BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

What are peoples thoughts on running the rt in?

I'm sure this has been covered before but here goes my thoughts anyway. Some people say that modern bikes don't need running in. However my opinion is that they do but not like old bikes. Modern machined engines still require bedding in. My take is this. First 100 miles nice a gentle, scrub tyres in, bed brakes and generally get to know bike and check nothing falls off. Next 200 miles up the pace a little. By half way point 300 miles start to work the engine. By the time you have covered 500 miles start giving it some. Don't over rev but do work it. Avoid long periods of constant speed and constant gear. The aim is to bed in the internal components of the engine and this only happens if they do work.

Traditional running in of internal combustion engines, I believe, is a thing of the past, what with greatly improved oils and advances in material technology used in today's engines. However, as has already been said, don't flog the proverbial wotsits off a brand new engine, but it does need to be worked well through the gears, ideally on roads that involve many gear changes and varied throttle demands, as opposed to the tedium of fixed speed/throttle on the motorways. Didn't the dealer advise on how to treat it for the first 600 miles when using the thinner engine oil?? Just my two penneth....

Levisp.  Think your spot on.  Just never make it slog in too low a gear.

I'm with Steve F on this one and it's also what my dealer advised 

Think we all agree then work it !

Air cooled and air/oil oooled boxer engines came from factory with mineral oil in crankcase with the caveat to not switch to synethic till 6000 miles for proper ring seating. Water cooled bikes come with synethic oil from factory. My K1600 was a demo bike with 1500 miles on it when I purchased it, so I know it was ridden hard, in another 22000 miles never used a drop of oil. Not recommending you ride it like you stole it, but don't be afraid your gonna break it. On my new RT I let the engine rev, just not to the limiter. I believe a oil and filter change at both 600 miles and 3000 miles is the best way to ensure a long life bike.

Zack042 wrote: What are peoples thoughts on running the rt in?

I followed the <5k rpm BMW recommendation. I did my own service w a 911gs. The engine oil was pristine looking, but the drain plug had quite a bit of ferrous material on it. The FD was a different story. It was incorrectly filled to 200ml from the factory and jet black.

You can probably get away w flogging it all day long brand new, but why?

My ten cents worth. Picked my 2013 up new from dealer. Took it straight to Derbyshire from Essex and gave it a good run up and down some hills for a long weekend but avoided motorways on the way there. On the way back, I did a 30 mile run on the motorway where I took it up through the rev range in each gear a few times but only to about 6k revs and then settled down to 4000rpm/75mph. Then it had its first dealer service at about 600 miles.


Since then I've serviced it myself about every 4k miles. It used a small amount of oil until around 8k miles then stopped.

Catfunt wrote: My ten cents worth. Picked my 2013 up new from dealer. Took it straight to Derbyshire from Essex and gave it a good run up and down some hills for a long weekend but avoided motorways on the way there. On the way back, I did a 30 mile run on the motorway where I took it up through the rev range in each gear a few times but only to about 6k revs and then settled down to 4000rpm/75mph. Then it had its first dealer service at about 600 miles.


Since then I've serviced it myself about every 4k miles. It used a small amount of oil until around 8k miles then stopped.

Then stopped what does that mean?

Stopped using oil&nbsp;