Is it really necessary to put the highest octane gasoline in my motorcycle?

Question

I just bought a 2005 HONDA CBR 600 F4i off of my friend, so I'm very new to motorcycles.

He told me he's always put 91 rating gasoline in. I was wondering if I could drop to the medium grade 89 or even try out the regular 87.

What are the effects? Could it possibly ruin the engine or other components? Would all this information be in the manual? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

What are you going to save , a buck on a fill up?

Answer 2

What's the point? Not like the bike is a gas pig. You will be saving pennys and probably not making the full horsepower the bike is capable of with anything less than 91.

Answer 3

you can run it on any gas but it will run S***y. you should run it on 91 or higher but you could run it on 89 it should be good.

Answer 4

Info should be in manual.....if not Honda dealer could tell you. I've had several motorcycles and have never used anything except 87 octane....look at it this way: with mpg and amount of riding you probably will do, the price difference between 87 & 91 most likely will not ammount to very much.

Answer 5

91-92 rating is the ideal octane for most motorcycle. puting below 91 octane  on it will make your engine prone to "knock" and could easily damage your engine. check the manual its there.

Answer 6

You'll have to r****d the timing if you want to get the same (or better) performance from 87 octane.

Answer 7

My bike calls for 91, and I can notice a difference in performance with lower octane.

Another piece of advice, inspect the pump well before gassing, because alot of them are using the 10% ethanol now and that stuff is c**p. I would never run that through any combustion engine that I own.

Answer 8

ethenol free 91 is the waay to go. your bike will run better. also gas containing ethenol tends to evaporate much faster

Answer 9

Just check ur owner's manual...it will tell you what to use for ur bike.

Answer 10

Your powertrain control module knows the best ratio to burn your gas at, and will accomodate all octanes equally. 91 octane burns cleaner, but 87 octane will work just fine. No, you're not going to ruin anything, either.

I used to run 91 octane in my K1200LT, but switched to 87 octane with absolutely no performance difference. Unless you run your bike on the track on Saturdays, you won't notice a difference, either.

Frankly, though, with motorcycles getting such good mileage anyway--even your CBR--putting 91 octane versus 87 octane isn't really that much more expensive in the long run.

Answer 11

Actually in theory you should run the lowest octane that you can get away with and still not hear engine detonation (pinging). The lower the octane the more power it can create because it burns faster. Higher octanes burn slower to counteract high compression ratios and combustion temperatures that cause preignition.

Answer 12

My wing burns 86 all day. Ill bet your RR requires 91. Yes its in the manual. Low octane can result in preignition problems and that will ruin pistons etc.

Answer 13

It is recommended.