opas ride - 2012-01-10 11:12 AM Thanks Ronnie for the great post...Right on IMHO......I worked for Ford for 30 yrs and did a lot of research on fuels. Just run what the Manufacturer reccommends and all will be well...I just do not understand people that buy $20,000 motorcycles, spend $10/15 on a beer and burger and then put the cheapest gas in bike they can find???? Go figure.....!!

 +1

rdbudd - 2012-01-10 11:23 AM Arkainzeye - 2012-01-10 9:29 AM DannyB - 2012-01-10 4:59 AM 91 to 93 octane has better/more additives. For example, Chevron gas, the higher the octane, the more TECHRON is added. In the last two years, our Chevron stations have all converted to BP. Shell is also about gone in our area. I still would prefer Chevron or better yet Sunoco. Bottom line is I try to stick to top tier gas for the top tier additives. Yes, I'm a bit anal about fuel. Get some bad gasoline in your scooter, car or truck and you'll find out why I'm like that! Saving $1.50 on a full tank isn't worth it to me. one thing i like about sunoco is they have a 91 octane where alot of gas station where i live go 87,89,93 and like the governments website shown, there is no advantage to running a higher octane than required. im personally not a face of of sunoco for political reasons. (ill keep them to myself). also i have to agree with you about getting BAD GAS.. this late summer i took my new 2011 vision on a group ride and we had to stop at some mom and paw gas station due to someone being very low on fuel. well we all filled up and with in 30 mins my motor was pinging.. i never heard any of my bikes ping before.. i surely didnt like it.. so i stopped and bought some octane booster. i was wondering if the gas was watered down or the 93 i thought i purchased was actually 87. ? The primary additives are the same in all brands and grades of gasoline, even no-name stations, and are mandated by federal law. Branded gasoline adds very tiny amounts of proprietary additives just so they can make the legal claim that their gas is different/better than somebody elses. Many areas of the country are now selling low grade gasoline with ethanol added to raise the octane rating. This is due to State and Federal mandates. Ethanol free gasoline is always better, if you can find it, regardless of octane rating. Run the lowest octane gas that you can without pinging or popping. Too high of an octane gas is not only a waste of money, but can actually cause other issues down the road (like carbon buildup). The gas at the Mom and Pop was most likely the proper octane level when it was put into their storage tank, but today's gasoline deteriorates rapidly. A station that sees very little business has gasoline that is old. Old gasoline loses octane rating as it ages, and above ground storage tanks accumulate water from the atmosphere as the tank "breathes" with temperature changes. The station owners don't do anything nefarious, like adding water or selling low grade as high grade, it's just the facts concerning storage and octane degradation. A busy Mom and Pop's gasoline is just as good as any branded gas. I delivered gasoline for many years to branded stations and unbranded stations. It all comes from the same common loading terminal tanks (octane specific, but not brand specific), and it all has the same additives, except for the extremely tiny amounts of proprietary additives, which is injected at a rate of 0.000121 gallon per gallon of gas for Shell branded gas. The other brands are similar. The BTU (energy) content is the same in all grades of gasoline. Higher octane fuel DOES NOT, in and of itself, make more power. Higher octane fuel allows one to run higher compression and more timing advance, which does make an engine more efficient, and produce more power. Gasoline which has had its octane rating artificially increased by the addition of ethanol has a LOWER BTU rating (less energy) than the same grade of gasoline without ethanol. 10% ethanol increases the octane rating 2 points, but has LESS energy content than non-ethanol blended gas of the same octane rating. Almost all off the shelf octane boosters only raise the octane rating a fraction of 1 point. Reading the fine print, one discovers that when they say it increases 2 points, they are talking about 2/10ths of an octane point. Marketing is marketing and gas is gas. Spend your money where it makes you happy. Ronnie

 Thank-you! I have been patiently waiting for someone to speak the facts. People have this idea if they spend more it has to be better. More expensive gasoline must be better than the cheaper juice. Most expensive oil must be better than less expensive oil. etc. If people would actually learn something about the products they buy instead of sucking up the advertising hype they could save tons of money.