During the breakin period, should you drive softly and carefully or should you mix in any hard rpm driving? This is for a motorcycle but also curious about cars too.
I follow what is said in the owner’s manual, and leave it at that. Usually a varied amount of driving with no continuous long stretches of one single speed. Sounds like normal commuting to me, and my engines don’t seem to use much oil.
Don’t remember what we did with my son’s motorcycle.
Most recommendations are to avoid a steady speed for long periods. The motor can be run at some higher rpm’s (not talking about redlining it) and some low and moderate rpm’s.
What you shouldn’t do is get on the expressway with 10 miles on the bike (or car) and go into cruise mode for then next 200 miles. Since motorcycles don’t have cruise you really don’t have to worry too much. Just don’t run too long at the same rpm.
What I read about in regards to break-in periods was written in 1940 (OK perhaps 1950). What I am getting at is things have changed quite a bit (execpt for what people learned at an early age about automobiles, or what"Good Ole Dad" taught them.)
“Engine break-in period”, gone the way of the “tune up”. This is simple,don’t let the car idle for hours on end (cop car tear downs taught us this), don’t operate the car when it is low on oil, don’t operated the car while it is overheating. Follow these rules and your car could care less how you shift, if you sit at a light in gear or neutral, if you coast in neutral, or if you drive with the windows up and the AC off to save gas.
Some things don’t change. Rings seat best when they are periodically loaded. Occasional brisk acceleration will expand the rings and they will seat better. You want to load the engine but not to an insane degree. Babying the engine slows this process and there is a window of opportunity to properly seat the rings.