What grade of gas should I put in my bike?

[unclepickle1]

I just bought an 03 Blast. The previous owner told me to use the next grade up from Regular because they put ethanol in Premium now and it can damage my engine. Is this true?

[Red93stang]

Yes, they do put ethanol in premium gas, thats true! I run 91 in all my bikes. Their are still some places you can get premuim without ethanol, usually near lake areas. Do to the ethanol killing small two stroke engines.

[upthemaiden]

Is that something you need to look out for with the XBs as well? I usually always put 91, but sometimes I get a pump with 91 and 93 and I'm never sure.

[buellbee]

Most places that mix ethanol in their premium gas will post it on the pump. Also, the mixture is usually about 10% ethanol or less.

I can't speak on what damage it can cause. In the car world, people are starting to do e-85 conversions because it runs cooler and produces more power. It's not as efficient, so gas mileage suffers. Also, older fuel systems can start to corrode with a high mixture like that, but I doubt the 10% mixture does anything.

I always use premium so I'd like to know the possible damage as well.

[sk8ace]

I have yet to see a pump without ethanol around here.. I always use 93 and have no problems.

[kalifornia]

ive read ethanol will corrode certain rubber and plastic compounds. race gas won't have any, but that is very expensive.

[Macbuell]

93 here in michigan. Used to do 91 in Colorado I think. Had 88 once when I was around 8,000 feet and she ran fine. Higher above sea level = lower octane needed

[delta one]

93 here in michigan

same here on my xb9
9,000 miles of premium that I can personally account for and another 8k from the previous owner.

I don't look for usually ethanol; but pumps that have separate hoses for the grades. with only 2.8 gallons per average fill up on, I don't want 9 feet of hose filled with the last guys regular floatin' around in my tank.

[ezblast]

Only Supreme!
EZ

[gilby]

This is very complicated question, the manual says 87 octane on my 2006. I just got this bike and will try 87 in it first. Higher octane burns hotter and is needed for higher compression motors. My last dirt bike would ping with anything less than 100 octane and you could not let it idle after warm or it would over heat. In an air cooled motor with out an oil cooler you should use the least octane you can. If you modify the motor I am sure you would need to run higher octane but a stock motor should be fine with 87.

[IrieBolt406]

I use only Supreme from a station that doesn't mix it with ethanol

[bobaganoosh]

Your just wasting money if u use higher that the manual says. I have run 87 89 and 93 in my xb haven't really ever noticed much difference. I usually run mid grade in the bike. People get the false impression that its more expensive so its better and will give u more power. That's not true

[Loki]

More power? No. Better response? yes. Safer for our engines? Yes. Theres many reasons why we are suppose to use higher octane gases.

[cpatt]

i dont see why you would cheap out on gas. i mean the tanks so small it dosent cost much to fill.

[vance580]

Havent tried it on my Buell but my car costs more to use regular. If I use premium 92-93 I get way better gas mileage and in the length of the tank it actually saves me money to run premium. The mileage is really bad with regular 87. I only run premium in my Buell. Not sure if it would do the same thing with the Buell as it did in my car. Just another thing to consider.

[firefighter1c57]

What does the manual say... hmmmmm.
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/1924_20120217004643_L.jpg

[matt87951]

I'm not a chemist by any means, but I am pretty sure ethanol and methanol are different. Based on the screenshot above, the manual says not to use gasoline mixed with methanol. The original post was asking about gasoline mixed with ethanol.

The portion of the screenshot above that is cut off:

ETHANOL: is a mixture of 10% ethanol (Grain alcohol) and 90% gasoline. Gasoline/ethanol blends can be used in your motorcycle if the ethanol content does not exceed 10%.

Just an FYI - this is from my 2005 Buell XB9R's manual. I would assume it's the same for all Buell's, but cannot be certain.

Hope that helps also!
-Matt

[CowboyKS]

I run 91 octane straight petrol in my '08 XB12S

[firefighter1c57]

Matt, you maybe correct. I understood the question to be 87 or 89 or 91 or 93 etc. etc. Not ethanol or no ethanol.

Correct, the manual does say up to 10% ethanol is ok... I prefer 100% gas 91 or higher.

[matt87951]

Matt, you maybe correct. I understood the question to be 87 or 89 or 91 or 93 etc. etc. Not ethanol or no ethanol.

