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Red-lining during run-in '11 R1200RT

BlackDenis

'11 R1200RT '12 F800GS
I've packed on 1400 km in the three days I had my new 2011 1200RT. I have to wait a couple of weeks to get my first service appointment. The mechanic said try to keep it under 2000 km but to work the engine hard and red-line it.

Any comments?

Rob
 
I've always followed the manuals break-in procedure for the first 300 miles. At that point, I run it like I own it, and plan to ride it. That generally means it gets run pretty hard.

I've never had a 'weak' engine, never had a related failure and my bikes have rarely used but very little oil after about 2,000 miles.

YMMV
 
According to my dealer:

Part of the initial service is to read the peak RPM from the computer and record of how it was driven during break in. If you red-line it before your 600 mile service, or it fails before the break-in period is up is up, you have given BMW all they need to deny your warranty claim.:deal

My two cents:

The people who tell you to ignore the break-in guidelines are not going cover your repair bills. Manufacturers specify break-in procedures for reason and it best to follow them. You may get away with ignoring them, or you may not.

Scott
 
+1 for what Scott says. BMW doesn't need much of an excuse to walk away from a warranty claim, don't give them a reason.
 
+2 what Scott says. Have always followed the manual's guidelines, and have been served well by it.
 
But...

"The biggest factor is that engine manufacturers now use a much finer honing pattern in the cylinders than they once did. This in turn changes the break-in requirements, because as you're about to learn, the window of opportunity for achieving an exceptional ring seal is much smaller with
newer engines than it was with the older "rough honed" engines."

With todays machining the engines need to seat rings quickly.

change your oil every 3000 miles no longer applies because the older carborated cars/bikes did not burn all the fuel and the crankcase oil would get contaminated with fuel and break down the oil. With fuel injection I change my oil every 15,000 miles.


Read the web site linked it is good info. Ride it hard!!!!!:dance
 
According to my dealer:

Part of the initial service is to read the peak RPM from the computer and record of how it was driven during break in. If you red-line it before your 600 mile service, or it fails before the break-in period is up is up, you have given BMW all they need to deny your warranty claim.:deal

My two cents:

The people who tell you to ignore the break-in guidelines are not going cover your repair bills. Manufacturers specify break-in procedures for reason and it best to follow them. You may get away with ignoring them, or you may not.

Scott

1st that I have heard of this. Anyone else verify? My dealer and other BMW techs say, nonsense. But, I would like to verify as I have always redlined my BMWs when new but only after I am sure that the motor is warmed up.
 
And this is new!!!

1st that I have heard of this. Anyone else verify? My dealer and other BMW techs say, nonsense. But, I would like to verify as I have always redlined my BMWs when new but only after I am sure that the motor is warmed up.

With the New Computerized engine mangement system, I believe that a read out of All engine parameters could be read. But the statemant that BMW does this to check to see if they can void your warranty is a load of BS!!!!@:nyah

Scott be careful what you are told by the Dealer they are feeding you something not good!!!
 
I did not say BMW will automatically void you warranty, but should a low mileage mechanical failure occur, and they think you may have abused the engine, I will bet they will look at the service data logs.

I can only speak for my dealer, but what they said during my 600 mile service was: "I need to read the computer and see if you have been nice to it". I took that to mean that if they found a reading of excessive RPM, it would be held against me should anything come up.

Scott
 
Well...

Sounds like your dealer wants to be able to keep you in line better heed there advise as they will control your destiny.

But..

I thought you bought the bike and it was yours???


Dealer should be :kiss you for the business.

Just saying but I guess Mother BMW has got you:nyah
 
2009 RT, I rode it like a stole it...

I don't have vibration issues, the bike is smooth and sweet

After 600miles don't be afraid to test the rev limiter just to make sure it works....

:kiss:kiss:kiss
 
Rev limiter

Yes, indeed it works. I rode one of the local mega-twisties in 1st gear yesterday. Kind of jerky because of the low ratio, and with the ear plugs in, it was great. Probably offended the populace a bit but it was necessary:nyah
 
IMHO - it's your bike, so do whatever you want with it. I have this silly belief that the engineers who wrote the break-in recommendations might know more about the engine and how it should be broken in then some dude with a website.. but that's just me. I'm funny that way.
 
RPM procedure

changes on the 2010 models and newer allow you a much higher RPM during "run-in" then prior model by a long shot. Don't know why anyone would feel the need to over step the Manual's break-in guides. 5500 RPM right out of the gate, after 130 miles go to 6500, with a few more miles they tell you 7500 and before 500 miles they say max RPM. Beats the heck out of old days. Plus with the tall 6th gear you can pretty much go >100MPH area after first start-up.
 
