Ducati Monster Forum

Hey all,

I'm about 150 miles into the break in on my 696. I remember the dealer telling me to keep it 3000 rpms or less for the first 600 miles. And to vary the RPMs a lot. I've been really pretty good about that. But last night I realized that to this point, I've put on just about all city miles, with lots of stop and go traffic. Anyone have a sense as to how bad city driving is for the break in?

3000? :o
You should instead be wary of bogging the engine.

And everyone seems to have their own opinion on the break-in period. My dealer just said ride it however you want (engines are dyno'd at the factory, after all), but vary the revs. Manual suggests differently. But there's certainly not a lot of room to vary the revs under 3000.

I would think twisties are ideal, then cities, then freeways. Wouldn't worry about stop & go unless it got too hot.

P.S. this forum is for completed tutorials. ;)

3000 RPM or less?  Your dealer is wrong. You will be lugging the engine.   If you look in your owner's manual I bet the number you will see is more like 6K.  The dealer is right about load though.  Vary load and RPM as much as possible.  As far as the city part goes, just watch the temperature, try to keep five bars or under.

What happend to that break in procedure thread in the tutorial? it had some pretty good information, abiet it was a 2 way street on breaking it in hard or soft. If you do a search, there are a few websites that talk about breaking in the engine by basically revving the balls of it. (ofcourse, its more complicated then that). The two schools of thought was

a) its bad to run your engine past the recommended RPMs
b) You should warm up your engine then  follow a break in procedure that includes running your bike up to xxxxrpm, then engine breaking down and repeating with various RPMs.

Theres gonna be people who arugue one or the other, so its up to you to do some research and decide.

City riding depends on how bad your traffic is. I cant inmagine its too bad unless your constantly flogging it to get out of the way. its probably more than 50% idling. lol

for sure it's 6k not 3k

varying the load is easy as long as you dont go for a highway cruise.

if you go over 6k shortly -like a missed shift  [bang] -dont worry you wont break it. but don't make it a habit. (watch that IZ_ neutral between 5 and 6... really jam up to 6, don't be lazy with your boot)

above 6k there is a tremendous amount of power available. so realize once you finish your break in and start going above it.. it's a new bike all over again.  [moto]

3k??? Did the dealer guy used to sell cars? He doesn't have a clue.

The manual states:

During the first 1000 km (622 mi) the indicator must not exceed 5500-6000 rpm.
During the first hours of riding, it is advisable to continuously vary the load on the engine and the rpm.
From 1000 km to 2500 km (622mi to 1554 mi) you can take more power from the engine, but you should
never go above 7000 rpm.

Ride safe  [thumbsup]