Breaking In A New Motorbike

[heybruce]

How much (horse) power does a Raider 150 have? Honda Sonic? Airblade? Wave?

The websites and print ads don't say and when you ask the dealers all they know is it's a 125cc or whatever....

I wish I knew. I found specs at http://www.yingyongmotorcycle.com/Suzuki/Raider150.htm, but no horsepower. I can tell you I weigh over 100 Kg, and when I tell it to go, it goes! There have been times when I was careless with the clutch and had that head snap back experience.

[warwick7735]

Well first thing is are you pleased with your new toy, I took it easy for the first 200km, then just rode it normal.

The Raider is still in production, but as it wasn't a great hit in Thailand they have stoppes importing it. Places like Singapore and Malaysia love it with all sorts of goodies available.

Horsepower is a wopping 16 but its quick enough, I've read on one forum where a guy has had 175km/h out of one.

I think all major bike manufacturers are pretty much the same these days, I've owned 4 Suzukis and 2 Hondas in the last 10 years all 600cc+ with no problems with either, its all down to persoanl preference in the end.

Ride safely and have fun

Warwick

[2long]

I'd have slightly more piece of mind with a Honda, but have nothing to back that up with. All four Jap manufacturers have been making sound engines for years. Ok, so Honda have been miking the 'club' 50, 70, 110 & 125cc engine in HUGE numbers forever and they're alomost unbreakable, but the other three are just as good.

Enjoy your Raider without worrying about a thing.

[mikethevigoman]

I my friend am well qualified to comment, i have owned and ridden hundreds of bikes, but more than that i am an ex motorcycle dealer /importer and have actually handled thousands of bikes,.i have ridden all over N america ,60000 miles on the same bike in 24 months, gold wing( When i lived ther for 2 years ). ridden the same bike all over asia, africa twin,20.000 miles ,and still do a run around cambodia once every 2 months, mainly off road,.so you could say im hands on still,maintenace is top priority ,but i still give em hel_l ! wanna come for a ride ?

Relax, I was not commenting on your qualifications. I assumed you had not been foolish enough to run over 100 bikes into the ground and then offer up advice on how to treat one properly. I found the obviously unintentional wording of your original statement amusing.

sorry tim ,my mistake, . sometimes its difficult to get the gist of a reply with out facial expressions

[mikethevigoman]

How much (horse) power does a Raider 150 have? Honda Sonic? Airblade? Wave?

The websites and print ads don't say and when you ask the dealers all they know is it's a 125cc or whatever....

I wish I knew. I found specs at http://www.yingyongmotorcycle.com/Suzuki/Raider150.htm, but no horsepower. I can tell you I weigh over 100 Kg, and when I tell it to go, it goes! There have been times when I was careless with the clutch and had that head snap back experience.

Bank on around 15 to 18 bhp is my guess

[mikethevigoman]

I my friend am well qualified to comment, i have owned and ridden hundreds of bikes, but more than that i am an ex motorcycle dealer /importer and have actually handled thousands of bikes,.i have ridden all over N america ,60000 miles on the same bike in 24 months, gold wing( When i lived ther for 2 years ). ridden the same bike all over asia, africa twin,20.000 miles ,and still do a run around cambodia once every 2 months, mainly off road,.so you could say im hands on still,maintenace is top priority ,but i still give em hel_l ! wanna come for a ride ?

With all that time under your belt dont you want a clutch and some gears to play with in traffic?

I have a Nouvo also and it is nice and an easy ride and also has been very reliable - but rather boring.

Looking at that damm Honda Sonic again , saw the Yamaha x1r but the lines are funny looking and it is a 4 speed.

The opposite really jimmy, i find in traffic auto is best,( for me ) as im always on the phone ! oops

[mikethevigoman]

How much (horse) power does a Raider 150 have? Honda Sonic? Airblade? Wave?

The websites and print ads don't say and when you ask the dealers all they know is it's a 125cc or whatever....

They all run about 15 to 18 bhp Phil ,You can do a bit of work on the carb and fit a noisy exhaust and it will give around 21-22, but not worth it in my opinion,. i asked a friend of mine Matt ,a good mechanic how i could get my bike to go faster, he replied " get on a diet you fat sod " never a more true word spoke in jest !

