No. Tight new engines are a thing of the 70’s. All engines are bench tested prior to being installed. Factory fault imo.
Nice little ride today around 200 miles, rapid even keeping revs and throttle opening sensible. Not at all sure what the tyre pressures are, reading is in bar and going off my gs, which was also in bar (French thing..) I think they are massively over inflated. As a consequence went fairly steady…fairly steady with about 2mm left to edge of tyre. Cant wait to have it run in, tyre pressures and suspension set. A proper twisty road hooligan bike. Got to say it is streets ahead of the early generation GT I had. Gearbox, shifter already fairly slick. Around about 50mpg, that should improve as the engine runs in, then deteriorate again when I start to give it some. Feels solid in the corners. Fairly comfy too, no knee ache, MRA screen directs air at neck, but no turbulence, just ‘clean’ air. Cant expect much more for the type of bike. I didnt miss the GS, even when I needed a little wriggle in the seat later in the day
I tend not to be too gentle with new engines, especially with modern oil. All of my owned from new bikes have used negligible amounts of oil and been rattle free, without being babied. (Ok, the GS rattled, in the GS way.) Tbh an engine built to produce 150-200 bhp at the crank needs to be robust. Once past 100 mile mark, just ride them.
There’s usually two camps regarding running in. One is do it by the book the other is thrash it from the crate. I fall into the latter
I’ve heard of quite a few BMW’s going bang, mostly gen 4 early bikes, most seem to think it’s because the oil capacity is pretty high in it, and the oil isn’t getting up to temp and it’s spinning rod bearings. The only other litre bike that’s always had a bad reputation is the R1 2CR and I’ve witness them going bang but in the most recent case, one completely detonated on the straight at Snetterton and everyone said ‘shock horror another r1’ then the owner was saying “was hoping to get my 4th season out of it, oh well”… I mean…. 4 seasons on any race bike with no refresh is pushing it
Anyone need a barely used rear paddock stand btw for a SDR? It’s still shiny and orange. Got one cluttering my garage up…
The gen 4’s were quite troublesome from the get go. It’s as if BMW couldn’t wait to get them out to the dealerships. I seem to remember machining issues with the casings. Didn’t sound serious at all