Correct, the manual does say up to 10% ethanol is ok... I prefer 100% gas 91 or higher.

Yeah, but he specifically asked should he not use premium because it contained ethanol. Around here, every grade contains 10% ethanol, or maybe that was back in FL (I just moved to OH)? I'll check the next time I fill up, but I'm fairly sure in both OH and FL all grades contain 10% ethanol (Not just premium). My car requires premium, so I've always used premium in everything.

-Matt

[onelogue]

27,000 miles on my last Buell. Not a single engine problem using 91 octane ETHANOL blend.

[Alfatango1]

I live in California where I'm pretty sure all gas is blended with Ethanol. Never had a problem in any of my bikes.

[CoastieRider]

I use JP-8 (NATO F-34)..

[MAGIC]

Diesel ;):D

[kab]

Where I live in Iowa there are only two stations that have straight 91 no ethonol gas. Last time I took a long ride I stopped about six times and everywhere had blended fuel.

[cpatt]

one of these days ill pick up a can of race fuel... see what that does..

[snrusnak]

WOW lot's of info here (whether correct or incorrect) lol.

There are two different things to consider: octane rating and ethanol content.

Octane rating: Use what is listed in the manual at a minimum. Higher octane than needed is a waste and does not increase power or any thing like that, but it is safe. Do not use octane that is lower than required or you will get detonation. Also, running much higher octane than required can cause carbon deposit build up. Octane rating is defined literally as the resistance to detonation, a higher octane rated fuel burns slower and has more resistance to detonation than a lower rated octane fuel. Typically, higher octane is required with more compression and more timing advance. Run what's required by the manual. The xb's I believe require 91 octane. Here in FL usually you have 87, 89, and 93, so run 93 in this case. If you have the choice between 91 and 93, choose 91. If you really want to get it to 91, then fill half tank of 89 and half tank of 93 and "wala" you have 91.

Ethanol content: Again, like the manual says, the 10% ethanol mix will not harm the engine. Now, if I had the choice to buy pure gas I would, because it is better. It will get slightly more mpg and power (ethanol contains less energy than pure gas per the same volume). Ethanol also will deteriorate rubber hoses, gaskets, o-rings, etc. in time. Using a 10% mix isn't a huge deal, but I would never run E85 (85% ethanol) in my vehicles(and my truck is actually a flexfuel vehicle).

Here in Florida I think that practically all gas is 10% ethanol blend. I don't remember the last time I saw a pump here that wasn't(except right next to the drag strip...).

If the pump says "91" then it is 91 octane, whether it has 10% ethanol or not.

[big C]

ethanol drys out rubber e-85 will eat alum fuel lines unless they have a special coating so dont use any fuel that has ethanol in it

[Alfatango1]

ethanol drys out rubber e-85 will eat alum fuel lines unless they have a special coating so dont use any fuel that has ethanol in it It's all safe, California has more cars than any state in the union and more lawyers too. If the blends would destroy their Mercedes Benz's, Ferrari's and Bentley's the oil companies would be paying billions in law suits here. Don't worry about Ethanol.

[gilby]

Snrusnak you are exzactly right. The manual on my 2006 buell blast says to run 87 octane or higher. I have run higher octane in my bikes in the past but on any air cooled motors I have found it to be better to run only what it needs. Although I have never had a high performance one. I did have a sportster with 55000 miles on it that spent its whole life with 87. It got hit by a car with me on it, it never blew up from it. Like you said if you put in a different timing module or change the compresion you will have to run higher. Possibly even intake and exaust changes could make the difference. I do know from dirt bikes if the bike does not like the octane you will know in about 10 seconds from the sound of the motor.

[ezblast]

Primo only - period. Ya cheap f##ks - jeeze.
EZ

[allen77360]

i use 87. i believe there is 10% in each grade. ethanol does make more power but takes more of it to produce it. just dont use e85.

[vtech007]

Use the highest octane of the best name brand. Don't cheap out.

[GOduc]

mix a little of all three, thats always fun!!

[pierce]

Ha - its like a suicide with gas.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080622183906AAkFvaZ

Gas is exspensive, but your machine will thank you for buying the highest grade gas possible without ethanol. Its getting harder to find non ethanol gas, but with the help of the internet .....

http://pure-gas.org/

[anrkizm95]

my manual says 91 oct min.

