Octane rating - which fuel for bikes?

[Gummiente]

No, pre-ignition happens when the air/fuel mixture ignites in the absence of a spark

DOH!!! My mistake, I misread your original post - too many Keith's today.

[Gilfy650a]

I have always used regular (87) octane gas whenever i filled up, But this thread got me curious, so i filled up with premium (92) and at first there wasnt much difference, but when i got on the expressway the engine seemed about a million times smoother.

though it could all be in my head....

[Itzamna]

I didn't read all of this post so forgive me if this was sad. I have always heard to use the lowest octane your bike runs well at. The higher octane you use, the more carbon deposits it will leave. I always used 93 until I read a post on the SV1000 forum about this. Now I use 87, which is the minimum according to my manual, and I have the same performance, and no pinging.

[BudmanTom]

nm

[Fearless]

G'day All

Here is Australia we have 3 grades of unleaded: 91-92 Unleaded, 95 Premium and 98 Ultra

I run my BMW K1100 on Ultra98, book says 95 or better.

No Problems and runs sweet as.

Ride safe guys
Fearless

[Wizzard]

This is what my manual suggests and so I go with the higher of the options ;

RECOMMENDED LUBRICANTS AND FLUIDS
Fuel Regular unleaded
U.S. and Canada 87 [(R + M)/2 method] or 91 octane or higher
U.K. and all others 85-95 octane
Kind regards, Wizzard