Running it in?

tstephenson · Apr 23, 2012

DUCENZO said:
Guys each bike is NOT "ran in" at Ducati. Each bike is merely ran for a few mins just to make the fluids circulate and other checks.

Only a small percentage of units for each model get ran longer and even ridden a short ways just for Quality Assurance.

Our bikes gets to our dealers with less that 1 mile on the clock, then the dealer have to ride it after set up. I've never seem more than 2-4 miles on the clock when I've picked up a Duc.

Manufactures use a certain kind of oil on new vehicles, including cars. Thicker viscosity to help collect metal particles collected in your engine. I personally will maybe flirt with 7-8K on the revs during breaking in but that's it .

And like I advised before, at service, your tech can see what a naughty boy/girl you've been. Max revs, max speed....all that. And if excessively abused they can deny any warrantee claims you ever have. Just flood for thought .

We got it the first time

DUCENZO · Apr 23, 2012

tstephenson said:
We got it the first time

Sorry, F-ing iPhone

Xbox · Apr 23, 2012

DUCENZO said:
Guys each bike is NOT "ran in" at Ducati. Each bike is merely ran for a few mins just to make the fluids circulate and other checks.

Only a small percentage of units for each model get ran longer and even ridden a short ways just for Quality Assurance.

Our bikes gets to our dealers with less that 1 mile on the clock, then the dealer have to ride it after set up. I've never seem more than 2-4 miles on the clock when I've picked up a Duc.

Manufactures use a certain kind of oil on new vehicles, including cars. Thicker viscosity to help collect metal particles collected in your engine. I personally will maybe flirt with 7-8K on the revs during breaking in but that's it .

And like I advised before, at service, your tech can see what a naughty boy/girl you've been. Max revs, max speed....all that. And if excessively abused they can deny any warrantee claims you ever have. Just flood for thought .

You can say that again .... and you did

Joking, but seriously, I'm gonna pretty much stick to the book, with the odd 7-8k like you.

Even gonna fit the Termis after the 1st service, as the worship guys pretty much insisted.

No point rocking the boat IMO, as I don't like egg on my face

McLaren12C · Apr 23, 2012

The dirty little secret... most run-in periods are there to protect YOU, not the vehicle.

Give somebody the keys to a new Ducati after they've only ridden a beater 600, and they're liable to flip the bike if they aren't following "the break-in". This period allows the driver or rider to become accustomed to the vehicle's nuances. Do you think that the new race bikes that are provided to teams across the world are driven soft for 600+ miles? No.

And while each bike is not broken-in by Ducati, each engine IS run to redline. This is standard practice across the board within the auto/moto industry.

JONAH · Apr 23, 2012

Just ease it in over the 1st 600 miles gradually increasing the revs, plenty of movement up and down the gearbox and rev range,and dont sit too long in any one gear or at any given amount of revs, thats basically what i was told by triumph for my speed triple and i guess its the same for most other places including ducati. Its only 600 mile anyway gives me chance to get to know her.

Rich22 · Apr 23, 2012

JONAH said:
Just ease it in over the 1st 600 miles gradually increasing the revs, plenty of movement up and down the gearbox and rev range,and dont sit too long in any one gear or at any given amount of revs, thats basically what i was told by triumph for my speed triple and i guess its the same for most other places including ducati. Its only 600 mile anyway gives me chance to get to know her.

When we run a bike in on the dyno the most important is the 1st 50 miles to seal up the rings to the bores.
Let it rev freely in 2nd/3rd gears increasing the top revs every 10 miles upto 9-10,000rpm.
Let it decelerate as fast.
Keep this up for 150-200 miles then hit max revs through the gears.
This seals up the bores and the bike ends up with better compression, lower oil usage and more power.
We tested bikes that were run in on the dyno vs bikes run in softly softly on the road, the dyno bikes consistently make 5bhp more power.
We tested on RSV4, ZX10R, BMWS1000RR
Running mine in like this so lets see how it does.

Braintrash · Apr 23, 2012

You are playing with words, with engine but not the bike being ran in.
That exactly what the Motoman link is about: the engine, and it is pre-broked-in at Ducati.

Rest of the break-in (not covered by Motoman if I remember well) is:
- brakes (10 kilometers),
- tyres (some kilometers for them to get all the paraphina out),
- gear box,
- etc.

