Tire Break In

No, I am not kidding.

I was reading a brochure from Dunlop, and they actually said to be gentle for about 100 miles.

So I read more and it has to do with you getting comfortable as well as the "preservatives" from transport and storage coming off.

So I was curious if all manufacturers recommend it? Also how many people do it?

Thanks

New tires, I am ready for Branson

i did it. dunlop 220s on an 1150ra.

but im not one to go dump my bike and then think, 'well i guess i better back off.' im more cautious and i think, 'good, i didnt dump my bike.

i asked this question a while back and got good responses. one dude posted about how he rode home and had a get-off due to the mold compound. it waqs in a turn he'd taking a zillion times, and this time, whoosh, he went down. youll read various things about people scrubbing their tires with sand paper and stuff. here's what i did...

i rode home almost totally upright, very cautiously. then i washed the tires a couple times with soap and water. this did almost nothing. then i rode them carefully, but not overly-cautiously for 100 miles. (some people swear by a thermal cycling to break them in, 20 hard minutes/miles, 20 easy minutes/miles, repeat a few times. im skeptical about this, but whatever makes you happy.) my biggest worry was the mold release compound making them slippery. so i rode upright for a bit, 10 miles or so, then i did some careful turns, and basically over the course of a day of city/suburb riding i took my time increasing my lean angle on turns. the point was to avoid being wayyyy leaned over riding only on a small contact patch and 100% mold compound coated rubber in a situation requiring maximum friction force. so i'd go over a little further each time, thinking, 'im half on scrubbed rubber, half on mold compound slickened rubber.' then at red lights i'd think, 'is slickened a word?'

100 miles is often quoted, and i think it's just to be sure you get time on the bike, you get it leaned over a few times, and the tires get properly scuffed before you ride aggressively. i'll bet i was safe after 93 miles.

tire breakin

I take it easy for 200 miles, not on speed, but on my lean angles.

I'm not so sure it's as much mileage as it is scuffing up the entire tire profile.

There is definitely some greasy oil stuff that the tire has when new that will let you dump it almost instantly out of the shop if you crank it over.

You need to slowly lean it at increasing angles until you get them scuffed up. I actually have a twisty road with a really rough surface about a mile from my house (Tower Hill Road in Cumberland RI) that is PERFECT for breaking in tires. Hard hairpins uphill so you can crank it over at relative low speeds until you get them scuffed up.

I have a buddy who sits in his garage with the bike on the center stand and he hand scuffs the outer edges with some 80 grit sandpaper. I don't know if this gets those oils or "presevatives" out, but you definitely want to ease in a new set of tires.

I saw a guy dump coming out of the shop last summer when I was picking up parts one Saturday. He had new tires put on and literally dumped it in front of Dunbar's in Brockton turning onto Route 28 and hopping on it to jump in traffic. Went out from under him like he was on a oily truck exit ramp in the first minutes of rain. Whooosh! Rider down.

From Bridgestone:

Break-in Period

In order for your new tire(s) to provide optimum performance, tires should be ridden very cautiously for the first 100 miles in order for the tread surface to be ÔÇ£Scuffed-InÔÇØ and work properly. Directly after new tires are mounted, sudden acceleration, maximum braking and hard cornering must be avoided. This will allow the rider to adjust to the ÔÇ£FeelÔÇØ and handling characteristics of the new tire and for the new tire to be ÔÇ£Scuffed-InÔÇØ correctly in order to achieve optimum grip level.
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Makes me wonder what the racers do...I'd like to apply for the job of "Tire Scrubbing-in Guy"

I just put a new BT020 (front) on the other day. Living in a fairly rural area I used the first few miles of it's break-in to weave back and forth across the road to wear off some of the goop. After that I headed out on a nice twisty loop that happens to run about 90 miles door to door on a nice smooth road with a coarse texture. I know the road fairly well and what it feels like on scrubbed tires so I use a "seat of the pants" approach to increasing lean angles.
The caveat here is that I have approaching 150,000 total miles on motorcycles, (40K on this bike) and I ride somewhere at least three days a week rain or shine, so I have a pretty good sense of "feel" for when something is wrong with the bike. Looking in the classifieds for used bikes I see a lot of them with a couple thousand miles per year, that first 100 miles is a fairly significant portion of some riders annual totals.

Steve

Metzler says:

After fitting, the tyre should not be used with maximum power or hard cornering and not over 60 mph for the first 100-150 miles. This is needed to allow the tyre/rim assembly to adjust properly and most of all to let the compound find his optimum working conditions .
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Got that "not over 60mph" part?

Yeah, right....

Steve

I read an article some time ago that pointed out that an investigation of motorcycles involved in accidents, a high number were brand new motorcycles with obviously new tires or new tires or older motorcycles. Obviously, there are other causes of accidents but there is no question that new tires need to be scrubbed in 150 to 200 miles is about right to accomplish this.

Brad,

Yes. You should take it easy on a new tire for the first hundred miles or so.

knary said:

Brad,

Yes. You should take it easy on a new tire for the first hundred miles or so.

Click to expand...

Don't forget to check your tire pressure pretty frequently as well. Sometimes, it take a bit for the tire to really get seated and hold air well.

For me, it's mostly about lean angles. I ride the bike slowly, gradually increasing lean angle until the tires are pretty well scuffed. After about a hundred miles, the tire has been through a couple heat/cool cycles, the tread is scuffed pretty thoroughly and the tires are ready for real riding.

For you guys that are going to track day, make sure your tires have some miles on them before you really try to push them out there.

KBasa said:

Don't forget to check your tire pressure pretty frequently as well. Sometimes, it take a bit for the tire to really get seated and hold air well.

Click to expand...

Excellent point!

I thought it wasn't so much that they leak when first installed, but that the tire stretches a bit when brand new when its being broken in. This stretching means that the same quantity of air is occupying a larger space, so there is less pressure.

Next we'll have to talk to Brad about riding at different elevations and the effect that has on tire pressure.

Today I got a whole new feeling when I jumped on the brakes cause someone cut me off at a light this morning.

Light just changed to green for me
Look right and left
Proceed with caution
Out of my right side I see a minivan
Seems to be coming awfully fast
Squeeze brakes hard
Tires slid a little more than I like
Stopped about three feet from where she came through the red light

The thing I was most worried about, "Please let me remember to put my feet down [bold]after[/bold] I stop"

Only changed the front one, but since 70% of braking force comes from that, it is pretty important.

Oh yeah, there was a soccerr ball sticker on the back window.

Took the long way home to scuff them up a little bit more. So I have about 60 miles.

All is good though.

You can either take it easy for a while, or scuff the tires intentionally, like racers do, if you are going to need the traction immediatelely.

LTOwner said:

You can either take it easy for a while, or scuff the tires intentionally, like racers do, if you are going to need the traction immediatelely.

Click to expand...

Gravel roads work well.

Tire Breakin

Good to know about gravel. In south Texas we've got hundreds of miles of gravel roads and lots more dirt roads, plus we've got county roads that are made of that rough rock pavement.

Wesley's bleach white will get the mold release off the tires. Then it is just a matter of scuffing them up. I have 1000 miles on my track day tires, and I will most likely have 2500 or so by the time May 8 comes around. Wesley's will not leave a residue behind, just clean rubber.

Equally important to scuffing is that the tires go through several heat cycles. I found my last set of tires (Michelin Pilot Roads) didn't really stabilize for about 100 miles and 4 or 5 heat cycles, although they were "scuffed" at about 25. (good ride on a NP one way road which allowed edge to edge "scuffing".