Fuel

Ericreed22 said:

That helps immensely. Thank you very much. Where I live, I have 2 choices. 90 octane ethanol free, or 93 octane premium that could contain up to 10% ethanol. I guess 93 premium it is.

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If those were my two choices I would use the 90 AKI. The owners manual says use 89 AKI and given the choice between meeting that with ethanol or without, I'd choose without. Around here where I live, there's no gas available other than at a few marinas that have no ethanol. 89 AKI (US rating) is equivalent to 95 RON. My choices are 89 or 93 AKI and I haven't seen any difference in mileage or performance (on my butt dyno) with either choice.

PGlaves said:

I believe the technical term for it is "crap gas".

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Could be. The gas here in AZ sucks. I never had pinging until I came here and I am not talking about in the high heat either. It's like they put 87 in all the tanks in the stations.

PittsDriver said:

If those were my two choices I would use the 90 AKI. The owners manual says use 89 AKI and given the choice between meeting that with ethanol or without, I'd choose without. Around here where I live, there's no gas available other than at a few marinas that have no ethanol. 89 AKI (US rating) is equivalent to 95 RON. My choices are 89 or 93 AKI and I haven't seen any difference in mileage or performance (on my butt dyno) with either choice.

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It says 89 AKI minimum. At least that's what mine says and it says it on the gas cap too. That's minimum, not recommended. 98 RON would be optimal, which is 93-94 octane. 91 is the highest here in AZ that I can find for general use.

I have well over 26k on my bike, and have had no real trouble with any grade of gasoline. Here on Cape Cod, I have zero options for ethanol free, but I have had no issues anyway. I use 89 a lot, as its more cost effective. I'll dump higher octanes in when Its me, the wife, Tobi the border collie, and our huge trailer, but, I've had to run a couple of consecutive tankfulls of 87 through her with this configuration as well. All I've noticed is a 'slight' lack of power and a little knocking, WHILE at elevation when doing this, but ONLY when I have us at/over GVWR for the bike anyway. I am not sure a 93 actually gives you much of a performance boost anyway, as it burns slower than 89? I forget the many threads I;ve read on it, but that seemed to be the gist of it.

Looks like Cataumet is close with some awesome octane in the ethanol free flavor.

jessholderbaum said:

I have well over 26k on my bike, and have had no real trouble with any grade of gasoline. Here on Cape Cod, I have zero options for ethanol free, but I have had no issues anyway. I use 89 a lot, as its more cost effective. I'll dump higher octanes in when Its me, the wife, Tobi the border collie, and our huge trailer, but, I've had to run a couple of consecutive tankfulls of 87 through her with this configuration as well. All I've noticed is a 'slight' lack of power and a little knocking, WHILE at elevation when doing this, but ONLY when I have us at/over GVWR for the bike anyway. I am not sure a 93 actually gives you much of a performance boost anyway, as it burns slower than 89? I forget the many threads I;ve read on it, but that seemed to be the gist of it.

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rangerreece said:

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"Cataumet" is the closest, and I know they don't carry ethanol free for road use. They are a distribute that go to the Marinas. I used to use their Bio-Diesel when I lived closer.

jessholderbaum said:

"Cataumet" is the closest, and I know they don't carry ethanol free for road use. They are a distribute that go to the Marinas. I used to use their Bio-Diesel when I lived closer.

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If you interested I'd give them a call, a lot of marina fuel suppliers will sell to vehicles. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the racing logo and high octane ratings at land based racing verses boat racing. I would assume those octanes would be way too high for your standard 2cycle low compression outboard motor.

That is one problem with the pure gas app. It sends me to marinas that are often closed or won't sell to vehicles. I learned to avoid marina type locations on that app for that reason, there are a few exceptions to the marina problemo.

Lots of boats use old rubber lines (like mine with a I/O V8), so Marinas typically use ethanol free still (around here). Loud will provide "racing" ethanol free, by the can, but not at the pump.
I am not sure 'if' they can actually sell it for road use, or why there are so few places to get ethanol free in the entire state of Massachusetts in general. When I purchased their BioDiesel, I'd have to pay an additional road use tax for it, unless I brought my 6-6gal gas cans and only filled them, but not the truck.

Besides, the Cataumet station is 20 miles from me, and the next closest is over 90.

