Ditto, use octane booster.

 

Not sure if this helps but my wife's Mercedes is supposed to take premium but the dealer told her to use mid-grade and it would perform better that it would with the premium. 20,000 miles later no problems. The moral of this story is if it doesn't knock why not?

 

I had the same problem last weekend on my way to Thunder Beach in Panama City Beach,FL..The only gas I could find in central (Macon area) Georiga was low grade(87).No mid or supreme.I used the low grade and had no problems that I could tell except it seemed my exhaust popped more,but that could just be the Reineharts.Anyway,if that's all you got,I don't think it will hurt anything to run a couple of tanks of the low grade stuff.

 

Here in Charlotte NC, premium is out. Put in some Lucus octane booster, 5ozs to a tank of 87 and I gotta tell you all the difference is amazing! Runs soooo much better than the93 octane does. I have so much more high end power and no more detenation. I'll run it from now on.

 

I have a friend that was hit on his bike a week ago and it is in the shop now for repairs. He was lucky and did not go down. The insurance company gave him a rental bike because he does not own a car and he is burning 87 octane in it and running it hard. I was surprised that he was doing this but the bike had a few issues that caused him problems and the dealer was a jerk about it and he is also wanting to save $$$ on gasoline.

As long as it does not detonate you are okay but it only takes once.

Use the octane boost it works.

 

I WON'T ever park my bike just because I can't get a high octane fuel. Sure it doesn't run at its PEAK, but will run fine, with a few hiccups maybe, but nothing that will hurt from running 89, or 87 with some octane boost.
Its not like a kid and is going to get the runs from Taco Bell - which is wayyyyy worse in my opinion. I would rather have bad gas than eat Taco Bell personally!

 

That's helpful
posting something that will help
thanks
I am having the same problem
jim

 

To my knowledge, any modern bike/car with fuel injection and a computer will control this problem by retarding the timing if the computer senses pinging. You will lose some power (less than you'd think) but when you have no choice, like here in Western NC, then..."Regular burns better than air".

Cheers, geeded

 

On a stock motor Premium gas is for max performance at high RPM. If you don't run her hard and don't have "engine knock under load (ie. at speed up hill) you should be fine. You won't get all the power you paid for in the dealership, but, you should be fine. As told to me by two pro wrentches from to different brand dealerships.

 

I have leased high end luxury cars for the past 15 years, and even though they all require (?) premium fuel, I have always put in the cheapest crap I could find. They all ran just fine. Regarding the Harleys that I have owned, I always use premium (93 octane). I have a friend who is a certified bike builder, and currently owns his own shop, and he always uses 87 octane in his Ultra. When we rent bikes, we always use the cheapest crap we can find, and the bikes run perfect.

So what's the answer? Damned if I know.