Noob on the Forum, break in question

[ZXfreak]

Hi all, I'm a noob here, just picked up the 14 last week. Awesome bike. I asked on the other forums, so i thought I'd ask here. Did anyone here break in their bike hard from the beginning? I came across this web page from this guy motoman-
www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
His advice on break in goes totally against what the manual says, but it does seem to make sense. Comments anyone?

[ajtmex]

Ya, it seems to make perfect sense, I broke my 10 in half n half and it's a monster. It definately competes with every other 1000cc's out there and then some. It eats GSXR's, CBR1000, and R1's for breakfast any day. A couple of guys I know broke theirs in motoman all the way and say that it actually has a stronger engine than some of my friends that have the same bike.

[scavenger_9]

My side of the story, i just follow the break in procedure set by the manufacturer. Done it with all my bikes, no problems arose. But it all depends on your preferences and how you look at it.

[drsmig]

I have never followed manufacturer break in instructions and have never had a problem with any of my bikes. I know a lot of guys are breaking in their bikes ala motoman both on the dyno and on the street. I can't beleive that keeping it under 4000 rpm for 600 miles is really making any difference to the life of the engine. Ride it like it's going to get ridden.

[Rikkuss]

i asked the dealer about this. they said the zx-14 is good to go out of the box. just observe the first 600 mile maintainence and dont get to crazy till after 600 miles. these bikes dont start makeing full power till after 1200 mile. so 1200 miles id say its fully broken.

dealer said because you dont nessary have to have hammer the motor up in the revs like the 6r or 10 r to make power the breakin is not as critical.

some breakin time does need to be observed. i use the 5 heat cycle method. thats fully warming up the bike riding around town then let it cool completely down over night then repete 4 more.

[faa_engineer]

Besides riding a ZX-11 to work and back, I run a low 8 second dragster here in Sacramento. My version of breaking in a new engine is to high idle it for a few minutes then take it to the track and run it hard. My theory is....yes there is a certain amount of minor breaking in happening within those first few minutes, but for the most part I believe that everything in that engine has begun the process of wearing out the instant that it is first started.

My $0.02

Mike

[BlueBomber14]

Basically I followed the manufacturers method for one reason only!! So I could honestly go to my dealer who is a friend and say Yes I followed the break in to the letter if something had happened during that time I and he would have been able to tell kawi we followed there exact directions.

As far as how a bike performs from different break ins I have the same opinion as I do about cars and any other motorized toy they are all different out of the box I don't care if they do come from the same assembly line and they were serial # 001 and 002 they are going to run different (luck of the draw.) All the way down to part castings and parts made by other vendors every bike is a conglomeration of mismatched parts and the lucky bike that gets the majority of the best fitting best made parts is going to be the best running etc. etc. etc.....

I do lean a bit toward the if it makes it past the first few hundred miles it's probably a go from there but there is a certian amount of seating wear and matching going on in any engine or motor when it's first run so at least give it a chance to match up before you go and throw 10,000 rpm vibrations at it.