wisdome on gas...

[bmw675]

*wisdom*
i was talking to a harley guy just now and he said he wont buy gas at our local gas station b/c it only has one hose and he uses premium.
he said by the time he gets premium into the hose, he doesnt need much more. (makes sense).

he went on to say that he can tell a difference between fuels.
i told him mine has been sounding rattly/raspy at all rpms and he said that is the same thing his does.
so my question is, what brand of fuel does everyone use, and which octane?

i myself have been using shell regular unleaded.

 

[DragonBlu]

My runs great on Shell unleaded 87 octane.

 

[MiltonDorkenhoff]

*wisdom*
i was talking to a harley guy just now and he said he wont buy gas at our local gas station b/c it only has one hose and he uses premium.
he said by the time he gets premium into the hose, he doesnt need much more. (makes sense).

That seems a bit unlikely. I don't know the exact measurements of the hose attached to a gas pump, but if you assume it's 1 inch in diameter (I'm pretty sure this is on the high side), and 10 feet long, it can hold 0.407999 gallons (I used this site for the math).

Butwhat if he's right - he can hang out at the pumps until someone comes in and fills up on premium, then he can fill up immediately after, selecting the cheap stuff at the pump, but secretly getting all of the leftover premium in the hose and the pump. Cha-Ching!

 

[FZ1inNH]

Yamaha recommends only the 87 octane and the bike runs great on it so that is all we use... for all of them in the past as well as the present.

 

[WIyamirider]

If his engine is setup to correctly run premium (milled heads, high-compression pistons, timing/fuel map changes with a power commander), then yes, he would very easily be able to tell the difference in premium and regular fuel. If the ignition system in his bike is not able to adjust itself for lower octane fuels, his engine will experience pre-ignition, it'll sound like it wants to blow up, and eventually, it will.

The FZ6R engine is setup from the factory to run on 87 octane. In stock form, running higher octane fuel is kind of a waste of money, and will actually give you less power. 93 octane burns slower and has a higher resistance to knocking, but in order to use that octane to its full potential, it needs to be compressed more than 87 octane.

I would suspect bad gas. Try switching to a different place next time you need gas. Maybe the tanks are bad, or there's something wrong with the lines? If they don't do a lot of business, it could take them a while to use up their supply if they happened to get a batch of skunky gas.

I personally run 87 octane from whatever gas station is closest when I need gas.

 

[bmw675]

That seems a bit unlikely. I don't know the exact measurements of the hose attached to a gas pump, but if you assume it's 1 inch in diameter (I'm pretty sure this is on the high side), and 10 feet long, it can hold 0.407999 gallons

i know .407 doesnt seem like alot, but if you are only putting in 4 gallons or less, thats 10% right there. i actually did get gas from a different place last time, but again its a high turnover gas station.
does winter fuel play into anything?

 

[JonKerr]

I've always run 91 in the bike just because that's what the dealer recommended. However, I went to a little no name gas station down the street from my house and got some really bad gas. I was on the f-trip when I stopped so pretty much out of gas. I rode home half a mile and didn't notice anything. The next morning, the bike ran like crap! Lost all power, sputtered a bit, sounded like crap, felt like it lost all compression braking, and actually ran extremely cold. I started diluting it with good Shell gas (I usually use Shell, Chevron, Arco, only brand names.) as soon as i could and just running as many miles on it as I could to get it out. After about 200 miles the performance came back. But if anyone ever tells you that you can't really get bad fuel, they're full of it.

If his engine is setup to correctly run premium (milled heads, high-compression pistons, timing/fuel map changes with a power commander), then yes, he would very easily be able to tell the difference in premium and regular fuel. If the ignition system in his bike is not able to adjust itself for lower octane fuels, his engine will experience pre-ignition, it'll sound like it wants to blow up, and eventually, it will.

The FZ6R engine is setup from the factory to run on 87 octane. In stock form, running higher octane fuel is kind of a waste of money, and will actually give you less power. 93 octane burns slower and has a higher resistance to knocking, but in order to use that octane to its full potential, it needs to be compressed more than 87 octane.

I would suspect bad gas. Try switching to a different place next time you need gas. Maybe the tanks are bad, or there's something wrong with the lines? If they don't do a lot of business, it could take them a while to use up their supply if they happened to get a batch of skunky gas.

I personally run 87 octane from whatever gas station is closest when I need gas.

After reading this, I think I'll try 87 for the next few tanks and see if I feel a difference. I know we put 87 in my buddies CRF450 once and it ran so bad we siphoned if out and ran it out of fuel to get 91 in. Talk about night and day. But that bike also runs like a motha on VP race fuel so I guess I can't compare the two.

