I agree with doughnut there, it's a different viewpoint. Some points that the guy is making, does seem to make a bit of sense to me, but I'm not a mechanical engineer. Don't forget ExKat, those life saving engineers at Ducati, gave you that brilliant rear brake, hazard warning lights that switch themselves on etc., etc., etc., And they will have a vested interest in your bike not lasting to long. Just my penworth worth.
I realise this is an old topic but I just wanted to add some "anecdotal" evidence. When I bought my first Multistrada from Hyside (Romford) the dealer specifically told me NOT to run it in (or "break it in" for our American cousins), but to ride it hard from the outset. They hadn't seen the "secrets" theory, but said that they'd noticed over many years that their demonstration bikes, which were never run in but ridden hard from the outset, made more power and used less oil than customer's bikes. That was compelling advice from someone in a position of selling and servicing many bikes for many years, so I followed it and rode mine hard from the start. Last week I traded it back to the dealer for a new 1260 and in the 3 years I had it, it never used a drop of oil. Unlike my friends Multi, who ran his in very gently and was constantly topping it up with oil. Needless to say, I won't be running in my 1260S, but each to their own as they say...
Compelling? No. Advise from someone with a vested interest in a business that repairs broken bikes? That's a conflict of interest if ever there was one, so I'd take that advise with a massive truck load of salt. Burning of oil isn't always undesirable and all engines burn oil to one extent or another - so you can't state that you've never used a drop of all, because you probably have used much more than that but just not so much that you'd notice. By appearing to not burn oil it's only an indication of very little oil entering the cylinder and being combusted, and in some engines oil in the fuel can be beneficial. Excessive burning of oil is a different matter and obviously an indicator of a problem but is generally accompanied by other symptoms - such as a loss of compression. Since most modern engines have a the equivalent of a "black box recorder" that logs engine data, which routinely gets uploaded to the manufacturer for analysis during a service, I'd be extremely hesitant at doing anything other than the manufacturers instructions. Even if you could demonstrate that spanking it from day one was completely beneficial, I wouldn't entertain doing anything that might result in my warranty being invalidated. Prior to engine data logging you could get away with it, but these days most manufacturers could potentially know if an engine has been abused before you've even noticed a problem yourself.
