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I have a 06 1200c, ive been using 89 octane with 10 percent ethanol for the last year, cant tell any difference than 91 octane, my question is is it the 10 percent ethanol that is making the difference. I get no ping and its running fine.
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My owners manual says to use a minimum of 91 octane and when I purchased the bike I was tiold to make sure to use a minimum of 91. Not sure why but the manual says a minimum of 91.
my owners manual says 91 also, but why use it and pay opec the extra 15 cents if it runs fine on 89 with 10 percent ethanol
Your choice, but they say 91 for a reason and I much rather personnaly pay the extra 15 cents rather than damage my engine.
Your choice but I think you will find most people baby their bikes and go above, not below the minimums the owners manual calls for. That's just me though.
The only performance difference 10% ethanol will make, is to slightly reduce your mpg. Idoubt I'll ever understand why anyone would run lower than recommended octane fuel to save 40 cents on aMC fill-up. [:-]
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my owners manual says 91 also, but why use it and pay opec the extra 15 cents if it runs fine on 89 with 10 percent ethanol
I dont wanna play motorcycle mechanic here, but your logic has some truth to it if car engines relate to motorcycle engines... octaine only controls the rate of burn... so if you dont need it and youre not running lean, then dont pay for the more expensive gas... the problem here is that i think you need a dyno and gas analysis to know that... just my uneducated thoughts from racing cars...
Interesting question. I've always run the 91-93 Octane. Since that higher "octane", to my unlearned understanding, is nothing more than an addedflash-point retardent, maybe since they started adding the ethanol that it's serving the same purpose. It's tempting to say that if it's running good and not pinging, use it. At $3.25 a gallon, I may switch myself! Nah, not really... I'm cheap but not that cheap.
Just saw your post after I posted mine, Randy. We both came to the same conclusion; your's based on uneducated thoughts and mine on unlearned understandings. Great minds think alike!
I found these reasons on another thread. I agree with you cHarley, if you do not want to spend the extra few cents for what the bike calls for, why buy it in the first place? There are alot of places to skimp, IMO gas and oil are not two of them.
You need high octane in a newer bike to keep the heat down. higher octane burns
slower than low octane so it burns cooler in the engine. I thinkSHELL is the only gasoline. weather or not you use shell Just makesure it does not have methanol or ethanol in the gas this stuff eats up the rubber seals in your engine.
All Twin Cams, EFI Evo's, and the latest Sportsters require higher octane. You can use lower grade as long as you keep the RPM's up....this will prevent pinging.
When they get hot, they tend to ping just a little upon takeoff. However, it only lasts a second or two. If you hear the pinging...simply raise the RPM a little.
what octane do you use