[Roy Jing]

why oh why dont one of or all of the big 4 make a trail bike ? its beyond me, if i were the marketing manger id jump right on it,.bizzare,.

I'm with you 100% on that. With all the dirt roads and farms around, a trail bike is the ideal type of bike.

BTW 20 years ago Honda had a trail bike on the market here in Thailand called MT-X 125cc. They were a watercooled ( if memory serves me correct ) 2 stroke , heaps of fun to ride, but they stopped selling them for some reason.

Don't know why there isn't a 4 stroke version around now.

Roy

[mikethevigoman]

why oh why dont one of or all of the big 4 make a trail bike ? its beyond me, if i were the marketing manger id jump right on it,.bizzare,.

I'm with you 100% on that. With all the dirt roads and farms around, a trail bike is the ideal type of bike.

BTW 20 years ago Honda had a trail bike on the market here in Thailand called MT-X 125cc. They were a watercooled ( if memory serves me correct ) 2 stroke , heaps of fun to ride, but they stopped selling them for some reason.

Don't know why there isn't a 4 stroke version around now.

Roy

You are right roy, i remember the little MTX well, id like an answer from one of the manufactures marketing execs, seems to me they are ignoring/missing a big market to me also,.i would be first in line ! Edited June 6, 2007 by mikethevigoman

[Gary A]

Honda fans are a bit like Toyota fans. Honda puts wheels on a turd and Honda fans will tell you how great that turd is. I have had Hondas, Kawasakis and Suzukis and the fact is that they all make a very good bike. My wife has a 125 Suzuki Best. It is a couple years old and the only thing that has been done to it has been to adjust the idle speed which I did myself. I think that little Suzuki engine is a work of art. It is a lot faster than the 125 Hondas.

Added - As far as breaking in a new engine, I always drive it they way I am going to use it. The only exception to that is that I don't run it at steady speeds. When you let off the throttle, the oil lubricates the cylinder wall more than if it were running a constant speed. Vary your speed a lot for the first thousand kilometers or so.

Edited June 6, 2007 by Gary A

[2long]

Us round-eyed-white-skinned chaps might like trail bikes, but the Thais wouldn't go for 'em. Too high for their wee legs. Too difficult to ride (clutch), park (lean angle on side stand) and accommodate passengers (you can only really get two on the at most).

WE know that they'd be great in traffic with manouvreability (don't check that spelling, please) and handlebars above cars' wing mirrors (except those bloddy Fortuners'). However the Thai market isn't for us. It's for mr farmer, mr taxi man and mrs Yakult.

[mikethevigoman]

Us round-eyed-white-skinned chaps might like trail bikes, but the Thais wouldn't go for 'em. Too high for their wee legs. Too difficult to ride (clutch), park (lean angle on side stand) and accommodate passengers (you can only really get two on the at most).

WE know that they'd be great in traffic with manouvreability (don't check that spelling, please) and handlebars above cars' wing mirrors (except those bloddy Fortuners'). However the Thai market isn't for us. It's for mr farmer, mr taxi man and mrs Yakult.

Is that what that minature trail bike is all about ? kawasaki, i would look awful on that, no, i couldnt ,like a monkey bike on steriods

[dchi2031]

I did alot of searching on HP as I have been shopping for a new bike myself. I seen posted some where around 16HP for the raider 150. Seems a little high the CBR 15o makes 15. Seen that published from several sites including Honda. They say the sonic is suppose to be 12-13 but hard for me to believe after riding one. It wasn't near as powerful as a CBR 150 or spark 135. The spark is around 11 HP. waves, nouvo, ariblades are around 8 HP. Wave 125 around 10. Oh going from 15 to 20 Hp requires exstensive modification, can't be done with a muffler change, air filter and carb tuning. All kinds of Dyno test and actual street runs from bikes to cars proves that. Tests show often around 5% gain in HP with all those mods.

[madjbs]

5% is standard for big bikes (600 inline 4s etc) the same doesnt apply for smaller bikes. It would be fairly easy to get a few horsepower extra out of the little bikes although they would bea bit to thirsty and noisy for everyday use.

