I m heading for 97 octane on my next fill. Hoping, it will benefit the bike as well as my pocket. Cheers


Man dude if you run that heck knows what your gonna do to your bike. That is racing fuel

Oops, next fill 87, not 97!

I think we need another "smiley" sign with "87 Octane!" on it.

i just run 80 proof imeant 87 octane

question: friend has a 2005 harley fatboy and the dealership & manual says run premium. I checked his compression ratio and its 8.8:1 and I told him to try 89 or 87 and see if it knocked or pinged. Reading harley forums those guys just say "only the best for my baby". do you think its good advice for him to try lower grade fuel to see if he gets any pinging? I ran 87 in the roadstar and 87 in my GSXR with no problems.

My .02 on the issue:

I ran high octane fuel in my 2004 Roadstar when I first got it, but then I discovered that it actually runs cooler on 87 octane fuel than it does on high test. I couldn't feel any horsepower gains from the higher octane fuel, so I run only 87 octane in it now.

I initially ran high octane gas since I always had in my other bikes. then I got reading about it needing 87 and tried it. Zero difference and much less costly. Thinking back about it I also realized that I went through the same thing with some of my cars. I was putting in mid-grade or hi-octane and when I looked in the manual it said 87.

Mine runs damn fine and has never pinged on 87 so I'd stick with it.

Isriam, I think he might get away with the 89, but I wouldn't suggest 87, his compression is right on the border IMHO.

LakeCharles sez.... "Well, actually I get the same feeling; with all due respect, I wonder where Krauseheim is coming from with these posts... he is the one that asked the "question" concerning helmets just the other day... and look where that went. Of course I realize that the two are far different issues and one contains less fodder for passion... but hey!

Mr. Krauseheim... why not just search the forum on this topic... as well as others... most are discussed in great detail and in particular - the gas issue. Just my .02!"

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I guess I'd better respond to this...

1. My two kick-off topics (helmets and gasoline, with my posts humble, sincere, non-inflamatory and, yeah, well-worded) have generated much discussion and information here. For the life of me, I can't imagine why that's a bad thing.

2. I did a search on the gasoline issue, and only found a brief discussion on it, from 2007, which basically said, "Read the manual, it recommends 87 octane." Well hey, I already knew that. The forum exists to share knowledge and experience that goes beyond the manual, and I thought it worked well here.

3. My helmet question was inspired by another thread in which all the posters appeared to be congratulating each other about the fact that they always wear helmets. I couldn't believe it was all that unanimous, and subsequent posts proved it certainly wasn't.

I guess the thing to keep in mind is that not everyone here has been here a long time. If the info I sought was "already asked and answered" (as the lawyers say), it didn't exactly jump out at me when I typed "gasoline" in the search box.

Am I off-base here? Too much "passion fodder?"

Rule of thumb: If you've got stock hard parts (pistons, heads, etc) Run whichever octane fuel the owners manual suggests. Anything else and you're wasting coin or doing damage.