Officially Official

Giant pistons going 10,000+ rpm.

Many engines can have as much as 0.8mm of extra rod/piston stretch/flex travel on the beginning of the intake stroke around 10,000 rpm. Likely 1500+ pounds of force on the wrist pin. And the piston can flex as well. If the SL has Ti rods, then there's even more there. Ti is very elastic, at least the version of Ti alloy used for rods. They actually have to account for the rods wrist pin holes shape when it ovals out.

On a new engine you can see it. Crank the engine over by hand and the piston ring didn't go all the way up to the wear marks. I was like "Wth, check this out".

And the master tech race engine builder laughed at me.

Generally, the best place to read about this stuff on the net is F1 forums:
http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9346

Thanks Buli. The amount of engineering and metal working that goes into these things is off the charts.

So how can I load the engine without going over 7.5k rpm and adding more weight to it?

Buliwyf said:

Linky:
Inside the Ducati factory: Building the 1199 Panigale from the ground up

Explains the build process.

-electric Cold rolled for a few minutes at 3000 rpm. Checking flow, power,and oil pressure.
-front wheel test
-Dyno test. Repeated 195hp runs.
-Emissions programming (this is what gets fixed during your first service)

And it explains why these things are so much more reliable, out of the box, than our 996's were. Mine only had 1 vendor fault. Wiring harness warranty replacement. And the reflash, charcoal delete.

Click to expand...

From that Article of the bike on the dyno


You might choose to run your engine in gently, babying it like the book says, but I can verify that this man has given it an absolute gumboot full and taken it to redline several times before it even went in the crate. Next, dyno complete, it's off to in-house emissions testing.

Wait WTF, I have the choice to baby it or ride it normal??? Or I have the choice to disregard the manual or not????

b9009b said:

From that Article of the bike on the dyno


You might choose to run your engine in gently, babying it like the book says, but I can verify that this man has given it an absolute gumboot full and taken it to redline several times before it even went in the crate. Next, dyno complete, it's off to in-house emissions testing.

Wait WTF, I have the choice to baby it or ride it normal??? Or I have the choice to disregard the manual or not????

Click to expand...

Having owned more that 30 Motorcycles in my lifetime, I can tell you that I have not had one single engine failure. I take the medium approach; ride the bike like you would normally ride it - don't go nuts and bang off the rev limiter, but don't baby it. No long Freeway rides in 6th gear at a steady 70 mph; I rev the bike up to 1,000 rpm shy of redline for the most part - the exception was my BMW S100RR, where there's a factory limit of 9,000 rpm for the first 600 miles until the dealer takes it off and you get to use the full 14,200 rpm. One of my friends owns the Ducati dealership in San Francisco and every single time they send a new bike off with it's owner they tell the owner to ride it the way I just outlined. They have 20+ years of data and service records to back up their advice; their profits depend on as few motorcycle engines going boom, or underperforming as possible and so they go with the method that works best for them.

Other posters have given you good advice - loading the engine is what you want to do; get it warm and just ride it fairly hard, but not like you're at a track day and you should get great results. Engine break-in needs time, revs, heat and pressure to get the proper initial wear. The wear smooths out various small imperfections in the metals that touch - the oil lubricates as well s it can, but you still get wear and wear is something the designers and the factories count on.

A well broken-in engine will have almost zero oil consumption, nice high compression and will have got past most of the initial wear that happens in the first couple of thousand miles and should therefore have fewer particles floating around in the oil, oil filter and on the magnetic drain plug.

Coming from the BMW S1000RR, I put over 50,000 miles on that bike in less that 4 years; commuting, track days in 105+ degree heat, rain, 19 degree days, fog, you name it. At the 50,000 mile mark, my bike still made 185 RWHP and had perfect compression. The magnetic drain plug was showing pretty much zero metal shavings/particles sticking to it; compare that to some of the pictures of what the drain plug looked like from the 600 mile service:

b9009b said:

From that Article of the bike on the dyno


You might choose to run your engine in gently, babying it like the book says, but I can verify that this man has given it an absolute gumboot full and taken it to redline several times before it even went in the crate. Next, dyno complete, it's off to in-house emissions testing.

Wait WTF, I have the choice to baby it or ride it normal??? Or I have the choice to disregard the manual or not????

Click to expand...

They just meant that the bike has been dyno'd. The rings are seated. Just go ride. There's no need to flog the bike or baby it.

I have a master tech's hunch that the 6000rpm limit is just to give the oil filter a chance to catch grit, and for the valve train to smooth out. 600miles was just a few weekend's for me.

Riding it normally is pretty much babying it. I followed the 6000 rpm limit for 600 miles like the manual said. But at 6000rpm, she's still accelerating faster than most 600cc sportbikes ever did. I did miss a few shifts and was rewarded by the idiotic free rev sound and red light.

Buliwyf said:

They just meant that the bike has been dyno'd. The rings are seated. Just go ride. There's no need to flog the bike or baby it.

I have a master tech's hunch that the 6000rpm limit is just to give the oil filter a chance to catch grit, and for the valve train to smooth out. 600miles was just a few weekend's for me.

Riding it normally is pretty much babying it. I followed the 6000 rpm limit for 600 miles like the manual said. But at 6000rpm, she's still accelerating faster than most 600cc sportbikes ever did. I did miss a few shifts and was rewarded by the idiotic free rev sound and red light.

Click to expand...

