Hello everyone...I am currently considering a Ninja 250/500...I bought a 500R brand new back in 2005 or thereabouts and followed the break in to a tee as far as engine rpm and my initial service (valve adjust, chain adjust etc etc)...it was agonizing to ride around at about 4K rpm on a bike that just wants to rev well into the double digits! But I did...

Anyway, I'd just as soon buy a new one again except for the damn break in period; a used one would allow me to just get on and ride. Does anyone have any experience with just getting on a brand new Ninja and beating on it (after it's warmed up of course) and having problems, or anyone have no prob's down the road at all?

Thanks for the info.

 

There are some who insist you should 'break it in hard' and claim that it actually gives their bike more horsepower.
Me, I trust Mr. Kawasaki, since he's the one who chose the metals, the shapes of the machine as well as the wording of the owner's manual.
Here is an interesting article, written by Gordon Jennings, whom I consider a wiser source than that Mr-Moto dufus, (but I fear if you don't have the patience to endure the break-in cycle, you might not have enough patience to read it through to the end, no offense):
The Break-In Game, article by Gordon Jennings, May 1997
Two questions have plagued my life as a motojournalist: The first is, "I'm thinking of getting a motorcycle. What shall I buy?" Then comes the second: "How should I break in my new motorcycle?" No satisfactory answer exists for the first question, as preference in such matter is so individual. I don't know anyone well enough to choose a motorcycle for them.
Giving break-in advice is much less dangerous and it's more in my line of work. I believe I can add to the scanty information provided by most owner's manuals. These manuals typically admonish owners to keep engine speed below a certain level and/or refrain from using full throttle. They don't say why the limits are necessary, or what damage might result from non-compliance.
Fortunately for all of us, motorcycle manufacturers have done a lot to solve the special problems of parts beginning life in service.
Their built-in solutions to those problems are so good your new bike's moving parts will settle into peaceful coexistence without much help from you, as speed crazed motojournalists know from long, shameful experience.
New motorcycles delivered into the unkind hands of magazine test riders get no help at all. Careful break-in for most magazine test bikes means no wide-open, red-line running until there are three digits [if that—Ed.] showing on the odometer. That is not a good procedure to follow with a new motorcycle you own and will have to repair if it breaks. But, the fact that 30-plus years of new models have survived magazine guys' abuse speaks volumes for motorcycles' quality.
For the purposes of discussion, I'm going to assume you'd prefer to ease your new motorcycle through its break-in period undamaged. Your best chance of attaining this goal lies in understanding what's happening during those crucial first 500 to 1000 miles.
The tenderest of all new or newly rebuilt engine's tender points is at the scrubbing contacts between rings and cylinder bores.
Actually, it's the top compression ring that gets the big load because it uses pressure on the upper cylinder for its sealing action. Gas pressure above the piston pushes the compression ring down against the bottom of its groove and out against the cylinder wall.
With gas pressure in the upper cylinder at 500 pounds per square inch or even more at part throttle, the load on the oil film separating
ring and cylinder wall is also 500psi. If the ring gets past the oil and into direct contact with the cylinder, friction heating will cause melting at the contact point.
What happens next with plain iron rings is that a tiny bead of melted metal from the cylinder becomes welded to the ring's contact face.
The bead, traveling with the ring, then picks up more metal from the cylinder until it grows too large and breaks away from the ring.
Once this separation occurs, the built-up metal particle scores the piston skirt before migrating down to the crankcase, where it does more damage until captured by the oil strainer.
Advances in piston ring technology remove most of the dangers from the break-in period. Today's new engines have their top rings faced with chromium or molybdenum, metals that do not readily friction-weld to an iron cylinder wall. The worst you get from a chrome- or moly-coated ring scrubbing roughness from the cast-iron cylinder bore are some small scratches.
Case iron, of the kind used in cylinders, has a porous microstructure that readily wets with oil and then retains it fairly well. It has
the further advantage of containing numerous small graphite particles, which are themselves a lubricant. Despite these favorable factors it is still necessary to finish the cylinder bore with a relatively coarse-stone hone moved up and down as it spins to make cross-hatched scratches, which hold oil on the cylinder walls and help control oil consumption.
When you're building a racing engine you can finish-hone the bores to be so smooth they don't need a breaking-in. You can't do that in
street-engines, as the smooth bores would soon become polished, and a little roughness is required for oil control. The small volume of
gases cross-hatching leaks past the compression ring, moves oil down to the oil ring, then blows it through the oil return holes to the crankcase. In my racing days, I attempted to raise an engine's compression ratio by heli-arc welding more aluminum to the pistons' crowns. I tested the concept on an old piston, one I carefully measured before adding metal and was gratified to find negligible distortion after the welding. Alas, when I performed the same operation on a new piston it distorted so much down at the skirt as to be utterly unusable.
On a hunch, I placed an old piston and a new one on a tray and slid them into a 500-degree F oven, leaving them in for 30 minutes. The old piston came out of the oven just as it had gone in, but the new piston was badly warped. I should have anticipated this, as complex castings and forgings like pistons end up with a lot of locked-in stresses by the time the manufacturing process is completed.
A new piston's internal stresses are relaxed by heating, and if this occurs with the piston in an oven, but otherwise unrestrained, the metal squirms like mad and ends up distorted. The same piston, closely confined in a cylinder, will take on a shape much better suited to its surroundings. It is not surprising that this should be the case, as even after break-in the pistons in a running engine are a light-interference fit in their bores. Only the oil film between them and cylinders' walls prevents seizing.
Given time, your new motorcycle's pistons will adjust to life of whizzing up and down in cylinders. Heating will relax the locked-in
stresses, and confinement will keep them from warping into aluminum pretzels. Repeated cycles of heating and cooling, as occur when you
ride your new motorcycle and then park it for the night, work the pistons into shape, but they have to be treated with consideration
while still new and nervous. If you pay heed to the advice given in your owner's manual, those pistons will settle in without having
their skirts scuffed or distorted. The rings will appreciate it, too, and if you treat your new motorcycle with enough consideration
to keep the pistons and rings healthy, you won't do any damage to other vulnerable bits, like bearings, gears, and cam followers.
You'll avoid post-break-in engine damage by avoiding a couple of things too many riders have made habit. Do not ever, ever zing a cold engine up to high revs, as this will pound in the pistons' skirts before you can moan "engine rebuild." The other bad habit is the lengthy warm-up, which just prolongs the period in which acids
condense on cold cylinder walls and eat at everything. Fire it up, ride away just be gentle with it until it's warm and ready to roar.
One last thing: Give yourself a little time to become accustomed to that new motorcycle. There's nothing more depressing than throwing your brand-new bike down the road. –Gordon Jennings, May 1997 More of GJ's stuff (and Kevin Cameron's) can be found at http://www.wheelbase.com/