 

[elderproctor]

Running Rough!

Was low on fuel and went to the nearest station and there is a difference. My bike's engine is running very rough. My husband started it just to warm it up and it shut off twice just idling, never did that before. I will not go there again! I will go to the exxon or shell near by to preserve the performance of my bike.

By the way, I used 87 octane at this off bran station and now I have to burn it out and replace it with a more reputable gas to regain the performance of my bike.

Lesson learned.

I will continue with 87 octane..

 

[FZ6Rgurl]

I don't know if you guys have ethanol free premium at your Shell stations, but that's what I put in my bike. And to be honest, I've noticed a difference in mileage and performance. It's a bit more expensive, but it makes up for the long run. I have another gas station that is wanting to put 110 octane ethanol free in, I think that's a bit much for my bike.

 

[Heineken]

I use 93 octane myself, and I like to stop only at Shell, Mobil or BP, but need it's a M/F.

 

[gearhead]

Fuel tanks

Petroleum fuel pumps are designed to drain the contents from the disposal device back into the underground tank. This is to prevent potential leakage from a "loaded" hose that may contaminate drinking water, creeks, rivers, and other environmentally sensitive habitats. Fueling stations are generally designed with 3 tanks: low, middle, and higher grade octane. The mid-grade is created by mixing the low and higher grade octane from the fuel delivery truck and the result is a less-than-exact octane point calculation. This is also why any remainder of what is left in the 3 hoses is designed to drain back into the mid-grade tank. The collection of the unused fuel is generally considered an average, or "non-essental" part of the mid-grade octane equation, and is also why results from mid-grade can be widely ranged. Remember, the purpose of this is to collect unused product and return it back into the tank where it can be safely stored. This is because we have learned that once our underground drinking water and other water sources are contaminated, it is virtually impossible to clean and is lost as a resource for a long time.

 

[ramflyer1899]

The fuel cut off at the gas station is not at the handle it's at the pump before the fuel enters the hose. That's why when it "clicks" off fuel continues to trickle out of the hose.

 

[angelsneverlose]

i use 91, and it runs much smoother in high RPMs then when i tried 87....

dealer also told me to use 91 or 92!

 

[dart1963]

Dealer told me 91 or higher as well, user manual says 87... I've seen no issues with any grade.
I stop at shell, BP, mobile only. I've had issues with my cages at some off-name places, not always, but it only takes one time to have a poorly running vehicle.

 

[bmw675]

i knew the manual said 87, but im just going to put premium in the next couple of times to see if it cures my problem. besides, its not like my truck that takes 27 gallons to fill up, we are only talking about less than a dollar each fill up to go premium.

 

[Raelcreve]

...

I believe you can run it as low as 87, but my dealer also told me that higher octane and better gas (no ethanol) will make the bike run better, get better gas mileage, and give better power.

To confirm this, I've run mostly on 91 ethanol free, then emptied the gas tank and put 105 ethanol free in. The super high octane stuff made a difference. The engine purred like a kitten and there was a notable power difference at higher RPMs. Also, I got a bit better gas mileage (about 10%). But at 2.5 times the price, not worth running all the time.

My plan is to stick with the highest non-ethanol gas I can from my local station (91) and about every 8-10 tanks fill up with the 105 stuff to clean things out.

I may try 87 to see if it makes any difference going down, but I know in my car (Honda engine) it makes a huge difference so...

The cost difference between 87 and 91 is negligible in filling up a bike, it's more about mileage and performance that I'm worried about.

I will tell you, the ethanol stuff will choke your bike. I made the mistake of filling up with it once (I was at a Conoco and found out after I filled not all the Conoco's around here are ethanol free) and my bike did not like it at all.

 

[dart1963]

can't seem to find non-ethanol stuff around here... I've looked as I've heard the same thing before and would love to try it out.

 

[FZ6Rgurl]

I know most of the Shell stations are doing the non-ethanol gas. In Oregon, they have it to where you can only fill up dual-sport bikes not harley's or crotch-rockets which is gay. But I've befriended one Shell station and they let me fill up the ethanol-free premium.

 

[JonKerr]

I've never heard of a ethanol-free gas. Is that something that is in other states, not California?

 

[cbzdel]

no such thing as ethanol free in WA since the governor signed a bill for it!!! BUT I keep hearing a radio commercial about a tribal reservation that has ethanol free gas, but its not very close to there I live..