Break In Period.

[rrsperry]

Why do they have recommendations? That’s easy. Lawyers and accountants. Kawasaki’s (and every other vehicle manufacturer), main objective is to make sure that the bike makes it out of warranty with as few claims as possible. Easy does it, does it.

If you ask the engineers, (me being one), They’ll  tell you for best performance, you have one chance to seat the rings, it occurs in the first 50 miles.

I’ve been using the motoman procedure for 20 years? Cars and bikes, and never had a problem.
Aprilia
C14
BMW M3
C7 Corvette...

[bowtie39]

Why do they have recommendations? That’s easy. Lawyers and accountants. Kawasaki’s (and every other vehicle manufacturer), main objective is to make sure that the bike makes it out of warranty with as few claims as possible. Easy does it, does it.

If you ask the engineers, (me being one), They’ll  tell you for best performance, you have one chance to seat the rings, it occurs in the first 50 miles.

I’ve been using the motoman procedure for 20 years? Cars and bikes, and never had a problem.
Aprilia
C14
BMW M3
C7 Corvette...

Amen and dilley dilley!

[Poseidon]

Why do they have recommendations? That’s easy. Lawyers and accountants. Kawasaki’s (and every other vehicle manufacturer), main objective is to make sure that the bike makes it out of warranty with as few claims as possible. Easy does it, does it.

If you ask the engineers, (me being one), They’ll  tell you for best performance, you have one chance to seat the rings, it occurs in the first 50 miles.

I’ve been using the motoman procedure for 20 years? Cars and bikes, and never had a problem.
Aprilia
C14
BMW M3
C7 Corvette...

Don't some of the cylinder wall coatings play a part in how long it takes the rings to seat? I'm not sure if the Concours has any kind of coating or not, but some bike manufacturers are using Nikasil or similar coatings on the cylinder walls and from what I have read, it takes the rings longer to seat properly with those coatings.

[Poseidon]

Well, I got in a 283 mile ride today and some how managed to finish up the factory break in as specified in the manual. I now have 1017 miles on it. I haven't taken it up to redline yet. Only hit around 8000 RPMs. OMG, does this bike pull hard above 5000 RPMs!!! This is going to be a fun ride!!!

I had planned a route out to the mountains today. High temp her was 75 degrees. I think it was probably 5-10 degrees cooler in the mountains. Since I know there are a lot of folks from VA on here...  My planned route was route 6 out to the BRP, then route 60 back to Richmond with a few good back roads thrown in for some extra fun. It started to rain just past Scottsville. When I got to Route 29, I could see the rain was coming down a lot harder up in the mountains, so I rode down 29 and picked up route 56 back to route 60. Even tho I got wet, it was good to get a longer ride in. It's been too long!

[just gone]

Why do they have recommendations? That’s easy. Lawyers and accountants.

I've often thought that after carbureted bikes started to diminish in numbers (I'm referring here to the general advancement of production engine technology, not specifically to carbureted bikes), that the main reason for the break-in period, is to break in the rider to the bike.

[rrsperry]

Nah, there have been plenty of bikes that could kill you.

[deepseamdv]

Two things.
 As Poseidon said "Most of the curves are in the 25mph to 45mph suggested range." Speed signs make great suggestions.

Remember all that assembly lube put into new engines. The older stuff worked pretty well but had to be flushed out. If not all that extra zinc caused clutch problems. Maybe that first oil change is a hold over from times past. I still use lots of assy lube when putting an engine together and I still flush the oil for the same reason. If you want to verify this send your first oil off to a lab and see what they say. I'll bet it comes back with an unusually high zinc count.