What octane spins your wheels?

[LB]

I use 96, or if they have it, 98. Haven't tried 91 in either the Duc or the Beemer.

One of my mates with a 1983 Ducati S2 (900cc) adds a litre of av gas to each tank of petrol - he can really notice it when he's on tour and can't get it, it definitely doesn't run as well.

[tlronny]

All I know is that my last 3 bikes (new) all seemed to run better on Gull than the others !!

[boris]

i am told (SVdownunder a dingo web site) carbed bikes/cars don't like the new 98 its made for injection or something like that.I was using 98 in my SV but now i don't.While using it my bike run ruff but while using 96 it seamed to run cleaner .

[XRNR]

Rumor control says that 91 is a better quality fuel, So if your bikes designed to run on it, it will probably run better on it than using 96.

PS

You heard about those water cooled bikes? Stupid idea,none of my bikes are water cooled - I'm not stupid y'know,I'll wait a few years an see how they stand up.

Yeah,I miss seeing a nice grey pipe and knowing I've got it spot on.Doing a valve grind on a car you would get this sweet taste in the back of your mouth - didn't find out till later that it was lead....no wonder little kids used to eat lead based paint.

Water cooled, I'll wait a few years an see how they stand up as well, (I guess the closer tolerances is a nice feature though). Other than that a whole lot of extra hassel to maintain & work on. (I didn't notice water pissing out my radiator after dropping it on a hot day in the bush)!

[merv]

I bought my VFR when the only unleaded fuel available was 91 so that's what I run it on and Honda manual says 91 is OK but make sure you use unleaded. Then the 96 unleaded came out and there was all that hoo hah about the damage it was doing to components on cars so I shied away from it though did use it in my dirt bikes because of recommended octane ratings. I tried the VFR on it and I couldn't tell the difference and it definitely wasn't smoother so I don't bother with the extra cost. However, with my DR250R, you saw me mention this on another thread, the hassle with the 96 is if you leave the bike more than a week or two you gotta drain the carb before attempting to fire it up. Don't know why, but drain the carb and then fill it with fresh fuel from the tank and it fires up easily. I never had that problem with the older fuels before with my previous dirtbikes.

[Motu]

Strange you should mention the Merv - The XLV750 is always hard to start after sitting a few weeks,but it has an electric fuel pump that only runs when the engine is running,so sometimes use engine start to get her up and running.But I went to start the XT400 up yesterday after a couple of weeks not running - and the dammed thing wouldn't start! I'll try your method next time.