Basically, break-in allows to check if everything stick together (charm of the bicylinder...), then have a turn at every screw during first service.

As for the engine, if you wanna get chirurgical, then your break-in will last at least 6.000 kilometers, which is the distance it needs to cover to begin to fully open up to its capacities. Which is why you should at least wait 6.000 kilometers before putting an engine on the dyno, 8.000 being the safe mark.

No mistery, no conspiracy, nothing.

So, once again: just stick to what the manual says.

Rich22 · Apr 23, 2012

I am talking about engine bore & piston ring running in on the dyno from knowledge gained through engine strip down comparisons on race bikes.

Of course other components such as gear box, drive chain, brakes, tires etc should be run in on road or track for a period.

Certainly not required to wait until 6 to 8k before putting a bike on the dyno,

Many owners never see that amount of miles on there toys.

P.S dont believe everything you read in a book.

Rhino · Apr 23, 2012

McLaren12C said:
The dirty little secret... most run-in periods are there to protect YOU, not the vehicle.

Give somebody the keys to a new Ducati after they've only ridden a beater 600, and they're liable to flip the bike if they aren't following "the break-in". This period allows the driver or rider to become accustomed to the vehicle's nuances. Do you think that the new race bikes that are provided to teams across the world are driven soft for 600+ miles? No.

That's complete rubbish.

SPJ · Apr 23, 2012

Rhino said:
That's complete rubbish.

+1

I've followed this thread with interest, obviously we all want the best performance we can get from the bike. I don't have the experience of some here but I would agree that bikes thrashed from new are generally a bit more powerful than those run in gently. I'm not going to do that with the Panigale though for a few reasons.

1) I believe several Panigale's have blown engines racing (Brands and Assen).
2) Not sure if there are any implications with the 'over square' engine. Most of what has been written also relates to higher revving 4's.
3) The smoke/oil consumption debate.
4) I don't want to sacrifice my warranty for a couple of bhp.

Just my take on it, I appreciate others will see it differently.
Rich22 - be interested to hear how you get on.

overpitch · Apr 23, 2012

Rich22 said:
When we run a bike in on the dyno the most important is the 1st 50 miles to seal up the rings to the bores.
Let it rev freely in 2nd/3rd gears increasing the top revs every 10 miles upto 9-10,000rpm.
Let it decelerate as fast.
Keep this up for 150-200 miles then hit max revs through the gears.
This seals up the bores and the bike ends up with better compression, lower oil usage and more power.
We tested bikes that were run in on the dyno vs bikes run in softly softly on the road, the dyno bikes consistently make 5bhp more power.
We tested on RSV4, ZX10R, BMWS1000RR
Running mine in like this so lets see how it does.

A guy in Australia does the exact same procedure on the dyno & with race engine tear down evidence of no damage nothing being harmful just more hp gained than bikes run in on the street. There are a few youtube clips of it.

maxpower9773 - YouTube

Make up your own mind.

littlejohn · Apr 23, 2012

I think what some are missing or have misinterpreted is that, NO ONE is saying rev the living daylights to redline on a new engine.
The article / link states that you should rev it hard, whether that be rev it hard to 6000rpm then let off the throttle or rev it hard to 3000rpm. Also to utilise engine braking a lot.

This is to get as much load on the engine as possible to get the rings to push out against the cylinders as much as possible during the first few hundred kms.
Rather than being easy on the throttle and taking 10s to get to 6000rpm, open her up and get to 6000 in 1s

overpitch · Apr 23, 2012

littlejohn said:
I think what some are missing or have misinterpreted is that, NO ONE is saying rev the living daylights to redline on a new engine.
The article / link states that you should rev it hard, whether that be rev it hard to 6000rpm then let off the throttle or rev it hard to 3000rpm. Also to utilise engine braking a lot.

This is to get as much load on the engine as possible to get the rings to push out against the cylinders as much as possible during the first few hundred kms.
Rather than being easy on the throttle and taking 10s to get to 6000rpm, open her up and get to 6000 in 1s

I know exactly what you are saying, there are a few ways to achieve a certain rpm, we are trying to express the load applied on the engine to achieve those rpm's. Think throttle position also in the equation, the amount required to reach for example 6k in shorter time = more throttle, more fuel, more load before closing throttle. Varied loads can be achieved with gears too on the street, but you need quiet open back roads as generally you end up a fair way over the limit.

Running it in?

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