Royal Enfield: Have booked a Bullet standard 500 which will be delivered by July

this year. How should I drive the first 500 km so that the engine performance w
ill last for long? What are the things to be taken care of?
Vivek Nagarajan
Vivek Nagarajan, Motorbike rider and wrench monkey
22 upvotes by Manish Baluja, Velu Pillai, Swateek Jena, (more)
There are two schools of thought about run-ins
One school believes in "slow and steady" run-in and this is what the manual will
recommend. This is not meant to run in your bike perfectly, but prevent warrant
y headaches for the dealer caused by people messing up a new bike
The other school is the "hard run in" - This is the way to make the bike most po
werful and efficient, but you can screw it up if you do not follow the instructi
ons right.
Let's see what a run in does :
The rings of the piston have to fit the cylinder perfectly - this happens by scr
aping up and down on the rough cylinder walls - the walls are left rough by a pr
ocess called honing - it's texture is like a microscopic nailfile
The piston and cylinder have to get heated to operating temperature - at which t
hey will distort a bit - and then they sort of anneal and settle down
The gearbox, clutch and primary chain will wear down a bit and become smooth
The principle behind the "hard" run in is to make sure that you get the engine t
o maximum RPM in short bursts. The honing of the cylinder lasts for not more tha
n 50 to 100 KM at most. After that it has become smooth and the rings wont bed i
n any more.
If the honing wears out, the rings will run tight in the bore, but they wont sea
l well - this will create excess friction, heat and more blowby.
If the bedding in is correct, the rings will fit perfectly - they wont be too ti
ght, but they will seal the blow by well.
To get the bedding right, you need to get the engine RPMs high, without letting
the temperature get too high - which can cause seizure.
The trick is to do many short runs ( between 2 to 5 kilometers ) with good accel
eration and going to peak RPMs for short bursts. Stop and let the engine cool fo
r 30 minutes before each round - Best time to do it is on an open road early mor
ning.
Do this for 10 to 15 rounds and cover at least 50 KM. Then change the oil. The
heat from the initial run in kills the oil very fast.
Repeat this process, but now you can do longer trips, again avoid traffic and sl
ow riding until you cross 250 to 500 KM. Maintain full throttle runs in all gear
s for upto 15 to 30 seconds. High speeds and high RPMs are not your enemy. Just
be careful not to ride the bike for extended periods ( more than 20 minutes at a
time )