Is anyone running regular octane gas.

Do I have to run 91 octane like it say's or can I run regular 87 octane. I have been running a mid grade 89 octane with no problems, pinnging ect. Just would like to know.

The 1300 like 91 octane better then 87, I do run 87 sometimes in my ST1300 when at stations that do not do a lot of volume as my thought is that the 87 will be fresher then 91 in those locatons.

kjkconcours said:

Do I have to run 91 octane like it say's or can I run regular 87 octane. I have been running a mid grade 89 octane with no problems, pinnging ect. Just would like to know.

Click to expand...

You don't have to do anything they tell you in the manual, but you should consider that the recommendation wasn't put there just for grins.

There are many threads on the subject that are worth reading.

--Mark

On a trip where we were running the same type of roads and the same mph, I used 89 which was all that was available. I got less gas mileage with the 89 and it cost more to go the same mileage.

My '05 would ping on 87 but run ok on 91 unless I was being excessive.

My '07 runs ok on 87. I do put 91 or 93 in it if I'm doing more serious stuff.

FWIW, always have used premium, 91 or higher.

TourNut said:

I always run 89 in all 3 bikes locally, runs smooth & quiet , no pinging , but elsewhere , will use the highest octane available instead of the 85 or 87 they would have .

Click to expand...

I've been quite lucky also using 87 mainly in the city driving conditions. I'm at sea level, mainly flat driving conditions. Went for a 400 mile trip though the mountains on Thursday and ran 87 also. I had ear plugs in so I would of never heard the pinging if there was some. I averaged 44 mpg. Now I should do that trip and compare my gas mileage with 93.
Now I heard when your in the mountains, your supposed to use a lower octane.

I switched to 87 about 6 months after bringing my '04 home. I've never looked back and have not had any issues at all and now have 50k on her.

Skip

I'm not an motorcycle engineer, but when they are designing, they probably picked the worst possible conditions and then choose the octane. So if you were were using this bike on a closed circuit race track at high RPM's, hard on the throttle, then you may possibly need it.

Nothing but 87 on my ST11. Bike runs perfect. Get 45-50 MPG commuting.

kjkconcours said:

Do I have to run 91 octane like it say's or can I run regular 87 octane. I have been running a mid grade 89 octane with no problems, pinnging ect. Just would like to know.

Click to expand...

I run regular octane for over 140K miles.... Of Course mine is the wonderful ST1100!

87 only for the last 30k miles.

I only use Ethyl. We go way back together.

So then there's the burning question: Who's done a teardown and inspected the valves and pistons?

--Mark

Blrfl said:

So then there's the burning question: Who's done a teardown and inspected the valves and pistons?

Click to expand...

I've got a $25,000 boroscope instrument at work that I can borrow and then explore the engine through the spark pug holes and also the oil pan drain hole.

Al Gully said:

I've got a $25,000 boroscope instrument at work that I can borrow and then explore the engine through the spark pug holes and also the oil pan drain hole.

Click to expand...

Now we're talking.

:worthless

--Mark

Al Gully said:

I averaged 44 mpg.

Click to expand...

Al- I see that you are in B.C. so would that be 44 miles per imperial or U.S. gallon? I have averaged 56 MPG imperial (47 US) on my 09 since day one using 91 octane. This seems to be in line with what others post for fuel efficiency. The reason I ask is that only once did my mileage drop as low as 44 MPG imperial and that was on a tank of 87 octane. It was only one tank so it is not a good test but when I saw your mpg I was curious about what gallon you are referencing. If it is imperial the mpg is not very good and I would be curius to know if that is due to the regular gas. I should try a few more tanks of regular to see what happens. I have always used 91 octane to date.

Andrew Shadow said:

Al- I see that you are in B.C. so would that be 44 miles per imperial or U.S. gallon? I have averaged 56 MPG imperial (47 US) on my 09 since day one using 91 octane.

Click to expand...

This would be US/GAL. Convert it and I would be 53 UK/GAL. Or as we talk up her 19km/litre. This ride was through the mountains, so I'm thinking I could boost up my mileage if I was riding on flatter surfaces.
If we truly had a 29 litre tank, I could of theoretically went 551 Km's, the best I think I can fit in the tank is 27.5 litres.
That would put me at 523 Km's. I actually went a tad over 500 Km's pulling my trailer with the wife on the back. This was on a flat highway and no mountains to be seen for miles. Thinking the speed was in between 60-70 MPH.
Wow, is that ever a mixed bag of UK/IMP, US/IMP and Metric in this post.

Numbers makes sense- you are geting the same mileage that I am using 91 octane. Back to the OP's question-makes me think that I need to try several tanks of regular in succession to see what the results would be.

970mike said:

The 1300 like 91 octane better then 87, I do run 87 sometimes in my ST1300 when at stations that do not do a lot of volume as my thought is that the 87 will be fresher then 91 in those locatons.

Click to expand...

This....fresh fuel is more important to me than the octane these days.