I feel like I am riding it like a ummm,, uuummm baby lol. If I had weather above 40 degrees the 600 miles would be done already. As Willy Wonka says The Suspense is Terrible I hope It will last. Well end.

My brother took delivery of his 2012 CBR600RR then run it in on the track.
Not whacking the throttle open like mad, but smoothly throttling up and did not hesitate to go full wide open (smoothly) and letting the rev go to redline either.
Did the normal service interval (1000km first service, then follow the book), and use the oil as recommended (mineral for first 1000km, then syntetic after that).
Oil drain plug magnet is always reasonably clean. Some metal flakes/dust as normal, but nothing alarming.

Two years on (now) and the bike still runs well, not eating oil noticeably at all, and we just checked the valve clearance (24000kms) and everything was spot on.

----

I have run in three bikes so far. Typically I do the recommended in manual (up to the specified rev range) for first 1000kms, sensibly varying the load and try to avoid prolonged cruise at constant rpm (if it is motorway travel, simply varying the speed and gear every now and then). After first 1000kms, everything is all game.
All three grew up nicely, no engine failures throughout my ownership.
Oil drain plug magnet is always reasonably clean. Some metal flakes/dust as normal, but nothing alarming.

----

Running in is easy. Just don't go nuts, be sensible, and you'll be fine.

Yup. Don't sweat the break-in. Try to ride as hard or soft within the 6000rpm limit you can.

I'd be concerned if i bought a Zx10r and found out the first time the engine turned over was at the dealer. Anything dyno tested is GTG. What stinks, is that jap bike companies won't tell us if they do or don't. An engine with soft rings, like a Ford Mustang, needs no breakin at all. Opposite of a Panigale for example. Companies can't afford the bad press of who has soft rings, who doesn't. Who gets a quality breakin on the dyno, and who doesn't.

On the flip side of the coin, a dyno technician is going to purposefully make a "breakin format" that only he can do and profit from, and is a bit over the top. Usually, drain the oil and use cheap oil. 3 runs to 60%. 30 min cool down. 3 runs to 80%. 30min cool down. 2 runs to 100%, done. Oh, and the dynos brake needs to turn off properly so the engine can spin down on it's own under vacuum. Which isn't really that important at all. Hint: Most bikes come with cheap breakin oil, not synthetic like the manual says. Another reason for the 600mile service interval on a new bike. The spinning down is just nonsense about the engine vacuum sucking away metal in the cylinder and sucking oil off the cylinder for quicker wear in. It's BS, that CAN be done on the street later.

I wouldn't sweat the magnet either. On it's first oil change, an MTU 16v4000 had so much metal in it's oil that a CHUNK of it stopped my electric pump that I use to drain and fill engines with such large oil capacities. (50 gallons in this case) Someone may have just left some grit in the engine. Or some fell in at the factory. No big deal. Many engines do indeed mess up the magnet. It's not a sign of quality, or lack there of.

I had a lot of bikes and never had any problems after riding them in in my way (which was a bit more on the "babeying" side. But for the Pani it's different, I fully agree with 80shilling. I would even suggest to get a bit more on the hard side.

After running in my Tri it consumed up to 0.7l of oil per 100km. Ducati changed cylinders/pistons under warranty.

For the SL I went to a different approach:
1. Wait unit the engine is really hot
2. Ride it in hard, but pay attention to shift it quick and precisely. Don't get sloppy.
After all this bike became a real animal, no problems at all, no remarkable oil consumption or "white smoke" issues like on the Tri.

You have to do this from the beginning. And avoid commuting until the first service.

Thx fellas. I am not commuting it at all yet. That I'll save for after the 1st service. I alternate riding it hard up to 7-7.5k and riding easy to that range also. tomorrow will be in the 60's so I will be putting about 300 miles on it.

I ran my Tri in as per book with lots of up and down in the gears (did it in suburbia) and she only used oil when running in. Since she had been run in she stopped using oil. She is now at close to 22000 km's and never gets topped up between services.

When I did my 600 mile oil change my drain plug looked like that, filter was horrifying too.

Was able to put 100 miles on her today. All backroads and I think I'm in love. Also found out she loves to wheelie very easily.

Is it normal before the 600 mile service for a big poof of smoke to come out of the exhaust on the first startup of the day? First twin sportbike so don't kill me for it.

smoke on startup?

never heard of that


check youtube for that and see if you bike qualifies for night shifts in dance clubs

Yup. Smokes normal. I think mine stopped.

But when the tech at the showroom fired it up to clean it out with fresh fuel he killed all the bugs in the service department. I think I saw a flying bird hit fall out of the sky into a nearby bush as well.

b9009b said:

Is it normal before the 600 mile service for a big poof of smoke to come out of the exhaust on the first startup of the day? First twin sportbike so don't kill me for it.

Click to expand...

On break-in you are seating the rings so it will smoke a little on startup.

The only time mine will smoke now is if you start it and don't drive it, then the next you start it will smoke for a few seconds. Mine doesn't use any oil at all between changes.

b9009b said:

Is it normal before the 600 mile service for a big poof of smoke to come out of the exhaust on the first startup of the day? First twin sportbike so don't kill me for it.

Click to expand...

Another symptom of a "pussy" style break in...

Stw said:

Another symptom of a "pussy" style break in...

Click to expand...

Lol. Well if you look at the rear of the exhaust

Phl said:

smoke on startup?

never heard of that

check youtube for that and see if you bike qualifies for night shifts in dance clubs

Click to expand...

Found one in Philly smokejazz.com lol