Quick Question about speed

[JasonD]

How long should I wait until I routinely run the bike at 80MPH for 30min-1hour at a time? How many miles should the bike have and is it ok for the bike to run that speed anyways? Just curious because I have to take the freeway to work and it's about 45 minutes away and speed limit is 75 the whole way. Thanks

[TragicImage]

you should follow the GS's break in schedule.

And that is no more than 5500 RPM for 500 miles.  6th gear, should give you about 70 or so... bumping it up probably won't hurt it.


However, it says to vary your engine speed in the owners manual.....

[phire]

How long should I wait until I routinely run the bike at 80MPH for 30min-1hour at a time? How many miles should the bike have and is it ok for the bike to run that speed anyways? Just curious because I have to take the freeway to work and it's about 45 minutes away and speed limit is 75 the whole way. Thanks

Well, according to the manual, it says to keep the rpms below 5,000 for the first 500 miles, below 8,000 for the first 1,000 miles and below 10,000rpms over 1,000 miles. You can run the bike at 80MPH just fine if you're still under break-in, just make sure you vary the speed and rpms very frequently. It can get quite tedius at times on the interstate but it's for the good of your bike! But, for example, cruise for a few minutes at 85 then drop 'er down to 70-75 for a couple minutes and back up again. Keep the rpm's varied constantly during break-in. Other than that, and if you're following the manual's reccomended break-in, you're just fine to cruise the interstates.

[mike_mike]

I don't even know if you can do 80mph and still be within the break-in guidelines.

[Egaeus]

That's like asking which cola is the best.  Opinions differ, and they're all religious about them.  

The contrary opinion

[JasonD]

Everybody is different but everyone is the same. Whether they say keep the RPMs low or Rev the hell out of it, everyone says vary the RPMs on a regular basis.

[phire]

I don't even know if you can do 80mph and still be within the break-in guidelines.

Depends which stage of the break-in you're in, according to the manual.

[FearedGS500]

ohhh .. hrmmm . i did not read that part about the .. keep it under 8k  and under 10k ... i wanted tell  my 500 mile mark and got on it ! shes got 7600 miles on it (bought it in nov. so yes  in 6months i put 7500 miles on my bike )  i bought it brand new out of the crate with 2 miles on it . these bikes are troopers . me ,stray,css ( texas memers off here ) all went down to big bend . when we got on I-10 we hit 90 and ran 90 from gas stop to gas stop (150 mile gaps or so ) and never had a problem . so it will hold up

[tussey]

And that is no more than 5500 RPM for 500 miles.

Ugh....gag me with a spoon. 

[TragicImage]

And that is no more than 5500 RPM for 500 miles.

Ugh....gag me with a spoon. 

you're telling me.... I'm at 220 miles, and its getting really hard to keep it below 5.5k

[mike_mike]

I rode around my suburbia neighbourhood probably 25 times a week just to pile the miles on.

under 5 grand the bike is not very fun, and neither is all of that shifting and down shifting.. have to down shift twice even before the bike starts slowing down 

[werase643]

is there a break in period for cars?

WFO til you see god

these engines are bulletproof
they are air cooled and the tollerances are pretty loose....due to being air cooled

what would be the difference....50k vs 70k before the compression goes
and there are probably only a handfull of people here that actually keep their GS that long

[LimaXray]

at 55 MPH I'm damn close to 5k in 6th gear, I doubt I'd be able to do 65 and be under 5k. I was just planning not to use the highways until after 500 miles.

and yes, cars have a break in procedure too, it's usually the same as for the GS: keep RPMs varied and low, no WOT, no racing the engine, blah blah blah for the first 1k miles.  Now, I bought a new Kia a year and a half ago, and let me tell you, those first 1000 miles were TOTAL HELL for that car, I was constantly hard on it just because I'm an ass hole and didn't want to follow the manual and figured I'd try the 'alternate' method.  Now with some 24k miles everything is fine, and I actually get better gas mileage then what Kia advertised.  Did my driving it like it was a formula 1 car for the first 1k miles have anything to do with it? idk 

For right now, I'm breaking in my GS as per the manual, but I'll probably give up on that after a few hundred miles. 

[FearedGS500]

no racing tell 1k whattt .. wow .. i did all the wrong things with my gs but it still runs like a champ .. i think about ....... 600 i was at the drag strip 

[phire]

I think after your first few hundred miles, you're pretty much alright to do whatever you want. Like Motoman said, after the first ~50 miles, the rings are pretty much worn in as much as they're gonna get. They'll only wear in a slight bit more for the next 2,000 miles... so either way, whether you do it the manual way or not, after a few hundred miles, it's pretty much all broken in. At least that's the way I see it.

[galahs]

If it hasn't been done yet, I'd be making sure you've dropped the original fill oil first.

Get rid of any initial break in bits and pices that have come off your engine.

Also, you should be fine doing it as long as you vary your revs every 10 minutes of so, otherwise the pistons wont bed properly. You'll glaze your piston falls.

Using the engine compression to slow your speed every once in a while is a great way of getting your piston rings to bed in nicely!