BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

What is the recommended method of breaking in a new boxer engine?

I imagine there are going to be differences in the BMW official method and methods used by experienced breaker inners.

I will be picking my new R1200R Saturday and want to know.

Mark

I have always done what the book says, and have had no issues, or oil consumption problems.
I think riding sensible, not flogging the crap out of your bike, would be OK.
We will wait for more theories.

I think BMW has pretty good experience at motorcycle engines after 83 years, so I followed the manual's instructions to keep it below 4,000 rpms for the first 600 miles and to try to ride as much as possible on winding, hilly roads. The dealer also told me that I should aim for as many heating and cooling cycles as possible, which apparently helps the rings and cylinder liners mesh together as well as possible. After the 600-mile service, mine seems to be running very well.

FWIW, it can't hurt to run the engine "gently" at first, and the 600 miles comes up pretty quickly in any case.

Ride gently the first 600 miles. Increase revs beyond the break-in range as you close on 1000 miles. Afterwards, flog it a good bit on a regular basis until you hit 12k miles. Switch to synthetic at 12k miles and you're in for long and happy motoring with extremely low oil burn.

"I think BMW has pretty good experience at motorcycle engines after 83 years, so I followed the manual's instructions to keep it below 4,000 rpms for the first 600 miles and to try to ride as much as possible on winding, hilly roads. The dealer also told me that I should aim for as many heating and cooling cycles as possible, which apparently helps the rings and cylinder liners mesh together as well as possible. After the 600-mile service, mine seems to be running very well.

FWIW, it can't hurt to run the engine "gently" at first, and the 600 miles comes up pretty quickly in any case."_________________

My hand book doesn't say anything about after 600 miles. Does that mean there is no rev limit ( well theres red line ) now and just drive normally?
Mark

After reading so many of you guys writting, "It can't hurt to run gently..." Please read what I do and go to the link below and read every word.

THIS IS WHAT I DO......STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX WITH ZERO MILES ON THE ODO

NOTE: max rpm means redline. AND, you have to have a good street that allows you to do this.

From 2nd gear through 4th gear I do 9 runs to near redline as follows.....

Three 1/2 Throttle runs from 50% of engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

Three 3/4 Throttle runs from 50% of engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

Three Full Throttle runs from 70% of engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

This addresses the rings & cylinder walls. So to address the tranny & bearings & anything else I continue to vary rpm's staying below 6k for the first 500 miles. I'll go thru the gears letting the tach blip over 6k if I feel like having some fun, I just don't cruise around over 6k. What I mean by varying the rpm's is just not staying at the same rpm for more than 10 miles or so. I'll go up or down 500 to 1000 rpm, whatever. After 500 miles I pretty much do what I want.

I change the oil & oil filter within the first 50 miles. I DO NOT use synthetic oil for the first 3,000 miles. After that I change oil & filter every 5k to 6k miles. Don't be duped into changing your oil every 3k miles !

This is a slight modification to another procedure.
GO HERE TO GET MORE INFO ON THIS TYPE OF BREAK-IN PROCEDURE.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

SWEEEETTTT.....

Ric wrote:THIS IS WHAT I DO......STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX WITH ZERO MILES ON THE ODO

NOTE: max rpm means redline. AND, you have to have a good street that allows you to do this.

From 2nd gear through 4th gear I do 9 runs to near redline as follows.....

Three 1/2 Throttle runs from 50% of engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

Three 3/4 Throttle runs from 50% of engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

Three Full Throttle runs from 70% of engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

This addresses the rings & cylinder walls. So to address the tranny & bearings & anything else I continue to vary rpm's staying below 6k for the first 500 miles. I'll go thru the gears letting the tach blip over 6k if I feel like having some fun, I just don't cruise around over 6k. What I mean by varying the rpm's is just not staying at the same rpm for more than 10 miles or so. I'll go up or down 500 to 1000 rpm, whatever. After 500 miles I pretty much do what I want.

I change the oil & oil filter within the first 50 miles. I DO NOT use synthetic oil for the first 3,000 miles. After that I change oil & filter every 5k to 6k miles. Don't be duped into changing your oil every 3k miles !

This is a slight modification to another procedure.
GO HERE TO GET MORE INFO ON THIS TYPE OF BREAK-IN PROCEDURE.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I've read that this works pretty well, too. It is interesting that the emphasis seems to be on heating up/cooling off and varying the engine speed to get the rings seated in the cylinder linings. On my last BMW I actually rode it home (in a driving thunderstorm) at highway speeds for two hours, a definite no-no. But it didn't seem to make much difference. The bike ran beauifully. On this one I followed BMW's recommendations as closely as possible. The bike runs beautifully. I know people who just ride them right out of the box without any regard for a "break-in" period. Their bikes seem to be running pretty well, too.

From all of this I am beginning to think it might not really matter all that much what one does. Of course, YMMV.

