I'm purchasing an '08 ZX14 today.

[NinjaNick]

There we go, forgot to host the picture. DUR!

[Moto-Brian]

When I ordered my LeoVince exhaust I called the LeoVince Techs to ask them a few questions...and the guy ended up telling me the correct may to break in the bike was more like what NinjaNick is saying. The LeoVince guy actually said the dealership will say take it easy until the first oil change at like 500mi (which they did), but he continued to say there is more that needs to go into breaking in a bike for the best performance. Maybe it's just an after market thing....?

What we used to do to break in a bike is go and run a few heat cycles through the motor. Run with the bike in a higher gear and lug it from say, 3k rpms and pull the throttle all the way until 2k shy of redline. NEVER hit redline...

Once we did that, we'd also do a few pulls on the motor on the dyno and let the oil heat up nicely. Letting the motor essentially bake, if you will.

Then, go out and run spirited sprints up to 1k shy of redline and let her off. Never keeping the same rpms for a long period of time.

All the while, we'd use the basic oil from Kawasaki (or whatever Honda, Suzuki, etc. oil they had) until it was where we thought it best broken in. After the initial break in, we'd run synthetic right off...

After doing that for maybe a few days or just taking a newly built motor to the track, we'd run it that way up until lunch. After the few days (street) or after lunch, we'd run her like it was on fire - like it was ready and ran it full tilt.

Remember one thing about manufacturer's suggested break-in. They need to make it pretty much as safe and as middle of the road as possible. That way, it releases them from liability and it is a way they can acknowledge in proper use if it wasn't done properly.

We've had motors done that way for over 10 years in how we've grown to do it. Most were either superbike or superstock builds and well less dependable than a stock motor.

My suggestion to street guys is to take the bike and ride it 500 miles. Do heavy pulls often and lug it around a good deal. Helps seat the rings. Get the 500 miles of inconsistent rpms and from there, have the oil changed and run it like a scalded dog or however you feel best to run the bike.

The anti-freeze issue isn't related to break-in. If it is burning anti-freeze, it is an internal issue that was due to something else... Burning oil is a possibility, but again, not likely a cause of poor break-in.

However, you ask 20 people, and you'll get 20 different answers. It's like asking what oil is best or what tires are best... To each their own...