Well, Here is a pic of my new baby... Candy Blue 2006 CBR F4I..I love it!!

I have a few questions, and I need some professional advice. I'd appreciate to hear from any educated and experienced posters on these Q's.

1. The bike has 15km on it. How should I break the Bike in, Easy or Hard? I know the shop said easy, however I read motoman's doc about breaking the bike in hard http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm and now I am totally confused. Any suggestions as to which way works best?

2. I have a garage at the back of the house, and my driveway is about 250ft of crushed gravel. I drove the CBR through the gravel to store it in the garage, and will be doing that throughout the summer. I looked at the tires today and noticed they were dusty and, when I ran my finger across them, they had a layer of dust on them from the crushed gravel. Will this affect my traction on the bike, and cause me to crash? Or should it wear during the start of the ride??

Any advice on these two questions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks to all you intelligent posters that help guys like me!

LiveWire

[IMG]local://upfiles/8778/2147F9B978DB4F429A73A11148A71AA3.jpg[/IMG]

 

#1 I will definately break in my next bike in that manner. I've never had a new 4 stroke engine, but if I did......
#2 Not to worry, it's DUST.

 

Nice bike man! That's the exact same one that I bought about 3 weeks ago, I hope you don't live in WI or we'll be twins. =P Anyway, I broke mine in easy I actually don't think I put it past 8k yet. As far as breaking it in hard, who is this motoman? Do you think hes a trustworthy source for information? I could always make my own webpage and say "DONT BREAK YOUR BIKE IN EASY!!!! DRIVE IT OFF A CLIFF SO IT GETS USED TO CRASHING THAT WAY WHEN YOU DO CRASH IT WILL ALREADY KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE AND IT WILL BE READY FOR IT AND NOT TAKE AS MUCH DAMAGE!!" Now I know thats going a little extreme but you see what I mean right? Look around, ask friends who ride or see if anywhere else online suggests breaking a bike in hard.

Like I said I broke mine in easy I have about 500 miles on it and after the 600 mile maintenance I'm going to start having a little fun with it. =)

Mike

ps What do I know though, I'm just a noob.

 

I'm a bike newbie. Don't even own one yet, but as an auto tech this is what I recommend.

Break in your anyway you want. (Technically after 20 miles and an oil change the engine is broken in anyways.)

After an engine rebuild an engine needs to be properly "broken in." What this intials is running the engine "hard" for 1-30 minutes depending on how well the rebuild was. The thought behind this is ONLY to allow the piston rings to seat against the cylinder walls properly. What you would do is drive WOT until 5-6 RPM (higher on a bike) then let the engine rev down to normal. Let the cylinder cool a few seconds and do it again. After the engine stops smoking, your engine is broken in and you can drive it as you wish.

If It's a new bike I suppose, like an automobile, that you would want to change the oil after the break in process.

Back in the day a longer "break in" period was necessary to allow the camshaft, crankshaft to run properly on the bearings and to prevent piston slap. Todays tolerances in addition to technological advances in lubrication mean you don't have to do this anymore.


At least this is the way it was explained to me from a veteran racer. Again, this is for automobiles, but I assume 4 stroke bikes would apply here as well.

 

Also these guys recommend the same thing, intresting.
http://www.ducati.net/faq.cfm?id=51

I suppose if you felt you wanted to break it in, you could run the rpms up, let it idle down, let the cylinders cool, then do it again but the fact is that Honda has probably already allowed the rings to properly seat. I'm sure on a NEW engine there would be less than 5% or less blowby.


Also since you just bought a new bike could you let me know why you decided the CBR. I have a post "Which one" you could respond to if you'de like thanks.

 

LW,
My opinion is that you should break it in nice and easy. But that's my $0.02. Up until I took it in for the 600 mile "check-up" I very rarely rode the bike over 8,000 rpms. No rabbit starts. Definitely no burnouts, wheelies, etc. And every time I go for a ride, I always let the bike warm up until it reaches it's idle rpms - letting the oil heat up is a good thing! Needless to say I baby the hell out of it. But you know what, the first time I took it in the tech said he couldn't believe how clean the oil was when he drained it and just how clean the bike looked overall. A little TLC goes a long way lemme tell ya. But everyone has their own opinion of how an engine should be broken in. I certainly wouldn't recommend riding it too hard for the first several hundred miles... don't worry, they still go by really quick.

As far as the dust/dirt on the tires goes - I have a rather long gravel driveway myself so I know how you feel. Although I am not concerned with the "dust" (like Jaybird180 said), sometimes there are some large pieces of gravel that will get stuck in the treads. All I do when I hit the street is swerve a little bit the clean the tires off. Nothing too wicked, just a few quick moves back and forth to clean 'em and warm 'em up.

Hope this helped you a bit... Joe

 

if you dont mind how much did you get it for?

 

Thank you all for the replies, and please, keep them coming. If anyone has more info on the dust situation, let me know. I think I will listen to you good folks, and those at Honda, and break it in easy. The Service Tech at honda put the first 20KM on the bike, so I figure he ran it through the gauntlet prior to my arrival ;-). To answer a few questions that arose in this Post:

1. 600f4i - I purchased this bike for one reason - real world use. A 600rr is an unbelievable machine, but after 1hr on the thing, it felt like someone shoved a broomstick up my a**. I wanted a reliable super/sportbike that could do everything. After reading excellent forums like this one, and listening to the experienced people on it, I felt the F4I offered everything I was looking for - reliablilty, performance, comfort and style - and it sure has!

2. SkinnyJ - I live in BC Canada, and got the bike for $10500 Canadian. I looked all over the province, and this seems to be the set price for a brand new, out of the Crate 06 CBRF4I.

3. jjkukla - Thank you for the thread, It's post like yours that I am looking for, real world experience!!!

Keep the post coming ppl, I truly appreciate it!!

 

Honda builds their bikes ready to ride. Just do the oil changes like you are supposed to. The engines have already been run before you even see the bike.

 

For break in, take it easy. Don't do that hard running stuff. Keep it below 6000 rpm and vary the engine speed alot. Go through all of the gears frequently to vary engine speed. If you're running along at 40mph or so, drop it a gear or so and run in that gear for a while. The main thing with break in is you want to properly seat the piston rings, main bearings and valve seats and other internals. No hard acceleration either. Another good bet is to change the oil at 250 miles or so to flush out any metal shavings that are left over from manufacturing processes, and break in. Stick with Honda GN4 and a Honda oil filter too. Then change out again at 600 miles.
As far as the gravel, that stuff will rub right off as soon as you hit the pavement with the tires.