Octane
 

Do you run what are you are supposed to run (or higher)? Or do you cheap out and run something with a lower rating? Or maybe is doesn't matter to you? :shrug:

87. Anything higher is too hot.

Gotta love a 30 yr. old bike. :)

What the owners manual states.

87 in the EX500
91 in the 600rr

You actually have 91 available at the gas pump?

Sometimes you can find that here, but mostly is is 87-89-92 or 93.

Racedoll, its all the same. I moved from one town and the lowerst was 87, now here its 86. Its all in the same tanker.


Viffer runs 87 cause thats what honda told me to run while they had the gun to my head.

93 octane in the 1000rr

89 in the F4I, unless I'm filling them up at same time then it gets 93 too since I don't want to start/restart the pump, but mainly it has a mix of 89 and 93 most of the time given when it gets gas.

91 here.

Regular in mine

Running higher than what the owner's manual specifies can actually REDUCE power.

Truth!

87... love the DRZ... 50mpg flog'n it...

I run 93 in mine, Erik does the same.
When he had the ZX9, he could get away with 89 but since the ZX10 (04, 08, and now 05) he has to run 93. Once he put 89 in the 04 and it ran like shit.

I would like to try race fuel, just once. I know I probably won't notice anything, but I just want to do it.

I run 87 in mine since that's what it calls for. Compression is only 9.5:1 so it doesn't need more. WHen I was in Colorado I ran 85 octane (because of the altitude I could run it) and I actually got 50mpg out of my bike the last couple days I was there and that was with some spirited riding! I normally got around 40-44 back then. The bad part was, I had 3/4 of a tank when I got home and it ran like crap on the 85 till I topped it off with 93 and went back to 87 after that.

don't put race fuel in it, you don't have enough compression and it's a complete waste of money since it cost more, and your bike will make LESS POWER with it since the compression is not there to warrant it.

93 all the way except in the truck.

87 - that's what it says in the manual and on the sticker on the frame.

highest I can find for the buell

Are you sure about that? When I compared mine to some of the others (ZX10s) out there it was the highest... 13.5:1.

I keep losing sight of the fact that you have the RR, so if you went with a slightly higher spec fuel it might not hurt but will not help really either, but with EFI and 02 sensors you have to be careful of what specific race fuel you use because it can harm the 02 sensors. An engine will make it's best power at an octane just short of detonation for a given engine combination. You always want to run the least octane you can that keeps you out of detonation. With mapping and dyno tuning, looking at a/f ratios etc it would be possible to extract more power but if you are not racing I don't really see the point. For supercharged or turbo applications having the added safety margin is good as boost increases and using a timing retard.

I run 93 in my bike and the wife's car, 87 in the truck.

All in the same tanker? :lol: The octane rating on the pump tells you all you need to know, I'm not sure where you get "it's all the same".

Octane ratings can vary by town and by elevation. In Breckenridge, CO the ratings will make you do a double-take.

Yup, the RR and you better not forget that! LOL
I'd do it just for the hell of it, not anything permanently and not to expect some super results. Just because is the only reason I would.
My a/f mix sucks.

I run 93 in the car too since it is required. Sure glad gas is down from last summer, I'd really be broke.

86 and 87 are the same. I seriously doubt fuel companies are gonna run separate tankers for 1 difference. I know they dont cause I've seen a tanker dump his load in a city 180 miles away that the lowest is 87, then pull into my city at the place I stop and dump it and its 86 here.

All i use is 97....Yes its higher then what the ninja calls for but for some reason it runs better

Yeah that is all there is in the Los Angeles area.

What I wanna know is who gets mid-grade?

I've never owned a vehicle, it either can run 87 efficiently, or needs 91+ for performance. None of this "well I kinda need both nonsense".

The spirit calls for 86, and that's what it gets.

Higher octane does take longer to burn (like another couple of ms), but there is more energy content in higher octane fuel (though the amount is small). Thus overall there is more power.

Where do you get 97 off the street unless some stations are selling race fuel.

This is what I ran in the 250 and my Probe when I first bought it.

