87 Octane A.K.A., Unleaded Regular
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87 Octane A.K.A., Unleaded Regular
I've got a rather rich tune on my bike, so while riding yesterday I decided to try some "regular" fuel rather than "premium".
It ran fine. No loss in performance, fuel mileage, percieved increase in heat, or pinging. Riding 2 up with my wife in the mountains of Arizona it pulled well. Guess I'll save a few cents a gallon. I always try to run Shell or Chevron fuel.
Thats all, just kinda surprised at the results.
It ran fine. No loss in performance, fuel mileage, percieved increase in heat, or pinging. Riding 2 up with my wife in the mountains of Arizona it pulled well. Guess I'll save a few cents a gallon. I always try to run Shell or Chevron fuel.
Thats all, just kinda surprised at the results.
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This topic comes up quite often. I will throw my two cents in. Yes, higher octane is often un-needed, but there is so much more to premium fuel, than just OCTANE! I run premium fuel for all the benefits that many fail to acknowledge. Not the least bit of which is the added detergents that help keep fuel injectors clean. But since most of these threads turn into a battle over the benefits, or unnecessary reasons for use, of octane, I will leave it as this. There are many reasons that people use premium fuel, that have NOTHING AT ALL to do with the octane rating or ping. Please, run whatever fuel you are comfortable with. I would never put anything in my motorcycle other than premium. But that's just me.
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I just did a 3 week experiment with 86 oct
It's been quite warm around here and was unsure of outcome when I started running 86. (city and highway) Turns out, to my surprise, is there was no 'noticeable' difference in the performance. My bike has 51000 miles and is stock except for the PCV and Autotuner and exhaust. I do run a rich map for cooling so I suspect this is why the bike still ran so well with the lower grade gas. If the map was lean then I'm pretty sure the bike would have shown its displeasure.
I figure the recommended 91 min is due to the lean maps these bikes come with from the factory. 8.5 to 1 is not a very high compression and seldom needs the high octane. What I find myself forced to do is run the higher octane in the fall as it's the only way to run with no methanol.
I figure the recommended 91 min is due to the lean maps these bikes come with from the factory. 8.5 to 1 is not a very high compression and seldom needs the high octane. What I find myself forced to do is run the higher octane in the fall as it's the only way to run with no methanol.
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