right but if you're coughing up 20-40 k or more for your dream Ducati, you can either take Ducatis specific advice or take it from a random guy on the internet....The principles are vary speed, dont load it excessively and dont rev it prematurely or for extended periods. Lots of heat/cool cycles

My dealer and lead technician recommended not following the procedure too religiously. Make sure completely warmed up, and ride normally on the somewhat conservative side, no lugging or WOT, lots of varied RPM and heat cycles and not to be too pedantic about 6K

37NG900X said:

My dealer and lead technician recommended not following the procedure too religiously. Make sure completely warmed up, and ride normally on the somewhat conservative side, no lugging or WOT, lots of varied RPM and heat cycles and not to be too pedantic about 6K

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Exactly.

You can do it any way you like, I'm pretty sure you could thrash the bike mercilessly from 0 miles and it still be OK, but you'd be rolling the dice on longevity.

As for a Ducati tech saying dont do what the manual says, get him to put that in writing

Paul G said:

You can do it any way you like, I'm pretty sure you could thrash the bike mercilessly from 0 miles and it still be OK, but you'd be rolling the dice on longevity.

As for a Ducati tech saying dont do what the manual says, get him to put that in writing

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No dealer or mechanic is going to go against corporate. I think you are missing the point - there is a fair degree of lawyerese these days that does not necessarily represent the best practice or common sense. They also aim to protect against the lowest common denominator. I do believe you can be a “bit” more aggressive than the manual and it might be more beneficial for performance and longevity. Same dealer said he sees more bikes with oil burn problems that were broken in strictly by the book

my ideology is progressive loads to burnish in the ring lands.

37NG900X said:

No dealer or mechanic is going to go against corporate. I think you are missing the point - there is a fair degree of lawyerese these days that does not necessarily represent the best practice or common sense. They also aim to protect against the lowest common denominator. I do believe you can be a “bit” more aggressive than the manual and it might be more beneficial for performance and longevity. Same dealer said he sees more bikes with oil burn problems that were broken in strictly by the book

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To wit: no procedure for chain adjustment in owners manual take to dealer. Really?!

37NG900X said:

To wit: no procedure for chain adjustment in owners manual take to dealer. Really?!

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True, there is a lot of cover my ... language but they also give a specific chain adjustment procedure. Sadly there is a proportion of Ducati owners who have never lifted a spanner and all work is done at service time.

The OP is doing it right on running in, but their question was whether the rev limit was to be observed for 2500k's, my reading of the manual is no- only to 1000ks then start to gradually use it normally but without lugging or thrashing it.

Has anyone run-in a bike on track? My V2 is unregistered, so it's either dyno or track for me. I'm thinking it should be quite simple, just run in a slow group, a bit of spirited riding and long breaks to let it cool.

daforg said:

Has anyone run-in a bike on track? My V2 is unregistered, so it's either dyno or track for me. I'm thinking it should be quite simple, just run in a slow group, a bit of spirited riding and long breaks to let it cool.

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Track riding (depending on course) tends to favor lower gears and higher revs. I think you’d be either over revving for break in or lugging too much to keep up even with a slower group

37NG900X said:

Track riding (depending on course) tends to favor lower gears and higher revs. I think you’d be either over revving for break in or lugging too much to keep up even with a slower group

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Haha, our regular track day slow groups are slooow. I'll probably take the V2 with to next weekend's race meet and run a few morning sessions during the track/practice day.