 

thanks for the read. I picked up an 07 Mustang GT (hence my name s197richie) about a year ago and the break in instructions in the owner's manual only said to vary engine speed for the first 500 miles or so. Which I gleefully did haha. Granted, there is no valve adjustment interval on the Mustang after the first several hundred miles...while I'm asking questions, has anyone out there blown off their 600 mile service (or maybe just done the chain lube/adjust, oil change, and other simpler stuff themselves, without the valve adjust) and been okay or run into probs?

 

I don't believe any dealerships actually adjust (or check) the valves at 600 miles, but I've heard of a few who charge for it.
If you have the Factory Service Manual and heaps-o-confidence in your own attention to detail and mechanical ability, you can do your own 600-mile service. I did mine myself and it took a solid weekend (>14 hours in the garage). But I'll bet my job was more thorough than a typical dealership 600-mile service.
You can look at it as an annoying box on your checklist, or you can see it as a chance to learn about your machine. Most riders want to pay someone to make the drudge go away (get 'er done, cuz); me, I appreciate details and when I ride down the road, I know I've personally torqued every fastener (and applied the appropriate grade of threadlock when advisable) on my machine and that nothing will go wrong.

If you don't enjoy such drudgery, it might be best to get the 600-mile service done. If you don't have the receipt showing it was done, you might run into trouble getting any future warranty claims recognized by your dealership.

Good luck and ride safely.
Peace,
-CCinC

 

I think we all ask this question at some point, I did too. Regardless of my own impatience or thinking I could perfect the manufacturer'srecommendations, I still followed them. 500 miles <4000 rpm (4200 or so a few times for a second or 2 on the highway) and the service at 600 miles (at a dealership for the warranty concern) and nothing above 6000 rpm until after 1000 miles. My point is just that whether or not I wanted to, I did follow the manual's instructions. It was torture to wait butworth the very short wait to possibly ensure the longevity of my engine.

 

Well to be honest with you thats what i did. I didnt wanna say it out loud here, maybe one of yall will void my warranty.
I took it home from the dealer(they warmed it up for 10 mins) kept it under 6k. I was having fun sorry lol. That was 30 mile trip. I rode it around for the next few days keeping it under 6k. Did an oil change at 400 because my chain was loose as ****. I now have600 miles on it and it seems to love it when i wind it up (maybe thats its nature). Now i take it to red line and i have been since the 400 mile oil change (after its well warmed up of course).Some of you are prolly thinking "**** i wouldnt want to ride his bike" or "Good way to open up problems for yourself" .All i can say is i read alot of stuff on proper breakin vs hard break in.
If it helps i have friends who have litre bikes, who tossed the break in to the wind. 2 of them have well over 10k miles on their bikes but have kept their maint up to snuff.

Whether you choose to believe it or not is up to you. Its your bike, and its your choice.
No matter what you do keep it well maintained and it will last you.

 

I'm not judging here, just want to throw in my $.02, I certainly hope my little Ninja is still humming along at well above 20k miles.

 

Good read but I think that guy might be one of those people that just loves the sound of his own voice but then again if I was as konwledgeable as he I probibly would too. Anyway, now for my $.02, no matter what you choose to do the one constant that you DO NOT want to peg it at one RPM and hold it there for a period of time. Speak to a mechanic, bike guru,or whomeverof any kind and which ever method they perfer, beat-it or baby-it, they will tell you not to hang at any rev for very long. Good luck and let us know.

 

This is precisely the reason I'll never buy a used bike. Every seller insists he babied his bike, but people are all over the place on things like this.
-CCinC

 

i think the best break in is just simple moderation. not too hard not too easy and don't sit at one RPM - engine breaking is essential to proper ring seating.