Re break-in, etc, on a new R3

[feduke]

Day two, 320 miles: What a sweet machine. I hate to dismount but, rain coming this week end so I'll have time to get some good wax on the Rocket and treat the saddle bags with some good leather goo.

A question for you experienced captains: does shifting get any smoother with more miles? I'm not used to the heel and toe shifter yet but the gears, on up and downshifting, kind of "clunk" into place and the shifter requires a bit more power in the foot movement than I expected or the shift linkage just doesn't move. Everything else is so precise and smooth that this stands out.

Has anyone checked their speedometer? Mine is about 7% optimistic, which seems a bit exessive.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[R34ME]

Good to hear you getting some miles on the bike, the shift can be stiff and clunky going down and for the first 1000 miles need a firm stomp on the shift lever, after I changed the oil at 1000 miles on mine it started to free up, still clunky but thats how they are. You have the normal speedo error standard on all Rockets, Tuneboy fixes this if you want to check it out. :lol:
http://www.tuneboy.com.au/

 

[Pegasus]

Shifting will smooth out after a couple thousand miles although you may still have to slip the clutch a little when shifting from neutral to first gear to get it to drop in easy. :wink:

 

[feduke]

Answers, and quick!

Many thanks. This is great. It's reassuring to have so many experienced people addressing concerns, and so quickly too. At least if I'm going to make a fool of myself it won't be face to face with a service guy. How often do you recommend rotating the shocks?

 

[RedR3]

We recommend rotating the stock shocks right off the bike into the dumpster. Beyond that set em and forget em.