I was hitting 90 on the highway ride home when I picked up my bike last summer after getting my motor rebuilt. After all of the runs while it was getting tuned on the dyno table, it was broke in when I got the keys back.

 

On a different-brand motorcycle forum that I frequent, there is a section for threads like this, it's called:

Never-Ending, Pointless, or Recurring Threads

It's great, because if you want to have hours of reading from well-informed folks on the forum (who happen to vigorously disagree) on a variety of subjects, you can find them all in one place.

Let's say you want to get a definitive answer on any of the following:

• Which oil is the best?
• Which tires are the best?
• What is counter-steering and who says I have to do it?
• What's the best break-in procedure for my new engine?
• Oil filters, which is the best brand, and, should I pre-fill?
• Octane, what is it, and how do I get more of it?
• Going to the Darkside, will you survive?
• DIY vs. going to the "stealership" for maintenance, which is best?
• Headlights, do HID's make you sterile?
• Helmets: laws, modular's, shorty's, etc...
• Synthetic everything?
• Proper shifting and use of clutch?
• Torque specs for everything vs. nothing vs. sometimes, but only then
• My tires are wearing funny, what's wrong?
• Ethanol vs. "pure" gas?
• Dyna beads vs. lead weights vs. Ride On?
• Seafoam vs. every problem known to exist?
• Fuel mileage differences between exact same bikes, how is this possible?

All of these subjects are hotly debated on a regular basis, and tend to have strongly-held beliefs on all of the different sides of the question(s).



For the record on this thread, I prefer a "ride it like you're going to ride it, with several blasts on the throttle, and liberal use of engine braking" strategy when breaking in a new engine.



All the best,


Shane

 

Only a few new Harley motors in my family, all were "broke in " per manufacturer but one. All have had trouble free life except one. All had zero blowby but one.

The "one"was broke in with the ride it like you stole mentality crowd. Motor was junk in under 10k, 2013 103" got replaced of course and now has 50k trouble free after following factory break in.

Do what you want with yours, if I ever get fortunate enough to get a new one I know what I will do.


FWIW when your bike has 30k and you broke it in like ride it, 30k on a bike means nothing. Report when you get 80k plus then it might mean something.

 

Wow. Well I didn't exactly "ride it like I stole it", but I'm hoping not to have to go through that ordeal. Exactly what I was wondering about. I'm not a mechanic, so I had limited understanding of piston rings and other things associated to this. 50k is some pretty awesome mileage for a potentially 2 year old bike.

Thanks for all of the attached information throughout. Yes, I know it's in the owners manual, page 132 of the 2015 touring models book. I'm already almost out of the break in period now. As there's no undoing what I've done by forgetting about this key process; I'm just going with the ride normal approach. Never really rode like a bat out of hell, but I do jump on it for a short period once in awhile.

 

My baby brother is a riding fool, he is single, makes a good living and spends all his spare time and money riding. His first Bagger has opened up a whole new world to him and he rides !! Has come to visit me a couple times just to stop in, have dinner, sleep and head home. His driveway to mine is 960-980 miles.

His last bike was a hot rod dyna that had 85k on it total and he bought it new in 99, trading it in in 2013. The dyna was not a all day comfortable bike for him.