[Stevenc150]

Ethanol sucks... [down][mad]

[Dizzy]

I don't know of a gas station around here that doesn't have ethanol in their gas. I have a 2005, the manual says 91 or higher. Most stations around here are 87, 89 and 93 so I use the 93. And, compared to filling up my truck, it's cheap!

[icepop77]

air cooled engines can run very hot (and the tendency to cool unevenly, leaving hotspots in the cylinder walls at combustion chamber), which can cause pinging and knocking (which can damage your engine). Higher grade/octane fuels mitigate knocking. It's pretty simple: use the high octane gas to prevent potential engine damage.

[enicar1]

Ethanol cause gas to turn to snot and gum up carb much quicker (months).

Here in Wisconsin, KwikTrip sells premium without ethanol in it. I run it in my Blast and anything that might sit for a while like lawn equipment.

[snrusnak]

To all the guys saying "don't be cheap, buy the highest octane", you all are wasting money. You should run the lowest octane possible without detonation/pinging. This will give the best performance while not causing carbon buildup. It's not that I'm cheap, I just want what's best for the bike. I run 93 in my truck, but it's tuned to run on 93. The bike is tuned to run on 91, I run 93 in it as well because most stations have 93 here, not 91. Now if the station has 91 that's what I put in. Technically I could put a gallon of 89 and a gallon of 93 to get 91, but that's a PITA.

The only reasonable argument here for running higher octane than necessary is this one:


air cooled engines can run very hot (and the tendency to cool unevenly, leaving hotspots in the cylinder walls at combustion chamber), which can cause pinging and knocking (which can damage your engine). Higher grade/octane fuels mitigate knocking. It's pretty simple: use the high octane gas to prevent potential engine damage.

[Blastonia]

I had tn fill up with 89 one time. My bike started pinging so bad i thought i was going to have to shut it down and push it.

[TooFst]

They put ethanol in all gas up here in Minnesota. (I believe more so in the winter but you will never notice it in ANYTHING, it's just used as a moisture absorbent) I bought a brand new Blast in 03 and a brand new XB in 04.. Both bikes had a sticker on the gas cap and mentioned in the owners manuel to use 92 octane.

[DrogeN Omen]

Here in New Zealand we have 91, 95 and 98 octain. But its RON not AKI.

Not sure but manuel says 91 which is our 95oct...

The Octane rating in the States is different to ours. Ours is Research Octane Number (RON) and the States uses AKI (RON+MON/2) From memory our 95 RON has an AKI of 91

[jetlee]

For Blasts...always use the highest grade available; for technical reasons I don't feel like getting into here.

[Luckdragon]

The standard ethanol mix is 10%, which is, according to the manual is OK. I have used the 10% blend with no problems when I have to. That said, there are a couple of stations in my area that advertise "no Ethanol in gas" -so I go there in my car and fill a five gallon can with premium to use in the Blast. The Ethanol blends,(as found in bourbon)
with ice, are for personal use.

[vroom]

For Blasts...always use the highest grade available; for technical reasons I don't feel like getting into here.

Dunning-Kruger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)

[jetlee]

Dunning-Kruger
You're ignorant (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ignorant&l=1). Just because you lack the mental capacity to grasp the concept of detonation, doesn't mean anyone that does is delusional.

A stock Blast's piston and head combination (15º piston with 10º head) promotes the creation of end-gas, which promotes detonation, which destroys your engine.

Watch this video and learn something:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuCUGcqO5SE

There's typically a $0.20 difference between 87 and 91 octane fuels. Seeing as our tanks only hold 2.8gal when bone dry, that's a whopping difference of $0.56!!!

OH MY GOD!!! SOMEONE SHOULD TELL PEOPLE THAT THEY'RE WASTING THEIR MONEY!!!

$0.56 for better protection against detonation in an engine that is (mistakenly?) designed to cause it? Use your head.


Maybe my response wouldn't be so riddled with sarcasm and insults if you'd taken the time to type a proper response instead of trying to insult me.

[Negative]

Hahaha!!...

http://i.imgur.com/0r3xnSC.png

Vroom.... Instructions are as follows:

Apply cool water to the burned area...