RISHAD COOPER

What is the best way to safely run in a new bike or scooter? Rishad has the answer

When closing in on 800km, with about 25km to go, you may start to push the bike or scooter as hard as you like, even running the engine briefly up to its rev limiter

THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE is a remarkable machine. Maintain an engine properly, adhere to manufacturer recommended service intervals, provide timely oil swaps and most modern bikes and scooters will reward you with thousands of kilometres of hassle-free operation. I’ve run innumerous two-wheelers since the early 1990s, many over 50,000km and few over 100,000km, riding and pushing many engines a fair clip further than average, despite which I’ve only ever faced negligible engine trouble, over so many years. Reliability is undoubtedly tied to taking the effort to carefully runin an engine, before pushing them.

You could ask, why run-in an engine at all? In simple terms, this is because by virtue of their technology, engine parts operate and ‘mate’ with each other at extreme temperatures and speeds, generating massive friction, when all combined place metals under enormous stress. For most 6000rpm means no more than a number they pushed their bike tachometer to. It’s a different story within the engine — where this translates into 100 revolutions, or a 100 up or down movements for parts such as the crankshaft, journals, balancing and counterbalancing weights, piston, piston rings, connecting rods, cylinder walls, valves, camshafts, bearings and so on…

…per second! That’s too fast to even visualise, which gives you an idea of how tough things get for engine parts.

Running engines in helps them deal with and handle these severe stresses over extended durations, allowing metal surfaces to ‘mate’ and interact smoothly with one another through their lifecycles. Here are a few tips to run-in a new bike or scooter engine

— Ride slowly with a light throttle hand, ensuring you keep engine speeds to say no more than 3000 to 4000rpm. For cold starts, allow the engine time to warm up nicely, leaving it to idle without raising rpm during the crucial first three minutes. Thereafter, start off and ride smoothly only dialling in gradual throttle increments, while being careful to avoid sudden acceleration or rapid downshifts through the gearbox, which stress the engine. In general ensure you nurse a new engine with a velvet glove.

— Avoid taking the new bike or scooter on long distance rides, waiting until the engine completes its first 800km before pushing or cracking the whip hard to stretch its legs. Try to stick to riding your bike or scooter on short urban routes during these crucial early days. — Ride solo without a pillion on the back, as far as possible. It will help keep your engine relatively less stressed, even more so when your bike or scooter has a small-capacity engine, of below about 200cc. Ensure you regularly fill air and adhere to factory recommended tyre pressures, because low tyre pressure needlessly burdens an engine.

— Avoid riding the bike or scooter up steep inclines as far as possible, and when unavoidable, make sure you select the correct gear and keep engine rpm high enough to allow adequate torque flow, maintaining ideal engine momentum. In general, always ride in a correct gear within the safe rpm band, do not shortshift up the gearbox. On a scooter, without the aid of a tachometer, or gearbox to worry about, simply set a speed limit and then stick within this; for example on a 125cc scooter, about 55kmph should be enough maximum speed for the early run-in duration.

— Once your engine has run beyond its first 500km milestone, gradually start pushing the bike hard to higher rpm, fixing intervals to take the engine to higher speeds of say, up to 5000rpm from 500 to 600km, then to 6000rpm between 600 to 700km, and perhaps 7000rpm and even higher between the 700 to 800km markers.

— When closing in on 800km, with about 25km to go, you may start to push the bike or scooter as hard as you like, even running the engine briefly up to its rev limiter.

— Finally, at 800km have the engine oil changed and oil filter or oil strainer thoroughly cleaned. This is key to ridding the motor of all metal wastes and burr, as normally shed during running-in and settle in the oil-sump.

Treat the milestones above as indicative, replacing them with the exact numbers that your bike or scooter owner’s manual stipulates, as ideal for running-in of a particular model. Stick loosely with this routine and your new bike or scooter engine will benefit from a thoroughly tried and tested run-in before being ready for regular use. ⌧