Comment re Octane rating
Conventional wisdom does point toward running higher octane in high compression engines. However, the recent Suzuki fuel injected engines defy that wisdom. I own a 2003 1000cc Suzuki V-Strom as well as the Burgman 650. The Compression on the V-Strom twin is 11.3:1. It runs sweet on 87 octane gas. It runs bad on higher octane. Guys were putting in higher octane and experiencing "fart stalls" when coming to a stop. Quite a few posts on the V-Strom list about that. A couple of guys had the engine backfire and blow the injector bodies off. The solution was always to go back to 87 octane. No more problems. I experienced the "fart stall" problem several times on the one tank of high-test that I put in the V-Strom. That engine, for sure, likes 87 octane.
Based on that experience, I've only run 87 octane in the Burgman 650. It runs nice on it - no pinging whatsoever. I've done almost 4,000 miles on 87 octane so far. I'm not going to experiment with anything else. Also, here in the Mid-west the mid-grade gasolines contain grain alcohol - which I would rather not put in my engines.