- break-in is mostly about bedding your rings - the rest are functional things that need to be checked for sure - but bedding your rings is what is going to provide you your compression...this is why you hone the bore, it acts like a file wearing down the high spots on the new rings-coarse hone coarse file, fine hone fine file...the rings themselves have little spring tension so the compression results from the ring-cylinder contact and cylinder pressure...my grandfather always reckoned the first 20 or so miles were the most critical, he said you have to bed the rings in before the hone is worn off and to ride the machine hard through the lower gears, get it done quick, a short sharp shock...no autobahn as it doesnt load up the motor, i always look for a twisty range where i can load the engine up through the gears, plenty of throttle and deacceleration with a round trip of about 250km...not enough throttle, not enough ring pressure and your hone is gone before your rings are bedded, new hone and new rings-so throttle and engine brake your heart out
- a good mate of mine uses a variation on this, after warmup he rides hard for about 5 mins then stops and cools right down, he repeats this 5 or 6 times, then goes for a long blast
- change your oil and filter during this process, the more the better
- this runs against the conventional 'slow and easy' wisdom where you take it slow and easy for specific periods and rev limits...personally i think this can lead to flat spots and rattles focused around the recommended rev limits...
- naya, this is a topic that has often generated a lot of emotion over a few beers between and within groups of hotheaded leadfoots