Mid grade is there so when the low grade runs out. :rockwoot:

Actually the tanker trucks are compartmentalized. They can and do carry mutiple grades in one trailer, so you don't have 3 trucks going to every station for deliveries. That's not to say some stations might sell one grade as another, I've heard of them getting caught doing that.

Oh, so this is all conspiracy theory. Got it. :lol: If they're not going to run separate tankers "for 1 difference", why'd they bother printing different stickers for all their pumps?

And those tankers you're talking about have separate compartments for different grade fuels.

If you have some proof they're the same, I'd be curious to read it.

You have to adjust timing to work with the fuel. If you do not do this (or you dont have knock sensors doing it for you), then using higher octane is useless, unless maybe you've got deposits that are causing pinging (premature detonation)

End story: If your ride specifies premium, you will most likely lose power if you don't use it......duh. However, if it specifies regular, then you're wasting your time using premium unless you 1) have modified the engine somehow, or 2) you're trying to reduce pinging (and in that case it would make more sense to clean your intake valves & combustion chambers instead)

But Dawg. Higher the octane give my ridz moe boost dawg. I mix my NOXXXXXXXXXXX bottle wit my 101 oct and turn on my dual turbo setup and I'm furiously out of there.

97 wtf :skep:

Reminds me of a CSI Miami episode were this dude would siphon high octane guys out of boats and sell it to a douche bag with a jet ski. Well the dude's stomach has so much vapors, he ended up blowing himself inside out.

So be careful out there kids.

huh?

this

Highest I've seen at a gas pump is 94 - I don't recall ever seeing 97...

I've seen 97 before... but was only in CA... and wasn't often enough that you could run it every tank unless you never left the local area.

102 I think is race gas... seen that more than 97... and all over... but again... too wide spread to rely on filling up with it every tank

Ok, so I haven't been living in a fog for the past 15+years of riding (at least not about this :lol:) Good to know

Just put some quality octane booster in it and you should be fine!!!

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...eDNA01/Nos.jpg

Weird, because I live in CA, and the highest I've ever seen here is 91.

93 octane. In MI you have a choice of 87,89, or 93.

Premium always if it's available. The only time it wasn't available was during the shortage a while back and we used 89.

Be careful...looks like something in your tank is hot since it's smoking...oh wait...must be that POS cage in the background. :lol:

Yeah I saw that too when I posted the pic. It is the car. Those bike had been off for 30mins by then.

I was joking...I knew it wasn't your bike.

91

91, 92, or 93, whatever they have at the pump.

and of course a NOS energy dri... i mean octane booster ;)

weird... cause I could have sworn I saw it on past Sacramento going towards the bay... maybe vacaville?.... could be wrong though... :idk:

I do remember it was in Cali... cause there were a few vets and a couple Ferrari's at the station... maybe it was near Berkley. :idk:

When i lived in Iowa there was a gas station near us that had 110 octane race fuel at the pump. It wasn't right next to a race track either.

While it is true that burning fuel with a higher octane number alone will not generate more power and may actually reduce power, that isn't the only factor. Some of the higher octane "race gas" available is also oxygenated. Sport Rider magazine conducted a fuel study a number of years ago and found that the higher octane oxygenated fuels generated more power on the dyno than regular gas.

Bike wants 89, I put 89 in it if there are separate pumps but if there's just one I figure the half-gallon of 87 that could be in the pipes would put it under that so I put 91 in there.

The car wants 93 but we only get 91 at the pumps, so when I do a track day or some hard canyon miles I have to mix in 4 gallons of 100 to get it up to 93. It's annoying. Some 76s out here have unleaded 100 at the pump, but they're not exactly common.

Near Des Moines? I know there was a station there that had over 100 octane, can't remember exactly what though.

The higher up you go (in altitude), 91 will start to perform like 93 anway.

its only funny cause its a gsxer....

So I should move all the tracks to higher altitude?

Aren't most of the tracks down there sitting at 2K feet or so? Which is higher than sea level at least.......lol

no, cause it's harder to make power.

I wondered if anyone would bring this up/point this out. It is something to consider.

the point is, at higher altitude you don't need as high of an octane.

:lol:

(what happened to the end of your clutch lever?)

It broke the first week I had the bike when I slipped on some gravel. Haven't bothered to replace it.

Gotcha. Makes sense.