My high octane ethanol free gas stations are usually about 20-45 miles away. I've learned to accommodate the distance, by scheduling a "gas trip," gives me a good as any excuse to get out on the bike. Looking at the ethanol free site I was surprised to see how few stations there were in Mass. I suspect there is a political motivation on that one. I would expect the corn states to have nothing but ethanol fuel as it promotes the AG industry of their state. Not sure why the north east would be so anti-petrol. Learn something every day, minus the why of course; why is rarely answered in these manners.

Top Tier Fuel

More important than whether the fuel contains ethanol or not, is the additive package in the fuel. Some companies have chosen to provide better gasoline than the minimum standards required by law. Visit http://www.toptiergas.com/ for details. Once you are informed, you will never buy from a non-Top Tier brand. With Top Tier fuels, you will never have to worry about intake valve or injector deposits.

Rburrahm said:

More important than whether the fuel contains ethanol or not, is the additive package in the fuel. Some companies have chosen to provide better gasoline than the minimum standards required by law. Visit http://www.toptiergas.com/ for details. Once you are informed, you will never buy from a non-Top Tier brand. With Top Tier fuels, you will never have to worry about intake valve or injector deposits.

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No offence meant, but the Top Tier Gas provider list for the USA is huge. Pretty much what I do: go to a big chain, get good gas.

One more important factor

Ericreed22 said:

That helps immensely. Thank you very much. Where I live, I have 2 choices. 90 octane ethanol free, or 93 octane premium that could contain up to 10% ethanol. I guess 93 premium it is.

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Regardless of which octane fuel you purchase, and if it contains ethanol or not, you should always purchase from a station that sells Top Tier fuel. Professor Google can provide details of the difference and who sells it. Top Tier fuels have a better additive package to control injector and valve deposits than non- Top Tier fuels.

And that is all I have to say about that.

Sunoco Gas

If your budget permits, Sunoco sells various grades of Top Tier, non-ethanol, high octane fuels. You may be lucky and have a station close to you that has 260 at the pump.

http://www.sunocoracefuels.com/fuels/compare-fuels


https://www.sunoco.com/quality-fuels/ultratech/

1. Most large nationwide gas stations sell Top Tier gasoline (check Top Tier website to make sure your brand is included). http://www.toptiergas.com/
2. Octane allows gasoline to be compressed without causing Pre-Ignition. The higher the combustion ratio of your engine the higher octane you will need. If you use a lower octane gas (then required) in your motorcycle (or car) the computer (on newer models) will sense engine knock (pre-ignition) and retard the engine timing. Note that your engine was designed for a higher octane gas but the engine computer is retarding the spark to prevent immediate engine damage. However, your engine is not preforming as it was engineered to. This may not be a major factor if you must fill up with a lower octane gas every once in a while, but a steady diet of lower octane gas for an engine that requires a higher octane gas will damage the engine over an extended time. If it didn't make a difference the manufacture would state that in the owner's manual under the fuel requirements. Motorcycle manufacturers have no vested interest in having their customers buy higher octane gas, probably the opposite. From a selling stand point the manufacturer would prefer to state that their motorcycle will run on regular gas.
3. Ethanol (alcohol) is used to dilute gasoline. The reason our country is diluting our gas with ethanol is so our country will not be as dependent on foreign oil. A few of the many down sides of ethanol is has a lower energy rating (poorer gas mileage, poorer engine performance), it attracts water, and it has a shorter shelf life (that's why your lawnmower carb gums up if you let the gas sit in it over the winter without use).

The best type gas for your motorcycle would be a top tier, non-ethanol, 93 octane gas. However, that may not always available. My order of preference would then be to use 93 octane ethanol gas and then add Startron Enzyme Gas Treatment (to prevent the ethanol from attracting moisture and gumming up your fuel injectors (or carb).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0068ENYTG/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=IMRKSLPG08OYR&colid=1HQ7F4042UO0U (read the reviews in Amazon for this product).

Some recommend using octane boosting products with your gasoline if you can not buy the proper grade of gas, however, I have no experience or knowledge about octane booster products. They are probably an alcohol based product, which is what ethanol is.

http://www.whatcouldbegreener.com/142/fuel-octane-choosing-the-wrong-octane-will-cost-you/

And when using the octane rating be aware that there are different systems in use:

http://www.pencilgeek.org/2009/05/octane-rating-conversions.html