Manual says to use 91 octane gas. It's got ethanol in it. There is a place right down the street that has 87 ethanol free gas....real gas. Is that "safe" to use? Or stick to 91 ethanol enriched?
Thanks to all.

 

Haven't seen 87 ethanol free in our area... 91 ethanol free is and has become quite prevalent as compared to 93 or 94 octane with ethanol. My first choice is the 91 free, 2nd is 93+ with ethanol. I would only use 87...if and only if nothing else was available and then only enough to get me to another station to get the better fuel.

 

Around these parts only the 91-92 octane is ethanol free.Ive used 87 and 89 octane before when it was the only gas I could get.I didn’t notice a difference.

 

I use ethanol free, also called non-oxygenated, in my bike unless it's not available if out and about. Highly recommend it, especially if the bike sits for long periods of time.

 

 

My bike gets better MPG with Ethanol Free Gas.

Shaun

 

Go with the higher octane, or use an octane booster.
Without the higher octane, you will lose power as the engine compensates to prevent knocking.

 

Engines are now designed to perform perfectly fine using fuel blended with Ethanol. Much of the issues dealt with the effects of Ethanol on the plastics, rubber componds and other non-metalic parts and for the most part those problems occured early on in use of Ethanol. Here in the midwest, where the farmers grow much of this country's corn, Ethanol has been in fuel for 2 to 3 decades and all is fine. IF I had the choice between a 91 octaine "non-Ethanol" fuel and a 91 octaine Ethanol "blended" fuel I would choose the "non-ethanol" fuel. However, in this part of the country that choice isn't available but all of my machines run just fine.

 

Something I use also is Lucas upper cylinder lubrication and their octane boost that comes in the little red bottles.

 

I'd use the correct octane rated gas if it was me. I've used Premium with 10% ethanol, and do try to fill with non ethanol Premium when I can, but the bike runs fine on either one. In theory, ethanol free gas should result in slightly more mpg's, than the 10% stuff, but it'd be a pretty small difference, and I don't really track my mileage anyway.
I've heard others say that they have not problems running lower octane gas, but I stick to the octane rating the manual calls for, since they probably know more about it than I do.