Has anybody performed the hard break in on their bike? I did it on my last bike, though it was a metric sportbike. I have been trying to do some research on whether or not it is necessary for a cruiser? I haven't found anyone who has done it to a Harley yet. Anyone?

 

I dont think it matters... I just never beet on something tell it has at least 1000 miles and that will not take me long to do.

 

i wouldnt break a bike in hard like that unless i was rebuilding them every weekend

 

I've done a couple, 1st 50 miles on and off the throttle varying your speeds. Shut the bike down after 50 mi. let the motor cool. You'll never have a prblem with with the motor buring oil, allows the valves to seat properly, I wouldn't go hog wild RMP wise on it until you have 1k mi. on it, after that, pretty much ride it like you want to after the first 50 mi. breakin procedure. Ignore the BS'ers who say ride the wheels off it, they don't know **** and would rather spend their time working on HDs not riding them. They tend to get little brown stains on their scivies riding... they'd rather drink beer and wrench...

 

I keep hearing about if you don't do it hard enough the valves and rings won't seal right. What is this BS. Is it after so many miles the friction just goes away and the surfaces never mate? It's like, you screwed up now your valves will never seal, because you babied it.

Wickedcricket, this isn't towards you. I've read the same thing on forums for cars and many different bikes. I don't ride it too hard or too soft. I ride the thing like normal, varying speeds, then after a few hundred miles I drop the oil and put fresh in.

I've also heard a version where they say, if you switch to syn too soon the surfaces will never mate. If so, I'm going to ride naked and rub my body down with Royal Purple. That way if I get in a wreck there won't be any friction AKA road rash on me. J/K. Ooh, and I'll also be waterproof.

 

I know quite a bit of sport bike riders, mostly older guys with liter bikes who live at the track, and they all swear by this method. Here is a link for the info on it..... http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

Ride it like you stole it! The rings are the most important thing to wurry about, and their as broken in as they're going to get by the time you get your scoot. The engines have been run before you ever get it.
My $0.02

 

So according to the info in this link, the break in of the engine is really determined within the first 20 miles. Seeing as my new bike was purchased with 26 miles already on it, getting a good break in is now not within my control?

 

The engine is run in at the factory, dealer puts anywhere from 6 to 10 miles on it (mine had 12), & I've heard the techs run the **** out of it, so it should be mostly broke in...

 

I have broken in many new engines over the years following the manufacture’s recommended procedure and never had one that burned oil or had any other problems. It just seems to me that the people who engineer, build, and have tons of testing data are well founded in their recommendations.