"Riding In" Instructions

cmh210 said:

Is there a way for the dealership to check what RPM's the bike has been running at. I wouldn't want them to know what the maximum RPM the bike has been up to and cancel the warranty.

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Yes there is.
But DUCATI are pretty lenient about these things.
They are after all, known as racing derived bikes. So they pretty much figure there's a high proportion of owners that will play boy racer.

Having said that.
If you go ragging on it at every opportunity and she goes BOOM on you. (for what ever reason)
All will be revealed after it gets towed back to the dealer by DUCATI Roadside Assist.
Ducati will want to know, and this is done online through the Service Computer at the dealer.
How DUCATI in Bolognia treat your warranty claim is another matter after the dealer makes their report.

There is another brand of motorcycle. (which shall remain nameless)
That tracks and logs all data retrieved from the bike at the time of service as soon as it's plugged into the computer and goes online.
This is especially so when service functions are performed when diagnostics are being carried out for warranty claims.
I can tell you that warranty has been respectfully declined in some cases of "boy racer syndrome".
Big brother is truly watching.
What Big brother does, or how he treats the information available to him is at his sole discretion.

Beware.
The Owners Manual is your bible.
If a warranty claim is denied (in Italy), who are you going to sue?
The guy who spends a part of his time on some internet forum from the other side of the world?
Who incidentally will have no stake in the matter if you need to claim warranty because you didn't follow the manual.
Or worse still recklessly disregarded it all together.
I don't think your lemon laws will cover it either.

In summary, go forth at your own peril
Should the issue arise.
Warranty has been denied for lesser things in the past.

Then there are other sides to the story as well.
My side of the story stems from the Socialist in me.
And I don't enjoy the prospect of DUCATI picking up the tab for someone else's indiscretions/stupidity/foolishness.
Because of the costs of unconditionally covering a warranty, is inevitably spread across to all of us owners who have purchased our bikes new, through being built into our purchase prices.

To help you fully understand how the warranty process is financed behind the scenes.
It's like a bank that has multiple accounts held by a couple of joint account holders.
For example DUCATI in Bolognia and DNA or perhaps even DUCATI Australia/NFI.
All the accounts have limited funds, which are defined in the annual budgets.

The first account is for the day to day normal administration of warranties, and it's not watched too closely. It's pretty loose but it gets monitored regardless. And approval still has to come from Bolognia, after the application process.

The second account is off to the side of the first, and it's for the big ticket stuff (over a certain dollar value). It's watched very closely by the major partner/financial controller.

Another account is loosely referred to as called the "good will" account, and it's sort of the reserve/back up, in the event the major account holder says NO.
That account is to be used at the discretion of the minor player (like DNA for example).
It doesn't normally cover the big ticket items unless you're connected.

In summary, the funds for honouring warranties are to a large extent limited, and it is subsidised by all of us to a degree.
Lord knows, they cost enough as it is.
Please try not to push it up any more
I'd like to buy another one if I can afford it

Thank you

RUNNING-IN A MOTORCYCLE ENGINE BY A.H.STUART, Ph. D., B.Sc. London 1937.
For those of you that haven't got a mechanical background the above article explains in simple terms what is going on inside your engine during the running-in period.
He even details experiments using a 9hp 4 cyl engine. Yes, it very out of date but has a lot of good information as well. The 4 stroke engine still goes suck, squeeze, bang, blow just as it did in 1919 for Henry Ford. Aircraft engines work on the same principle - intake, compression, combustion, exhaust. There's nothing new under the sun!
I've stripped a lot of engines over the years and seen lots of abuse. Some of it has been from people thrashing the life out of them and others have been so kind that the rings have never bedded in and the engine has burned volumes of oil. After doing two warranty rebuilds with the same result the manufacturer put special oil in the crankcase and poured abrasive powder down the intake while revving the engine hard. I couldn't believe my eyes but that car didn't burn oil any more. My advice is moderately load the engine then de-accelerate. Do this often increasing the revs over time. Your con rods stretch when revved hard. This allows the piston rings to travel a tiny bit further up the bore. If it's never been revved and developed a ring land in the bore then the rings could break. I've also seen valve guides chewed out by people valve bouncing frequently. They were surprised when the valve head dropped off and holed the piston. I wasn't. The moral of the story is use the engine but don't abuse it. The Panigale has a beautiful motor in a wonderful bike. It was designed for you to have fun. Enjoy it! Don't be afraid to use it for what it was intended. I don't thrash mine. It's used 150ml of oil in 11000kms. I'm happy with that.

I Took it fairy easy 1st 100 @ wet 120 , then switched to Sport, progressively increased rpm & load time was up to brief runs to 8k before 500 miles.
I think a lot of it is liability re new owner crashing, seriously doubt they really need any run in at all, any engine builder will tell you it takes high load to seat rings ( ie good cyl' seal ) your not going to achieve that babying it. Every vehicle even had has been Run In Hard the way I intended to treat it in daily use, I've never hand any issues.
Anyway that's just me.

If it was that critical to never go anywhere near redline that could cause engine damage then the dealer would install a rev limiter to prevent you from exceeding the limits like on the BMW.

My method it to apply load to the engine through acceleration and deceleration in high gear and moderately low RPM. I do not rev it to redline but do vary load and RPM up to about 8-9k then change oil after 300-500 miles.

Have you seen videos manufacturers dyno new engines they rev the piss out of them.

The key here is to not keep the break-in oil too long if you choose to rev the piss out of the engine.

If you pay attention to your rev counter from new it will turn red at lower revs, around 8k. After a certain amount of miles it will automatically step up in a couple of increments with the more miles you put on. However, although this gives you a warning, the limiter will not step in and physically stop you going up to 12k.

I'm a fan of running in the engine to a certain degree. But you have to stretch its legs at some point to run in the extremes of the engine too. Hitting the magical first service light then going 'right I can go full tilt everywhere' isn't too good for the engine either.

Besides, the first 200 miles are really the important ones, then build from there

20 yr race engine builder here:- in the old days with poor quality control & wide clearance range of component assembly, running was a larger issue.
A precision built engine ie race or any current engine does not need extended run in period, cam & lifters ( regardless of valve type) along with piston ring to cylinder hone require a high load to bed the surfaces, the very worst thing you can do is extended low load running, varied speeds with brief loaded acceleration is the key.
My R smoked when I collected from the dealer, the same after the 1st 40 mile ride, after the 2nd blast ride of 420 miles it has never smoked since. 37 years of riding & driving always ran everything I had hard, yet to be been proven wrong.

Stop worrying and just ride it, good luck & have some fun

The engine gets cold spun at the factory before the bike is assembled onto it.

The finished bike is dyno tested at the factory. So the rings are already seated, and the rods have already stretched the full length of the cylinder at redline.

I just ran mine in as the technician at the dealer said to and followed the manual.

Smoke on startup seems to have a pattern with short rides, like reving it in the garage and not riding it just to "show" the bike off to someone. That's seriously bad to do with modern exhaust systems. And parking it after long coasting events (in gear). Both seem normal to me. The cat is collecting fuel and oil.

Mine never smokes anymore.