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Unless you're redlining your bike, you can run 87 and the bike will run fine. There is a whole debate on ADVrider about this too.
I suggest you fill the bike with what makes you happy but personally I have never had an issue with any bike running 87 but I am also not dogging the engine.
Also I do get non-ethanol gas from time to time to flush the fuel system from the corn syrup.. YMMV
Redlining the bike wouldn't be as much of a problem as lugging the engine and/or placing a high load on the engine at low RPM.. IMO these are the situations where detonation and damage are most likely to occur.
Interesting in Iowa there was a tremendous amount of non ethanol fuel available. A lot of stations had a 89 and a 89 ethanol free. A lot had 91 ethanol free.
In Iowa 87 and 91 AKI ethanol free is common, but 89 almost always has ethanol in it.
When I fill up in Iowa I fill up with 91 ethanol free because I don't like the bikes sitting for long periods with ethanol in the tank.
We don't ride much locally so it's not unusual for the bikes to sit for a month in between rides and 5 months during winter.
In our area 87 ethanol free costs 30 cents more than 87 E10, and 91 ethanol free costs 60 cents more than 87 E10.
On trips unless the pump is clearly marked ethanol free, we use 89.
I use premium.
I noticed a lot of stations in the Midwest, Casey's in particular, called 87 "Premium." I don't know how they get away with that.
Do you have any evidence for the claim about Mexican gas? I live in Mexico and have maybe 25,000 km on my R12R using Mexican gas. I have never added anything to the gas nor have any of my car driving friends. Mexican gas has a posted rating of 92 and they do not use ethanol. I find I get about 50 mpg in Mexico, compared to 45 mpg in the US. But the driving conditions are different so I don't claim the difference is due to the gas.…
Mexican gasoline is murder on fuel injection. Use a fuel injection cleaner in every other tank if you go down there.
IMHO they need to depress the market for E0 because there's federal legislation mandating a certain amount of ethanol gets used per year, and the quota keeps going up - it amounts to a subsidy, by mandating a certain level of consumption and thus a market for it. That's part of the drive to make E15 available - it's one way to use more ethanol. The downside is many motorcycle engines won't tolerate E15, and using it will void the warranty. That debate is raging in certain quarters of the internet.Isn't it amazing that by leaving out the corn syrup, they get to charge more....
I make it a point to get non ethanol as much as possible, the bike, boat and car run so much better and get better fuel economy to boot.YMMV