I'm normally inclined to be on the same page you are Don. However, my experience speaks volumes to me about breaking in a BMW twin, since my first 11RS - the demo bike - in May 93. Prior to that bike, I always followed the break-in recommendations religiously.

Following the Sunday "demo day" of the introduction, I rode that demo bike home for good [don't ask....:)] on Tuesday. I was asked by the dealer to go help with the demo rides that Sunday, because the two employees that were supposed to do the intro day/demo rides were in a car crash and hospitalized, I rode up and familiarized myself with the bike Saturday afternoon and first rode the bike that Saturday evening. Long story short, during the demo rides, there were "those riders" that simply wouldn't follow our guidelines of following the rpm ranges we asked them to. Figuring the damage was done, if there was any, I just rode the bike like I intended to ride it from that point on.

After 160,000 miles, the only engine problem I had with that bike was the porous head issue. I had a u-joint failure but other than that - I had no problems at all with that bike. It was vibration free, used no oil, got decent mileage and was an awesome bike. When Don Cameron swapped the body work off it onto a late 95 RS, I took off the next morning, rode over to old US666 [renamed US191 now], up to Alpine, AZ and back down to Deming on US180. That's 400 or so miles up the best motorcycling road in this area. Needless to say, though I wasn't running to redline - and wouldn't - I rode the bike then, the same as I ride the bike I'm on today. We changed the oil that next morning and I headed home to Clovis.

For the record, Cameron's son Rex was the wrench that worked on my bikes back then. He told me he thought I was headed for problems when he found out how I rode the bike. Every time I headed that way for tires or whatever, he was always surprised the bike was just getting better each time he rode it. When I sold the bike several years later, I believe it had upwards of 150,000 miles on it and was also - rock solid. Again, no engine problems at all.

The last two twins, including the one I'm on now, may or may not have been ridden that way from break-in or not, though I suspect the 1100 RT-P I owned was probably ridden pretty hard from the start - again, no engine related issues, smooth as glass.

I personally have never had an engine failure on BMW twins that could be related to how the bike was broken in [porous head issues on two new bikes have nothing to do with break-in]. That doesn't mean running them to redline early is a good idea and I don't subscribe to that. What I do subscribe to is as noted above [and I'm not telling anyone to do this - it's what works for me], follow the guidelines for the first 3 or 400 miles, change oil and ride the bike like you're normally going to ride it.

I believe technology has taken us past the "old standard" of break-in recommdations that BMW has stood by for as long as I can remember, just as the "warm-up" procedure changed from the first Oilheads. I believe that BMW simply hasn't really reviewed that same break-in recommendation as the engine design has evolved.

Lastly, let me re-state, this is how I break-in my BMW twins. I DO NOT recommend anyone else follow my lead here. It's simply what I do and what has workd well for me.
 
I think the fact that there are so many people supporting both sides (or a middle point) of the argument indicates that the engineering is tight enough that it really doesn't matter the way it used to. The experiences people cite in these discussions are nearly always "I've done X and the bike was fine." You don't see much, if any, "I did Y and the bike crapped out."

It's also going to be damned hard to tie any issue that occurs thousands of miles later to a break in.

We need someone with a Dyno to buy three and test the hell out of them for 10,000 miles.
 
I was told on my RT to just vary the rpm -don't hold a speed and rpm for an extended time. I understood that to mean (for no reason other than I tend to break my bikes in gently) don't play near the redline. I figure machinery is less apt to break if treated gently. Maybe it doesn't matter, but it's worked on other bikes. Which isn't meant as a criticism of those who do it differently; whatever floats your boat.

I've always backed off from dealer recommendations a bit. He is, after all, the one who wants to sell me a new bike. One of the reasons my oil almost never sees 3k.
 
Have you guys seen the video of the factory new bike test before the bike is wrapped up for shipping? Doesn't look like they tech is babying the brand new engine as he goes up and down through the gears with the bike on a dyno?

A friend toured the Ducati factory in Italy and saw the same kind of thing. Each bike was brought to redline in each gear in its pre-shipping test. I guess they want anything that is going to break to break then, not not later on in the bike's life.

I try to keep engine RPM varying on new bikes. I also try to not put the bike on the freeway until it's got 250~300 miles and several heat cycles behind it. My favorite break in roads are the twisties that require lots of shifting back and forth between 2nd and 3rd. I don't lug the engine, nor do I bounce it off the rev limiter.
 
I toured the BMW factory in SC several years ago. I went through the entire facility and the last thing they did before the convertibles went out the door was put them in a booth and run them for a period of time at high speed on rollers (we were told 130 MPH). If they run their cars at high speed with a totally green engine, I would think the bikes would be built equally as well.
 
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