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Some years back I was given the chance to tour Triumph's latest factory at Hinckley (bloody expensive day out, actually - I fell in love with a new model on the production line and it cost me over £8k to satisfy my lust!) and was seriously impressed by it all (as you would hope). The best bit was watching the new machines being 'tested' on a rolling road. Every single bike bike off the line was fitted with a 'slave' tank and seat and then wheeled into a dyno room and started. Then, after a brief period of idling while the tester performed some routine checks, it was taken to the r

we invest a lot of dosh in our bikes and want to look after them, but I think Honda engines are quite 'unburstable' these days. The running in process has relaxed over the past 30 years due to improved manufacturing. If it was a Harley,or a bullet I'd run it in very carefully, but think of how many new Honda demo's get thrashed from day one, and go on to cover big miles being very reliable.

Full throttle yes, but I would be loathed to use it under heavy/full load, but it's not my bike so it's not my call. Several of the bikes I've had since new I've always been careful when breaking them in, and several times when they've been in for a service I've been told that they have very smooth and sweet running engines, coincidence, maybe? My dad gave me a good piece of advice when breaking in a new engine etc., When on a long flat or downhill stretch of road, lift the throttle momentarily to allow it to be unloaded as it helps to draw some oil into the upper cylinder and lubric

Interesting.. My dad had an old Ford once that needed similar treatment to get him to work!

I remember many years ago reading that every Ferrari engine was turned over by an electric motor for 80 hours before being fitted in the car, so the new owner didn't have the bother of having to break the new engine in!

I too went to the original Hinckley Triumph factory in1997 and saw the new bikes being run up, it was quite quick and was to check everything worked, gears etc as much as anything else. Yes, and I too bought a Triumph, the first of three so far!

I just got one of these Profi lasers, £31 from Busters. Just put it on the rear sprocket and the laser was shining down directly on to the top of one of the link plates Rotated the wheel slightly and the laser dot ran up the entire length of the chain in exactly the same place. Dead on, don't know if I'm happy or disappointed

My opinion, for what its worth. Sympathetic riding a new engine to me is a bad thing. You really need to maintain pressure on those rings to get a good seal. If you google running in there are hundreds of opinions out there. I can only go by what I know and have seen. When we fit new pistons/rings to freshly honed cylinders on planes you have to work it hard, or it polishes the bores and you get high oil useage. I have had to replace all the rings and re-hone cylinders when the customer was 'sympathetic'. We eventually invested in a test cell to work the engines hard properly befor

Getting a 'good' engine was the holy grail of all motorists and motorcyclists back in the day. One that was made just after the old, worn machine tools had been replaced or one that (quite by chance) happened to have the valve timing exactly spot on.. 'Good' engines were something to treasure. An Eastbourne lad had a '68 T120 and everyone who rode it agreed, it was the fastest, smoothest example of the breed in any of our experience. Modern manufacturing means every engine should be 'good' but production line tolerances must still exist? And, every now and then, those tolerances mu

Probably, yes. "Smooth" and "sweet running" are subjective terms and I'm unaware of any mechanism by which "smoothness" can be affected by the running in process. Smoothness comes from factors related to balance of the moving parts, plus coupling modes from the engine into the frame - i.e. it is principally about the design of the engine. As for "sweet running", I'm not sure what that is, but - if it exists at all - it is surely more about good fuelling, etc. Still - this is only my understanding. Happy to change my mind if someone can offer a good account of what exactly goes on.