TL1000 Frequently Asked Questions

Heli Modified Corp.
PO Box 628
Cornish, ME 04020
USA
+1 (800) 859-4642

"The best way to "break-in" any new piston engine is to NOT "baby it" by keeping the RPM under some manufacturer's "magical limit". Have you ever heard the line "if you don't break it in hard, it will never run hard?" Well, there IS quite a bit of merit to this statement once all the reasons are fully understood.

I'm sure that we can all agree that THE ONLY WAY any piston engine "breaks in" is by "wearing off" and "polishing" any and all the "high spots" to make a perfect, custom, low friction fit between all the important parts. Time alone at reduced RPM WILL NOT ACCOMPLISH THIS! It takes MAX RPM for all the parts to make contact that would NOT normally contact and "wear-in" at some reduced RPM level. The best method for this to occur is to run the engine right up to the manufacturers listed "red line", BUT with the LEAST LOAD POSSIBLE (remember load = heat and NEW pistons DO NOT like excessive heat!).

How do you do this? Well, with any vehicle that has a gearbox, it's real easy. When the bike/vehicle is brand new, you begin a series of "low load", HIGH RPM runs (right up to red line), but ONLY in FIRST GEAR. This gives the VERY necessary "high RPM wear-in" for the pistons and max "gas pressure" on the rings to press them into the cylinder wall so they can seat WITHOUT high load/heat. This first gear high RPM blast will only last a second or so max. DO NOT be tempted to run through all the gears on a new bike - WAY TOO MUCH LOAD = HEAT! In fact, it's well known that if you DO hold WOT on your new bike in top gear, the piston-to-wall clearance can actually approach a PRESS FIT!!! As the mileage rolls up on your bike/vehicle, you can create higher load by simply going UP into the next gear and grab WOT, to your max RPM "redline". What I normally suggest is that you perform a "WOT first gear blast" about every 20 miles or so until you reach 100 to 150 miles. "Second gear WOT blasts" will obviously take longer (about 2 seconds) because of the taller gear and more load and should be performed at about the same intervals as the "first gear runs" and continued until around 500 miles. Continuing with the above WOT and "next highest gear" scenario is pretty much up to the individual and is not completely written in stone as to how fast to progress through all the gears, but completion of all 5 or 6 "WOT gear runs" should be within 1500 to 2000 miles (very subjective here).

An occasional COMPLETE COOLING OFF about every 100 miles or so is very important to help "heat cycle" and "season" the various high temp engine components. If you want to know the WORST WAY to break in an engine, just follow the manufacturers suggestions "TO THE LETTER" by keeping your engine under some "magical RPM limit" and continue to upshift all the way into 5th or 6th to prevent exceeding this "contrived RPM limit" while adding a little more throttle to keep up the pace with traffic (or your buddies!). You can easily see that you will eventually begin to "lug" the engine which is ABSOLUTELY THE WORST THING you could do to your new ride. With this scenario, you will quickly get into that "operational press fit" situation I described above - possibly damaging your engine. So - LET IT REV!!! (within the above guide lines of course)."

Don't forget to spin the wheel to find the tightest part of the chain before you attempt an adjustment — sprockets aren't always perfectly round and the chain doesn't always stretch evenly.

The British motorcycle magazine PERFORMANCE BIKE found a further potential problem with chain adjustment. As the rear suspension compresses, the chain gets tighter. PERFORMANCE BIKE found that the chain would bind the suspension at about 70% of it's travel (at which point the chain had zero slack) unless it was adjusted on the loose side.

The most common gearing change is to swap the 17 tooth countershaft sprocket for a 16. (BTW, some other Suzuki models do come stock with 16 tooth sprockets). The stock Suzuki part is quite expensive, but inexpensive (under $20) aftermarket sprockets are available from several vendors as well as from many Suzuki dealers. The TL uses the same countershaft sprockets as current GSXR750s.

The 16 tooth swap has the advantage of not requiring the chain be broken. Concern about abnormal wear, or wear on the swingarm, is apparently unfounded according to those who've done this mod. Changing the sprocket requires a 36mm socket and ideally another person to sit on the bike and apply the rear brake.

Less common is swapping the rear sprocket for one with several more teeth. This mod requires a new chain (unless you are willing to splice the stock chain with a couple extra links). This swap is also more likely done in conjunction with replacing the stock 530 chain with 520 (thus requiring new sprockets and new chain). The advantage of 520 chain is weight savings.

The TL takes its speedometer input off the countershaft sprocket, so any gearing change alters the speedometer reading. Swapping the 17 for a 16 on the countershaft makes the speedo read almost 6% higher than stock. Thus your speedo would read about 75mph where is used to read 70mph.

There are two cures for this. Easiest is to lubricate the metal cable end with a little grease (not WD-40) where it fits into the knurled adjuster screw. Some report this fixes it. Another solution is to cable-tie, or safety-wire, the adjuster so it holds its adjustment.