[Ducati] Re: Breaking in (Rich Roberts)

[Philippe Coulon]

A while ago I had a (basic) class on tribology (science of contact).
One topic was  breaking in, teacher opinion (and he made it clear he 
could be prooved wrong in the future).
Modern car engines are NEARLY all broken in at delivery.
Motorbikes engine not so sure....
So follow manufacturer recommendation (go slow) and at the end of break 
in period use vehicle at max speed under  max load to harden the 
surfaces. This will finish break in.
Problem especially with motorbike is where to do it  and it is dangerous !
One good substitute is accelerating throtlle full open and reach max RPM
You will NEVER find it in a user manual (speed the bike at 170mph with 
passager for 5 seconds to finish break in...) for fear of litigation.
One good starting point is wikipédia on the subject.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribology
I even mentions lubrification (no I am not  saying you will know what 
the best oil is).
Philippe

ducati-request at ducati.net a écrit :

>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 05:29:39 -0800 (PST)
> From: Rich Roberts <bigredxrunner at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Ducati] Breaking in
> To: Ducati Owners Group <ducati at ducati.net>
> Message-ID: <20061226132939.54544.qmail at web84202.mail.re3.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
> Alot of that breaking in procedure went the way of CI liners. I am not sure what it takes to break in nicasil. ALOT. And modern rings are damn hard. I think way too much is made of it. I ride like I would ride taking it easy for the first 500 miles not so much for the piston rings liner but cause of all the other stuff that needs to sort of be run in. there is alot more to a motorcycle than just the lings etc. So I run it up through the gears taking it alittle easy at first for all that other stuff as well. And then go back and check everything over,  Ducatis have typically had horrendous leakdown numbers even when meticulously rebuilt and making damn good horsepower. The first time I did a leakdown test I thought I had mucked something up good, only to be told commonplace by some noteworthy engine builders. Then again I would guess a Ducati is pretty hard on rings, big pistons tend to be that way. I remember back in the day Ferracci spent alot of time paying attention to
>  rings. Well the point is gradually working up the rpms is as much for the whole bike as it is for rings etc. I doubt there is much you can really do to make it any better or worse fo that matter these  days. Baby it and you get 105hp, ring ythe snot out of it day 1 and you get 105.3 hp or 104.7. The variation can be explained by lots of things...likely not much to do with rings. A little variation in head gasket or basegasket varying the CR just a bit could make more difference. How tight the crank is could make more difference. Rich
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Martin Philp <martinphilp at hotmail.com>
> To: ducati at ducati.net
> Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 8:09:53 AM
> Subject: [Ducati] Breaking in
>
>
> When I visited the Ducati factory a couple of years ago they appeared to 
> test all new bikes by putting them on a rolling road then red-lining them in 
> every gear. I wondered at the time how that squared up with the standard 
> running-in advice stated in the owners manual. Or perhaps it's done 
> deliberately to quickly break in the rings etc?
>
> Martin Philp
> 1989 Ducati Paso 750
> 2000 Bimota DB4ie
>
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