[old white truck]

How did you ever manage to break-in your TW engine by following the instructions in the manual?





The manual says:

(0 – 600 miles):

Avoid prolonged operation above 1/3 throttle.​

The Tdub is no speed demon. How many decades does it take to go 600 miles if you spend most of your time below 1/3 throttle?

It seems like your best chance stay below 1/3 throttle would be on trails. However, 600 miles is a lot of trail riding.



It also says that between 600 and 1000 miles you need to avoid prolonged operation above 1/2 throttle.





You have to drive a 1000 miles before you can spend a lot of time above 1/2 throttle? Maybe that is why I see so many old but low mileage Tdubs for sale; their owners died of old age before they could get them broken in?

I am just pondering and confused (like usual).

 

[PalmStateCrawler]

Ride it in fifth gear around 40mph. That is how I did mine. If you keep it in town the speed limits are usually around 35mph making this easy. I did the break-in exactly as the book says and it took me about 3 months. I did a lot of exploring all over town. Any place I had not been before, I went. I plan on keeping this bike for a long time so I was not too worried about how long it took to break in but now that its fully broken in, I wring the hell out of that bike

 

[T Dubble D's]

Ride it in fifth gear around 40mph. That is how I did mine. If you keep it in town the speed limits are usually around 35mph making this easy. I did the break-in exactly as the book says and it took me about 3 months. I did a lot of exploring all over town. Any place I had not been before, I went. I plan on keeping this bike for a long time so I was not too worried about how long it took to break in but now that its fully broken in, I wring the hell out of that bike

I broke mine in at 65 miles an hour stock gearing on the interstate on the way home from the dealership.

 

[jflynn]

I am an incorrigible skeptic when it comes to things like this.



Allow me to posit the following query: let's say you were looking for a used bike and the owner admitted that he never followed the break in process, that he took the bike on a high (relatively, it is a TW after all) speed chase for 800 miles straight from the dealer's. He's now selling it for $2000 to pay his legal fees. $2000. 800 miles. No maintenance done. Do you buy it?



If your answer is yes, you are admitting that the break in is not absolutely vital.

If your answer is no, please send me the guy's number.

 

[RockyTFS]

How did you ever manage to break-in your TW engine by following the instructions in the manual?

I am just pondering and confused (like usual).

I did it by ignoring the manual and doing what it actually MEANT instead of what it SAID!



0-600: Ride in a conservative manner, changing the RPMs constantly (lots of shifting) without ever lugging up a hill or winding it out in any gear. (Done by just sound and a rough idea of redline in each gear (in the manual). Change the oil and clean the filter. At any time in this period I might use full throttle for a few seconds as long as the RPMs were midrange.



600-1200 miles: Start increasing the max RPMs in the taller gears while still avoiding lugging and still varying RPMs a lot. Change the oil again. Full throttle use OK for longer and longer as you get near 1200, but still not much over a minute.



After 1200, ring it out good in top gear on a long gentle downhill (or downwind) while rolling throttle from WOT to 3/4 throttle and back again about 30 seconds for each. Do this several times whenever convenient over several months. DONE! Enjoy a long engine life with little to no oil consumption.

 

[iowatdub]

Good description Rocky. These engines are very durable and pretty hard to ruin it if you arent crazy with it the first 1000 miles or so. Thd one thing i would say is change the oil early. Maybe at 500 and 1500 miles. After that i haven't got much for metal flakes in the oil at each oil change.

 

[RockyTFS]

Good description Rocky. These engines are very durable and pretty hard to ruin it if you arent crazy with it the first 1000 miles or so. Thd one thing i would say is change the oil early. Maybe at 500 and 1500 miles. After that i haven't got much for metal flakes in the oil at each oil change.

Actually it was Querty who suggested a change at 300, 600, and 1500. I thought that was excessive until I looked at the oil and filter at 300! More crap in there at 300 than any 3,000 mile change since.

 

[Stromper]

MOTOMAN BREAK IN



http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm



Minimally change oil and clean screen after like 25 miles



On, Off, On, Off ON, Off maintain speed



Let cool a few times.

 

[ToyTank]

Actually it was Querty who suggested a change at 300, 600, and 1500. I thought that was excessive until I looked at the oil and filter at 300! More crap in there at 300 than any 3,000 mile change since.

I bought a 2010 w/400 miles from an old lady. I changed the oil @500 and it was just awful metalic mud. Changed again ~900 and it wasn't bad at all. I'll change it in the spring time probably around 1500 miles.

 

[andrewsclues]

MOTOMAN BREAK IN



http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm



Minimally change oil and clean screen after like 25 miles



On, Off, On, Off ON, Off maintain speed



Let cool a few times.

I did this on my 07 Suzuki Bandit 1250 when it was new... it seemed to work, i don't burn any oil and bike pulls like hell throughout RPM range.

 

[sethhoffman6984]

I read the manual and thought "yeah there's no way that's happening". I did my normal break in routine of: don't wring it out, keep varying the RPMs, always come down through the gears when stopping. I did this for 200 miles. Now I just ride it like I would anything else. I plan to change the oil at 400 miles. Maybe I'm wrong but this is how I've always broken in my machines and I've never had a problem...except on my brand new POS Harley which blew oil out the rocker cover day one, but that was because of a manufacturer defect (shocking

).



In my experience these long break in procedures don't matter much on these simple engines. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Loppy]

I had someone else break mine in.

Funny story, many years ago I bought a brand new XR650L off the Honda floor, after prep I grabbed the keys, hopped on and asked the tech guys "what's the break-in on this thing?" They laughed, "what break in?... flog it, if you dont rip a wheelie out of here we'll laugh at you". I obliged them in a healthy manner.

put 12K miles on that thing and it never gave a damn.

 

[CaptD]

MOTOMAN BREAK IN



http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm



Minimally change oil and clean screen after like 25 miles



On, Off, On, Off ON, Off maintain speed



Let cool a few times.

+ 1 on MotoMans Break In. Capt D.

 

[gskeem]

+ 1 on MotoMans Break In. Capt D.

Couldn't agree more, his breakin made sense and that is what I followed when I bought my new 09. That 25 mile oil change I found shavings in the oil screen. Then I followed qwerty's oil change schedule. Not to mention the dreaded O word..Used Dino oil..