I run in all my Beemers the way Ric above does. I also switch to Synthetic at 4 to 6 K miles.

The reason it doesn't seem to matter is, the mfg gives the engine a blast through the revs at the end of the assembly line, and/or your dealer gives it a blast down the road after uncreating or initial setup when you buy it.

I once had a bike engine run away on me. I had just rebuilt the engine; new bore and everything new. On the first start it pegged the tach and it took roughly 30 seconds to get turned off (a weird cable hang). After that I broke the bike in gently.

Anyway, the bike progressively became hard to start when after some 1,000 miles it just simply didn't start. I dismantled the heads to find glazed cylinders and stuck rings.

DeansBMW,
what do you think of the r1200r...will you get one...etc?

RIC,
is that a 2cycle engine?....cow-a-sockee mach lll or similar?


Ecuse me ric, I see you are a 2 stoker from way back...sorry. I was too... One of my first bikes was a Yammy 350 w/ stingers....fun ...but left me on the road 3x w/ elec probs. Bought a R90/6....never looked back

Racegun, I currently have a R1200ST, same engine. My next bike will prolly be a R1200S HP and perhaps a R1200GS.

I just got back from my 600 mile check up. While I was there I asked the mechanic what now as far as breaking in the bike. He said just ride it. I DID on the way home and while there wasn't alot of good road or time to find any I DID notice that accellerating from 4000 to red line definatly pushed my butt from the front of the seat to the back. A nice amount of thrust. One dandy bike.

Mark

celticus wrote:I just got back from my 600 mile check up. While I was there I asked the mechanic what now as far as breaking in the bike. He said just ride it. I DID on the way home and while there wasn't alot of good road or time to find any I DID notice that accellerating from 4000 to red line definatly pushed my butt from the front of the seat to the back. A nice amount of thrust. One dandy bike.

Mark

Can anyone compare the power of accel of the r1200r to a r1200gs?

Racegun wrote:RIC,
is that a 2cycle engine?....cow-a-sockee mach lll or similar?


Ecuse me ric, I see you are a 2 stoker from way back...sorry. I was too... One of my first bikes was a Yammy 350 w/ stingers....fun ...but left me on the road 3x w/ elec probs. Bought a R90/6....never looked back

Good eye...the engine pictured above is my 1974 Kawasaki H2...750 "Widow Maker".



Here's my Yamaha....fully ported, milled, squished, reeded, 34mm carbs, F1 chambers, etc, etc.....



Hey dude....get ya a 2-stroke and join us at http://www.kawasakitriplesworldwide.com .....
visit the message board. A great bunch of 2-stroker / wrenchers.
Our ninth annual Deal's Gap meet is May 15 ~ 20, 2007. About 100 2-strokes will be there !! We get the whole hotel. It's a hoot !!!!


For further drooling....my 71 H1


Why we love 2-strokes...

while i like those smokers and they are a bit faster in the straights, i like the way i school em in the corners....they just seem to leave a bit more humble...LOL

Comparing the power of the R1200GS and R1200R, the stock RWHP on the GS is 82 to 84, the stock RWHP of the R1200R is appx. 100, the torque on both engines is about the same.

Adding a FULL Remus exhaust to both brings the RWHP on the GS to the hi 80's and the R1200R to 106.

The R1200R is a lot faster in every way and you will average about 48 MPG.

Woo Hoo, just bought a Black R1200R and will pick it up in about a week!Question is: My drive from the dealer is about an hour(60 miles) on the highway. Should I plan a backroad way of getting home, or should I just go on the highway and vary the speed and gear? I like to avoid highway travel during break-in, but I'm thinking if I don't keep a steady speed and change between gears it'll be OK.

TIA,
Kevin

TAG-Caver wrote:Woo Hoo, just bought a Black R1200R and will pick it up in about a week!Question is: My drive from the dealer is about an hour(60 miles) on the highway. Should I plan a backroad way of getting home, or should I just go on the highway and vary the speed and gear? I like to avoid highway travel during break-in, but I'm thinking if I don't keep a steady speed and change between gears it'll be OK.

TIA,
Kevin

Be fine either way - keep the rev's basically below 4K for the first 600 miles (a few excursions into 5K are ok - but no sustained riding there..) and it should break in quite nicely.

Mine used that regime - and after 600 miles it was using little oil. After I took a few days in West By-God Virginia finding what the lean angles were on switchbacks (lots of up/down/engine-braking) - it stopped using any oil. Hasn't used any since then - and it's at 9,300 now.

I've rebuilt a number of engines, both 4-stroke and 2-stroke. I've also been back into the engines to see how things were going with the rings and cylinder. I will always do the procedure outlined in the following link. After that procedure, if new bearings were installed, I will continue to vary speed and not run over 5k rpm for about 600 miles in oder for new bearings to break-in.

I highly recommend the following: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

More info...
http://www.ntnoa.org/enginebreakin.htm