[Lickey]

Like Mikevigo, ive had lots of new/rebuilt engined bikes, and i would say the best way to run in a new engine is not let it strain, that is, if you open throttle and nothing much happens, then this is straining engine, change down a gear or two, let it rev freely, going near top revs will not hurt a new engine, but straining to get there will, not so important with big powerfull bikes, but with 125cc ect, straining engine will carbon up piston and rings quickly..

Little advice, listen to your engine, feel and note throttle response, listen to the exhaust note, harsh is working, soft is happy and fuel friendly, lubricate all moving parts including chain, change oil when you think it needs or before, replace/clean air filter as nesacary, Do these little things for your new/SH bike and it should last you years,

Goodluck, Lickey..

[moonoi]

why oh why dont one of or all of the big 4 make a trail bike ? its beyond me, if i were the marketing manger id jump right on it,.bizzare,.

I'm with you 100% on that. With all the dirt roads and farms around, a trail bike is the ideal type of bike.

BTW 20 years ago Honda had a trail bike on the market here in Thailand called MT-X 125cc. They were a watercooled ( if memory serves me correct ) 2 stroke , heaps of fun to ride, but they stopped selling them for some reason.

Don't know why there isn't a 4 stroke version around now.

Roy

Yeah that was the machine I past my test on way back when lovely machine and great for wheelies wasn't my bike though, had to rent it to pass my test (being a penniless student I only had a Suzuki DR50 which didn't have a large enough engine to get me my full bike license)

Ahh memories, have to agree for me a dirt/trail bike or supermoto would be perfect.....I'd love to have a KTM Duke II 640 (to ride around BKK on

Edited June 8, 2007 by moonoi

[Raider150Owner]

never really cared about breaking in my raider as i only had 2 months to play with it. i was told to go not more than 90 but i was going at 120 lol. had to replace exhaust the same day i bought as it was going hot pretty quickly, added abs aswell.

[PeaceBlondie]

Another poster from CMai bought a Raider after I suggested it. Not many have ever been in stock even at the big dealerships, but that holds true for other models as well. 15 or 16 hp seems about right, roughly equal to whatever mysterious hp the CBR150 is.

Breakin period? I'm with the rougher camp. I had to start commuting 35 km each way, 36 hours after I bought my CBR, and I wasn't going to do it at 49 kph. It's still going strong, 44,000 km later. But I tried to stay below 10,000 rpm for the first 50 kilometers...

All four of the Japanese names are bulletproof.

[Chris78]

I don't know how any rider can stay below 90km/h for 1000km. For me, this would mean 2 full months of frustration at not being able to properly test out my new machine. This would be very frustrating. I only lasted 200km before I took my CBR 150 up to 130km/hr.

[Richard-BKK]

I agree breaking-in is now-a-days not that big of a issue, breaking-in is not so much about speed or revs, it is now-a-days more about temperature. So not let your engine get to hot and you would be fine, also if you breaking-in on the rough side you probably want to change the oil a little bit earlier also....

For the tires, as I you probably not to familiar with the bike, so you probably not doing any to deep hanging in the corners anyway.

For the quality of Suzuki engines, we need to face the fact that for all small bikes we drive in Thailand, the only Japanese thing is the name tag. All parts are made in Thailand by Thai manufacturers, most by subcontractors who make parts for all bike brands.

[canuckamuck]

Well breaking in one of little bikes is not so much different than breaking in a new lawnmower or Chainsaw, There is no tach, and no way to tell what your revs are. I agree you can tell by sound if you are working the engine hard or not. But you wouldn't baby a new lawn mower for the first month, you just use it.

I did break in my CBR 150 by what I believed what was a good method, but I think now I could have just drove it normal.

My wife just picked up a new bike and the dealer just waved goodbye, no advice on break in at all.

Its automatic anyway so it does its own shifting. not much you can do about it except drive slow if you want. The bike, a Suzuki Hayate, seems to like 100km as a highway cruise speed. I will wait a while before I find out how much faster it can go.

I think 110.

[PeaceBlondie]

Good point, about 99% of bikes sold in Thailand having no tachometer. The only ones I've seen under 200cc are on the CBR150 and the Raider 150. Even the very sporty Sonic 125 doesn't have a tach, unless it's digital and LCD.