The CB1100 Community Forum

Hey guys,

I'm going to have an almost 300 mile drive home from the dealer when I pick up my 2014. Any advice on how to handle this? Are the RPMs on the bike low enough where I can take the highway for awhile. Or should I ride the first 50 or so miles no highway...or go whole trip no highway. I'd like to hear your guys thoughts on best way to do this. Thanks!

In the manual it says:

Quote:RUNNING-IN
Help assure your motorcycle's future reliability and performance by paying extra attention to how you ride during the first 500 km (300 miles).

During this period, avoid full-throttle starts and rapid acceleration.
That's it.

Others here have opined that one should ride gently and vary the revs lots—don't sit at one speed for too long. In that event, the freeway's a fine place to be if you can change your speed from time to time.

I did 65 for the first hundred, and increased 5 mph every hundred miles.
Constantly varying the speed and rpm's.

The engine in top gear has enough oomph for highway riding in the lower RPM range..

Lacking the RPM restrictions that were spelled out for other bikes that I've bought new, I gladly did as Honda suggested for the CB1100.

I never gave it full throttle.

As I normally ride in the lower RPM ranges anyway, I just otherwise rode it like I normally do.

Actually, to this day, I don't think I've ever ridden the 1100 at full throttle. I've just never felt the need. Maybe I'll try it next week just to see what it's like :-)

Make sure that the engine is fully warmed up, avoid holding it at constant RPMs for extended periods of time and have fun.

The post below, courtesy of Guth, Red Mist and others, tells you all you need to know.


OK, now I will weigh in. Yes, listen to Miguel's wrench, he is right. I ride my bike like a racebike much of the time, keeping the R's between 5-8 and sometimes getting into the red zone. It loves it. I only have 3500 miles on it but this is how I've broken in every bike since 1983 and some have had 30-40 thousand on them when I traded or sold them, and no worries.

My bike did use a touch of oil in the first couple thousand miles but that is normal for an air-cooled engine during break-in.

Doesn't seem to be using any more oil now, though. Seems practically bulletproof.
Interesting article - thanks for sharing. Article is exactly correct. Break-in for the engine is 90 percent piston rings. Bearings, gears, etc. don't need to be broken-in, but the rings need to seal and mate to the cylinders, otherwise compression will be poor and the engine will use excessive amounts of oil.

Other items on the bike, such as brake rotors, brake pads, tires, and such also need to wear-in so for this reason Honda tell you to take it easy until it's more certain something wasn't put together backwards.

I've found that brakes these days seem to take several thousand miles to really come in. Some guys right away toss the rubber lines and install stainless but I held off on that, and now that the CB1100 is fully broken-in, the brakes are great and I see no reason to change anything. Same was true for my FZ8 but ironically the GSX-R absolutely needed not only stainless lines (I used Goodridge) but a better more aggressive Galfer pad. And those are Brembo calipers.

These days the thing we need to work on is our skills, constantly. They've got the hardware sorted out, meseemeth.
Cheers