[JKerstinJ]

The owner's manual calls for regular gas. Some people mention using premium. I have read you should not use a higher octane than the factory recommended. What is your opinion and what do you run? Has anyone tried both and waht were the results?

Janine :?

 

[billmeek]

Janine,

There's a pretty good thread discussing fuel at :

http://burgmanusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1572

Hope this helps,

 

[pauljo]

The AN650 runs very well on 87 octane. Mine will occasionally (but not always) put out a little more power with mid-grade gas. I think it depends on elevation, temperature, humidity - maybe phase of the moon. I haven't really figured it out. It clearly ran stronger on mid-grade when I was touring through South Dakota, but around where I live it makes no difference. Putting high test in it does nothing productive - in fact I think it has a bit less power. You can't go wrong with running 87 octane.

 

[Analytical]

The dealer who sold me my Burgman recommended 89 octane for the first 600 mi (break-in period), and said that 87 octane is fine after that. But his reasoning had nothing to do with the octane per se. He said that (around here at least) the higher octane gas has more detergents in it, so it's better for the engine during break-in.

True fact, or a line of bull? Couldn't tell you. (I'm a computer geek, not a chemical engineer.) But 89 octane isn't that much more expensive.

 

[pauljo]

But 89 octane isn't that much more expensive.

In the area of the mid-west that I live in, 89 octane mid grade is laced with 20% ethanol (corn alcohol). Most of the states here have laws that the ethanol laced mid-grade cannot sell for more than 87 octane regular, since it costs less to produce corn alcohol than to refine gasoline. Sometimes they are the same price, but more often, the 89 octane is several cents per gallon cheaper than 87 octane. So I burn the cheaper mid-grade occasionally in the scooter. My car runs better on the 87 octane, and my V-Strom insists on the 87 octane (it will sometimes backfire and stall when stopping if I use higher octane gas). The scooter doesn't really seem to care which grade I use.