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Do I have to run super unleaded?


cavu

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I have a 97 R1100RT, I filled it up with regular twice before I realized that super unleaded is recommended. How important is it to run super unleaded?

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Not sure if you're asking if you possibly hurt anything by running a few tankfuls of regular through the bike or if it's OK to run regular consistently. If the former I would say that you have absolutely nothing to worry about, and if the latter... well that's one of the more controversial questions around here. Accounts abound of the 1100 bikes running fine on regular and that's what I've done for 75k trouble-free miles, but so as to avoid the flames I'm going to stop short of recommending it. grin.gif

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I have a 97 R1100RT, I filled it up with regular twice before I realized that super unleaded is recommended. How important is it to run super unleaded?

 

Run anything you want, it will be fine.

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On the RT(1150), I've found that mid grade can lead to take-off pinging (starting off in 1st) especially with higher temps & more load then normal. Therefore I only use mid grade during cooler conditions.

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Some folks feel uncomfortable using reg regardless of the compression ratio and may express themselves here (and flame).

 

As a flame retardant - get a bottle of Techcron from a Chevron station (purportedly the best gas additive) and add a little now and then to clean things out (watch the ratios you add).

 

I got a bad tank of reg in Mexico and my injectors were sick for a few hundred miles. The Techcron did good & cleaned out the problem.

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SAAB93driver

My former R1100RS and my current R1150RS both ping on 89 octane at take off and under hard acceleration. Just normal cruise they are OK but I now always run at least 91 octane to avoid the pinging.

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What so you mean by "what the ratio that you put in"? What can you damage or possibly damage?

 

They recommend one bottle per 12 Gal. I don't think it will damage anything if the ratio is way off, but it probably would run like sh**t until out or diluted in the system.

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Yeah,same here, mine "pings" real bad using "reg."when starting out and accelerating, especially at higher elevations, a "timing" thing for sure.

I only burn high octane now. thumbsup.gif

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Run cheaper and cheaper grades of gas until it starts to ping under heavy load. Then go back up a grade. Anything else is a waste of money.

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Where I live we dont have luxury of picking our octane levels as only one is sold though out country 95. If you want anything else you need to add a bottle of octane booster

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Run cheaper and cheaper grades of gas until it starts to ping under heavy load. Then go back up a grade. Anything else is a waste of money.
That's the right answer (for the 1100/1150) but boy... are you asking for it... grin.gif
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Run cheaper and cheaper grades of gas until it starts to ping under heavy load. Then go back up a grade. Anything else is a waste of money.

 

Problem is.. these off brand stations get their gas from different distributers, then throw in dirty storage tanks for some of them & you have no consistancy for the same grade.

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If the average fill up is 5 gallons then you are saving on average something like $.50 per tank to use the low octane gas. $.50 seems like cheap insurance for 200+ miles of riding. Just my thoughts...

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Or to put it into even more of a perspective...

If you put 10k a year on your bike and you average 40mpg, you save a pathetic $50 a year or a smidgeon over 96 cents a week, Oy wink.gif!!!

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Blue Beemer Dude
Run cheaper and cheaper grades of gas until it starts to ping under heavy load. Then go back up a grade. Anything else is a waste of money.

 

Problem is.. these off brand stations get their gas from different distributers, then throw in dirty storage tanks for some of them & you have no consistancy for the same grade.

 

Well, I sure don't want to start another one of those annoying never-ending gasoline threads, but...

 

all gas is the same. They all come through the same pipeline and get sent to the distributors. Then the different major companies add their own proprietary additives (which are all pretty much the same) and mark it up to some ridiculous price.

 

As for the dirty tanks, just because a place has cheap gas doesn't mean it's dirty. It's probably cleaner than the Exxon down the street - since the cheap place sells 5 times more gas, their stuff is fresher and less likely to have water contaminents.

 

The old wive's tale that I've heard is never fill up when the tanker is offloading into the tanks - it stirs up the sediment.

 

Michael

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Or to put it into even more of a perspective...

If you put 10k a year on your bike and you average 40mpg, you save a pathetic $50 a year or a smidgeon over 96 cents a week, Oy wink.gif!!!

To put in yet another perspective... the difference between regular and premium must be a lot less where you guys are because in most places the difference is more like $1.00 per tank vs. .50, so it's maybe more like a 'pathetic' $100 per year. Still not much in the scheme of things, but in a vehicle that shows no ill effects with regular it is simply $100 wasted. I'm not sure which is more foolish, worrying about $1.00 per tank or spending $100/year for nothing... just depends on how you look at it I guess. 'Oy'.
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Yet one more math fun? observation:

 

Because (it seems) that the absoulte difference in premium is still about $0.20 per gallon (usually the mid brand is about $0.10 above the basic, and premium is $0.10 above the mid grade), the relative "price premium" as compared to the base grade has gone down as the price of the base grade has risen...

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AdventurePoser
The old wive's tale that I've heard is never fill up when the tanker is offloading into the tanks - it stirs up the sediment.

 

Michael

 

The old wives tale I heard was never smoke next to the tanker truck as it delivers it's fuel... thumbsup.gif

 

Steve

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The old wive's tale that I've heard is never fill up when the tanker is offloading into the tanks - it stirs up the sediment.

 

Michael

 

The old wives tale I heard was never smoke next to the tanker truck as it delivers it's fuel... thumbsup.gif

 

Steve

 

I can't tell you how gratifying it was when, while refueling my car at a local Mobil a couple days ago, a citizen pulled into the adjacent pump, emerged from his pickup truck, and tossed his still-glowing cigarette butt on the ground. eek.gif

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Personnaly I use the grade of gas that seems to work best my bike, which is Mid-Grade. I have run regular but gas mileage seems to drop and the bike doesn't seem to run as strong (no pinging or spark knock though).

I checked the mileage while running Premium and while running Mid-grade, and I get better mileage on Mid-grade.

And that is checking it through 3 tanks of each, and riding relatively the same way.

The problem is that each bike runs differently and you need to figure out what works best for your bike and go with it...

Just my .02cents.

Dave thumbsup.gif

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DavidEBSmith

I can't tell you how gratifying it was when, while refueling my car at a local Mobil a couple days ago, a citizen pulled into the adjacent pump, emerged from his pickup truck, and tossed his still-glowing cigarette butt on the ground.

 

Obviously he saw the sign that said "NO SMOKING"!

 

FWIW, the one time I got bad gas (in a vehicle) was at a Mobil station, not one of those cheap off-brands.

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