New bike. Massive grin. Small dilemma...

[Pex Adams]

Hang on a minute - $350 to take it from Chch to Queenstown?!

Is someone taking the piss - You could get Valentino to come and deliver it for that sort of money... What a god damn rip off.

Nonetheless - you have to ride it home, just out of pure principle.

$350.... I'm in the wrong business.

[Blue Velvet]

What a god damn rip off.

Hey, give me the $350 and I'll come down and deliver your bike to you. Added bonus it'll be run in for you

[Ripperjon]

Cheers guys,

looks like the general concensus is for the road trip.

I was hoping you'd say that! I'm really looking forward to it now.

Yeah, i dunno if $350 is expensive but it was that that made me consider picking it up myself in the first place.

I don't have the immortality mentality so that's one thing i have going for me! Maybe back when i was seventeen and originally wanted a bike, so prob. a good thing i waited 10 years to get one!

I'm fairly confident i'll be able to resist the over-revving, i'm more concerned about not making any silly mistakes and hurting my new baby so yeah, stopping off on the way down sounds like a good idea.

So, going back to the breaking-in questions, do you think it's best to stop just for a bit of food and set off again while the engine is warm or stop overnight and let the engine cool completely overnight? Or a mix of both? Or neither and make it one non-stop journey?

Also, are you guys familiar with this break in theory...

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Somewhere in there it suggest that having an oil change after the first 20 miles is a good idea apparently because most of the metal filings and stuff build up in the engine almost immediately. In that case, i could cruise around Chch a little bit and go straight back to the garage, get an oil change and then set off for the big roadie. What do you think? Waste of time?

Cheers again for all the info...

[jrandom]

Gosh.

Seriously, man, it just doesn't matter much. Just ride the thing and change the oil at the recommended services intervals.

It will not break.

Now go forth and enjoy!

[jim.cox]

Somewhere in there it suggest that having an oil change after the first 20 miles is a good idea apparently because most of the metal filings and stuff build up in the engine almost immediately. In that case, i could cruise around Chch a little bit and go straight back to the garage, get an oil change and then set off for the big roadie. What do you think? Waste of time?

I think that would be a VERY good idea.

Even if not called for by the service manual, it wont do any harm.

For me I'd probaby aim for a bit more than 20 miles though.

Just my $0.02

[Ripperjon]

Are there any garages between Chch and Qtown that i could stop at with my new bike?

I was thinking i would be heading down tekapo / pukaki way. Maybe i could go down the east coast instead if there are better garages that way?

[jim.cox]

It will not break.

I beg to differ...

It will break...

Eventually.

As the law of automotive entropy states:

"Tits or Wheels, It'll give you trouble in the end"

But riding a brand spanking new bike from Chch to Qtn - no worries

[yod]

mate of mine has bought one up here

running in recommendations she was told were:

less than 4000 rpm for the first 800km
less than 6000 rpm for the next 800km

gonna be a slow trip back mate, at 4000rpm, it's doing about 70-80kmh

just thought you'd wanna know

edit: on a lighter note - they're FARKIN nice!! you'll be grinning for a month!! (she got the red one)

[Ripperjon]

Yeah, it'll probably take a good while, but i don't have the bike skills to be haulin ass anyway.

And Mr. policeman says i should only do 70kmh on my learners anyway.

I don't wanna lose my licence before i get home!

[Badjelly]

So, going back to the breaking-in questions, do you think it's best to stop just for a bit of food and set off again while the engine is warm or stop overnight and let the engine cool completely overnight? Or a mix of both? Or neither and make it one non-stop journey?

Doesn't matter if you let the engine cool overnight. It'll only take 5 minutes to warm it up completely. (Which does contradict the "stop every hour to cool down" advice from my manual a bit, but I never said I was consistent.)

As others have said, I think you should break up the journey as much as you can (overnight in beautiful Geraldine?) and don't put any pressure on yourself to keep up any particular pace. For your own benefit, mostly, as open-road riding can be very tiring if you're new to it.

As for the bike, the people who say "just get on it and thrash it" might be right

[sinned]

Cheers guys,

looks like the general concensus is for the road trip.


Also, are you guys familiar with this break in theory...

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

.

The first few ks is the most important. For my current bike and the SV1000s I carefully planned the first 10ks and next 50ks according to mototuneusa. Make sure that at the time you pick up the bike that you are not going to be riding in heavy traffic or on a road where you can't load and unload the motor or stop. Stop at 10ks or sooner and let it cool down, this is a good chance to rest yourself and adjust yourself and your gear for the trip. Work the engine and gears during the first 50ks and have at least a couple of stops. And then don't nurse it but ride it home like you stole it.

[Padmei]

reminds me of the first time I bought a bike when i was 17. Had to pick it up over on the shore & ride over the windy harbour bridge - not too relaxed doing that.
As to whether to ride to qtown - big call if doing it in one trip - your arse will be wanting to get off & hitch hike.

Just remember to take something warm to wear as the temp drops about a million degrees somedays when you jump on a bike & the last thing you want to worry about is numb hands.

welcome aboard

[JMemonic]

Are there any garages between Chch and Qtown that i could stop at with my new bike?

I was thinking i would be heading down tekapo / pukaki way. Maybe i could go down the east coast instead if there are better garages that way?

No No No do not get a garage to do an oil change for you, unless they deal with bikes, the wrong oil in there will surely void your warranty, the normal oil for a car engine contains friction modifiers that will ruin your clutch there has been plenty of discussion on that in the maintenance threads with some good info.

Now that's out of the road, congratulations on your new bike, if you can find a place to stay in ChCh and time off work you could always come out on the Wed night ride, we get about 100Kms in on the night, this would give you the chance to meet some of the local folks and mean you could organise with the dealer to change the oil for you before you ride home. If you cant make the Wed ride just jump into the discussion and ask if anyone wants to go for a blast on what ever day, it likely someone will be keen.

[pritch]

You're starting to worry too much. Get the oil changed at a dealer when the manual says.

There is a theory which states that it is better to run an engine in with more heat cycles than less (shorter rides) but you won't have that option. That matters more to people preparing racing engines anyway.

If you are traveling somewhere excessively flat and boring like the Canterbury Crusaders (Ooops! sorry, I meant the Canterbury Plains) change up and down a gear, or even two, occasionally so as to vary the revs. You should be able to do that at 70kph.

Bang the throttle shut periodically as that is supposed to toss oil around the inside of the engine. Check first that there isn't a stock truck up your arse before you do that though. And for future reference, never do that while the back wheel is either sliding or spinning

[Ripperjon]

Yeah, maybe i am worrying too much, but thought i'd get a few more opinions on the break-in method i was reading about.
I've never owned a bike before so i just want to make sure i don't miss out on anything i should be doing, or do anything i shouldn't be doing, which will shorten the life of my newie.

As for the ride in Chch, that sounds awesome. It all depends really what day the bike is delivered to Norjo (should be around the 12th which is a Wednesday i think) and how much time i can get off work but if it works out i'd definitely be up for meeting the local riders and getting a few Ks under my belt.

Thanks for the invite Jmemonic