My brand new bike had 7 miles on the clock

Hi just a quick question. When I picked up my brand new bike it had 7 miles on the clock. Is this normal or to be expected. I was a little miffed I must say. It may well be normal practice though . Any one else with similar experience it was an ordered bike that I waited for not in any way a shop model or demo.
Thoughts anyone ?

Miffed? I’d take it as a good sign that, after assembly (from the delivery box), someone has actually ridden it to the nearest roundabout and back to check that the oil is going round the engine, the electrics work, the brakes work and the wheels go round before popping it on the showroom floor. Or perhaps to the nearest garage to fill it with fuel.

You should be miffed if you bought a new bike only to discover that the garage hadn’t undertaken some basic checks.

In another universe, this might have been referred to as “delivery mileage”.

2 Likes

Cheers for the reply Barry.
I did understand that it was most likely a check ride.
I was just being honest about feeling a bit miffed.
I just wanted to check it was something others had come across.
I just hope they ran it hard enough in those first few miles to seat the piston rings properly. I know I did when I got it :+1:

1 Like

I don’t know what model of bike yours is, but my Mandello had to go through some sort of calibration process (for the ABS, I think?) which requires riding it at a particular speed over a certain distance. It’s nowhere near seven miles, but it might have contributed to it.

It is good that it has been tested, but I agree that seven miles does seem unusually high.

Hi it’s a V85TT brand new model.
One of the first in the dealer and part of me thinks the mechanic took it for a bit of a jolly.
I was surprised to see 7 miles. The only reason it bothers me is that the first 20mins riding a bike are fairly crucial to the running in process and I would have liked to have done that myself.

yes my new bike had 11 miles on when i went to pick it up, after setting it up the mechanic took it for a road test, this is normal procedure

Seems fairly standard practice then.
Thanks all for the responses.
It’s a brilliant bike, it’ has maintained the charm of the older model but just has a much more noticeable spread of power across the rev range and the aerodynamics are improved. All day comfy and plenty fast enough and I am not a small bloke ( see fat ) :+1:

1 Like

My bike had 6 miles on it when I collected it. It was part of the P D I, they test that everything is working properly. Also it was about one trip around the one way system of the city I collected it from.

1 Like

I’d of asked the dealer and let them explain

I did, they said it was a road test ti get up to motorway speed etc.
My only issue is the running in like I said the first 20 mins are really important so that’s the only thing that bugs me

mine has 24k on it now and all by me except the odd few miles by the same mechanic after servicing, so he obviously did it right on the first test ride :slight_smile:

Running in procedure is nothing like the gentle reccomendations of the past. Don’t they run them full blast at the end of the production line? I believe it us the way that bed in rings now.

1 Like

I believe your argument is that there should be some full throttle running during the very early miles in order to bed in the rings. Presumably the idea is that too much light running can lead to glazed bores and poor sealing.

I’ve never known an owner’s handbook recommend that for any bike or car.

Could you say a bit more about how you arrived at that position? I think it’s a very interesting subject.

One personal experience, I have ridden all but one of my new bikes fairly hard after purchase, only one burned oil and was down on power, guess which?
Plus numerous conversations with dealer mechanics at Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda and BMW, one of those mechanics prepared race bikes for the TT.
Plus other online discussions. There’s a good one and as soon as I find the page I will add the link.
I basically stuck to curvy and elevation changing B roads, when I picked the bike up I warmed it up then basically rode it as I have any of my other bikes, avoiding the same revs and using the bike as intended. The reason is exactly as you state, getting the pressure up to seat the rings properly. I don’t think any bike should burn 1000 mls of oil in 1000 miles or whatever the accepted tolerance is. Hopefully this one wont as I intend keeping this for a long time.
To be fair though, the limit in the manual and where the gear change indicator was set allowed for quite spirited riding anyway

you have obviously never visited the factory where all machines are run on a rolling road, and they ride them hard up and down through the gears, on and off the brakes until the ABS cuts in and the machine comes up to temperature
I think mine had 40 miles on it when I collected it, as Jim took it out for a proper run after assembling it and to make sure everything worked
21 years later its still working
and gets thrashed hard when I am well enough to ride it



1 Like

Hi
No you’re absolutely correct I haven’t visited the factory as yet, it’s high on my to do list though.
Good information to know.
Thanks for your reply

1 Like

Very interesting. I’m asking this question because that is exactly what I do. :smile:

To be honest, I don’t thrash its balls off from new, but I give it short bursts of full throttle, building up the frequency and duration of these bursts as the running-interval proceeds. When I’ve reached the end of the stated running-in mileage I will then give it plenty of full-throttle riding to finally bed those rings in.

I also own a Royal Enfield Meteor 350. At the end of the running-in period I pinned the throttle and rode it along the A610 near Nottingham for four miles each way, the throttle pinned all the way.

And just recently I rode it along the A50 - a wide and fast road - for 21 miles with the throttle pinned every yard of the way. (It just barely reaches 70mph, so it wasn’t difficult.)

I’m still wondering why every owner’s handbook recommends a completely different regime.

Very interesting to hear everyone else’s thoughts and experiences on running in. My V100 had just 3miles on the clock when collected and like every other brand new vehicle I have had over the last nearly 40 years I have followed the running in process to the letter. Every time I use a car or bike I always allow them a good few miles to bring everything up to normal operating temperature before making full use of their abilities and I’ve had no issues as a result. The one and only time I did not do that was many years ago on a 125cc 2-stroke when I rode it hard from cold and 10miles later it let go! Lesson learned.

PS - as I get older it’s very much similar for me getting out of bed in the morning…slowly and gently does it! :rofl:

2 Likes

Got to say, my experience would be that the dealers took it out to make sure everything was good. 7 miles is nothing and I was always told be it car or bike it should be run in genltly, it’s a check that everything is ok. And as for oils carbonising etc and sealing that won’t happen now due to better synthetic oils they don’t break down. So excuse me From lol I can’t believe your comment. I had one and it’s a great bike ride it and enjoy and hope to meet to discuss.