Getting closer to broke in

[Rail32]

400 miles after today's 137 mile ride . Mostly dirt roads with a few miles of trails as they are not open yet till spring thaw deadline april 15 th .
After tweaking air fuel screw I got it all dialed in , well till she is broke in that is .
53 degrees and sunny made for a great ride .

[culcune]

Good to see it is warmish out that way! I am sure the miles will only be racking up from here on out!!

[da4design]

hey guys, what is technically the break in process...are we just looking at miles and then adjusting the valves? noob question indeed lol

[culcune]

You want a sooner than later second oil change (assuming you changed the oil BEFORE your first ride but after running it at idle for a few minutes to warm the oil up to drain more of the shipping crap since it gets thinner when warm. Some members have changed it at 100 miles, some 200? The third change is at 500. Don't quote me, I am writing what I remember we did waaaaaaay back in the mid to late 2000's and I have done with two of my bikes since. Maybe the consensus on the oil change process during break-in has changed? Valve adjustment can't hurt, either.

[MOTOXtreme]

Yup, what culcune said. Oil changes for the first bit is most critical. Its NOT unusual to see metal in the first oil change either. Take care to keep the rpm's fluctuating (not a long stretch of any one certain rpm), and not over rev the engine.... but really, just ride it and have fun. It will break in just fine.

[Rail32]

33 licensed street bikes under my belt . Way too many dirt bikes to count .
I am a true gear head . What I did is warm up engine good when it first ran . Dumped that so called oil in it. Than ran 100 miles with 15-40 and will change oil again at 500. Like my KLR 650 I will be changing oil often . As thumpers abuse the crap out of the cylinder and wall. That's also why I prefer to use Shell Rotella diesel oil . Lots of zinc to lube against sheering of oil. I had zero shavings in first and second oil change , which suprised me . But I am getting clutch chatter . I may have to switch oil and see if that makes chatter go away . I hate to start tearing apart new clutch pack and springs to see if I can make it go away . Sometimes oil does the trick though. I know I have clutch springs that will fit as I never threw away anything from any bike I ever owned . Hence the 25x 50 garage with a basement under 1/3 of it

[chuck]

I had the same problem with the rotella synthetic diesel oil until I changed it with the valvoline 10-40 synthetic motorcycle oil.,now the clutch is operating a lot smoother.

[pistolclass]

Originally Posted by chuck

I had the same problem with the rotella synthetic diesel oil until I changed it with the valvoline 10-40 synthetic motorcycle oil.,now the clutch is operating a lot smoother.

yup that valvoline is good stuff. I use it in my hawk and shifting is good. If you bike shifts good with the diesel stuff stick with it. but if it is picky use the vavoline 4 stroke motorcycle oil.

[BigWeld]

Originally Posted by pistolclass

yup that valvoline is good stuff. I use it in my hawk and shifting is good. If you bike shifts good with the diesel stuff stick with it. but if it is picky use the vavoline 4 stroke motorcycle oil.

But switching BACK from synthetic will make the wear surfaces act funny in the clutch plates, won't it?

[Weldangrind]

To me, the oil comments all stem from the original topic, which is break-in. Moving forward, I'd recommend a valve adjustment by 500 miles for sure. The engine should be stone cold, like overnight before setting valves (I know you know this, Rail; this is general info for others).

[hertz9753]

Sometimes I also have that problem. It's a generic post so you can read it how you want to.