I have an 06/14. Most of the miles on it are long haul road trips miles. I am not much of a drag nut or a speedster..I try and drive most of the time within posted limits. I have not hammered my 14 against every insecure guy that wanted to race.
I now have 24 K on this monster and I expect it should be mellowing out a tad ..at least a little bit anyways??
Fact is that aint happening no way no how.
The reality is this thing seems more alive now than when I first got it.
Tonight I went out for a spin ..and was on a road where I could go through the gears a bit.
Maybe I am nuts but it appears my 14 is seat of the pants noticeably more powerful than I have ever known it to be.
It will wheeleeee easier..it manically accelerates more insanely. It is in a word getting scarier ..not tamer.
Is it possible it takes 20 plus thou to get these things running right if you take it easy on them as I have ??
Maybe if I had really slammed the break-in I would have gotten the thing loose and to where it now -a lot sooner..
Don't know..what are you guys finding?

had about 10 miles on my new motor when i went out flogging on it... so couldn't tell ya LOL

I have wondered about the possibility of creating a more 'high performance' ware pattern in the motor through more extreme use after a soft break in. Seems like that might entail more cylinder ware than running the motor in a more consistent manner. With the cylinders on the 14 being bigger in the first place, that might not matter as much as it would on a 600.

I would expect the bike to get a little bit tired after 24000 miles but if you feel it's stronger, I'd say there's no way your bike is on the downhill slide. Maybe that's your reward for a gentle break in. Sort of like if you didn't play high school football, you might just have no problem playing when you're 40.

* Last updated by: Rook on 8/18/2009 @ 10:41 PM *

I think she's breaking in for ya!!!

Rook :

have wondered about the possibility of creating a more 'high performance' ware pattern in the motor through more extreme use after a soft break in. Seems like that might entail more cylinder ware than running the motor in a more consistent manner. With the cylinders on the 14 being bigger in the first place, that might not matter as much as it would on a 600.

I would expect the bike to get a little bit tired after 24000 miles but if you feel it's stronger, I'd say there's no way your bike is on the downhill slide. Maybe that's your reward for a gentle break in. Sort of like if you didn't play high school football, you might just have no problem playing when you're 40.

You may have a point. In the manual it says for the first 4,000 miles to never run it in any gear at a steady rpm for a long time. They want you to run up and down the gear and rpm range to give the engine a chance to break in all across its operating range.

I know they test the engines before they put them in a bike, and the tolerances are good enough you can pretty much ride it how you want when you get it new, but maybe it does make a difference at higher mileages.

I don't have enough miles to add any evidence, though. :)

Not saying that this IS true, but carbon build up could possible creates a higher compression ratio and yields more HP over time and mileage.

* Last updated by: extrapilot on 8/19/2009 @ 4:35 AM *

mines got 35000 miles and still feels as awesome today as ever!!
it did 4000miles in the first week of its life, had the first service on day 2, and did 130mph on day 3!

im looking forward to the engine being run in so i can really open her up!!

Ditto here too, 19000 miles and still getting stronger, milage is still going up too - broke it in pretty much like the factory recomends, no steady speeds till 5K miles, religious oil changes 2-3K max,but I still run it up to redline on a regular basis - just a good tight motor, I expect it will continue to improve till around 35K (or more!), also never see more than 3 bars on the temp gage - not true when new, and up to 10,000 miles, I highly doubt it is just "carbon" build up, just a well designed liquid cooled screamer of a motor.

Also a worn tire compound may slip a little upon acceleration, effectively clutching you right into the power band. Tires play little tricks that may sometimes make us believe its the weather or something.