Fuel Grade (regular, mid-range or premium)

[KDN]

What fuel grade does everyone use?

Regular, Mid-range or Premium?

 

[dean owens]

MOM says to use regular so that's good enough for me.

 

[tcmalker]

dont' wait your money on anything but a regular. But from what I've heard, avoid the ethanol BS as it reduces your mpg. Hard to avoid it though, it's EVERYWHERE!

 

[chuckfz6ryder]

I've never had a problem with regular (87 octane). We have ethanol in our gas in MA, for winter storage we have to use the blue STABIL for ethanol.

 

[Erci]

Zero benefit to running anything, but regular, but many swear that they feel difference with premium. This has been covered several times.. replies are same every time too

 

[shuckle]

By using premium i can reduce the weight in my wallet and therefore go faster

 

[dean owens]

By using premium i can reduce the weight in my wallet and therefore go faster

:rof::rof::rof:

 

[FIZZER6]

I switched to premium 2 years ago and felt a huge difference in engine smoothness in the infamous FZ6 "buzz range" between 6K and 7K rpms. My mechanical engineering mind tells me that this is likely due to the fact that higher octane is less volatile and probably ignites just a few milliseconds later than 87 octane resulting in a smoother power band...even if I'm loosing 0.5 hp.

My father is a chemical engineer for a major oil company and there is more to "Premium fuel" than the octane rating. Premium fuel's from Shell, Exxon and BP have the maximum additive package which includes detergents that keep your engine and fuel system clean...it's not just hype...Premium has significantly more cleaning agents.

Also the higher the fuel price, the better value premium become since it's always only about 25 cents/gallon higher than regular...that's only $1 per tank in the FZ6...I'm getting 55mpg commuting...I think I can afford an extra $1 per week to have a smoother, cleaner running FZ6.

 

[FloppyRunner]

I've been using premium simply because before I got a chance to check out my owner's manual I assumed any engine with a 12.4:1 compression (or whatever it is) would take premium... Then I saw the manual but I'm hesitant to "downgrade"... Eeehhhhh...

 

[LERecords]

I have never used anything but premium.. i know that it doesnt make a difference, but i feel better about it.. dont think there is any difference, but i have never used anything else... and the bike is worth it :thumbup:

 

[VEGASRIDER]

59,000 miles on regular and still rolling!

If I spent an extra dollar per fillup using premium like others have been doing, I would have just thown $400 away. Yeah, a dollar isn't much, but it does add up. I did not notice any significant gain or loss using premium for mpg.

 

[mrphotoman]

i am sure the manufacturer knows what fuel is best for the bike. unless you are running forced induction on your bike (turbo, nitrous, etc) you are wasting your $ with the premium fuel.

Now on my car, running a custom tune with a supercharger, smaller pulley (+4.5psi), meth and nitrous and slightly advanced timing I run premium with klotz when racing. that combo with the raised octane from the meth= a lot of fun.

 

[gpostarmy]

I will generally run reg for two fills then one of premium. I do this because of the additives in this grade which help clean the system. Just my technique.

 

[Protaper48]

I use premium always had and always will, just my preference. :thumbup:

 

[1.8tbora]

I use regular, just because I bought the bike to save on gas and it would be stupid to spend more per gallon on gas when there is no gain. MPG's and FUN, that's what its about.

 

[FloppyRunner]

It's interesting to me that people say that the manufacturer would know best what fuel to use in their motorcycle, but I'd suspect that it's these same people who drop a bunch more money on fancy synthetic oil of whatever weight they prefer despite the fact that the manual simply calls for...whatever it calls for... Not trying to cut anybody down, just making observations...

 

[AngelFZ]

I started using premium when I bought the bike. After reading about not real benefits about it I started using regular.

Regarding MPG, I believe I lost some after changing the stock exhaust and it seems I lost some more after changing from premium to regular gas


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[dean owens]

Regarding MPG, ... it seems I lost some ... after changing from premium to regular gas

what do you mean by seems? did you track your milage enough before and after to run the numbers? i'd be interested in how much you actually lost and if it's still a better buy with the cheaper gas. or if you save money by buying premium and getting better milage.

 

[LERecords]

if its between 1-4 mpg of a gain or loss.. i accept that as the cost of having a bike.. some days im throttle heavy, some days not.. it would be worth tracking for the whole season (or 2 or 3) just to see what i average when im just going out and having fun vs taking the bike on a motocamp trip...

 

[AngelFZ]

The "seems" is precisely because I was not really tracking the miles.
I reset the tripmeter (A) counter to zero after every fill up but it is not fair to compare:

The stock bike would give me some 220-230 miles
Then I changed the exhaust and the numbers went to the 200+ range (with premium gas).
After changing to regular gas it went to the 200- range.

Keep in mind I'm not an aggressive rider but now I'm riding more agressibly than when I just got the bike (in terms of acceleration) so since the overall riding conditions (the bike and the way I'm riding now) have changed, it is nor fair to do a simple comparison.


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