So on my Spyder I did 87. On my 900 is it still 87 or 93? Sometimes I can find a non ethanol gas station as well

It is always informative to read the owners manual.

Yep. Minimum 87 in North America. Recommend is 91. Which in America we have 87. 89. 93

93 Octane is quite rare in our location of Southern California... 91 is available at every station. It appears that 93 is more popular in the mid and eastern parts of the country!

rykerforums wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 10, 2019 10:47 am

93 Octane is quite rare in our location of Southern California... 91 is available at every station. It appears that 93 is more popular in the mid and eastern parts of the country!

Guess we’re lucky in Florida, Mostly all grades of fuel available and year round weather for riding is great too.

If your engine does not ping whilst accelerating using 87 octane, you are already at "optimal performance", and all higher octane does is drain your wallet faster.

All octane does is prevent PRE-IGNITION. If no pinging, no pre-ignition present.

StridersR7 wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 08, 2019 7:29 am

Yep. Minimum 87 in North America. Recommend is 91. Which in America we have 87. 89. 93

And 91. 93 is rare even here in the Central US but non ethanol 91 is what I use if it is available. Almost all of the pumps around here are 87,89 and 91 and a few with non ethanol 91 or as they call it Premium Unleaded. My Kawasaki Concours requires 91 and I just put that in the Ryker also.

My Polaris Slingshot called for PREMIUM. After break-in, I tried mid-grade - NO pinging under hard acceleration. After that, I had ever so slight pinging with HARD acceleration using 87. Since I NEVER accelerated THAT hard, it was a non-issue to use REGULAR. Occasional pinging is no big deal. We had an '91 Ford Fairmont. It had a "feedback fuel system" to squeeze every inch out of the fuel. Consequently it had A LOT annoying pinging with recommended fuel. We traded it in at around 60,000 miles, and had no engine issues/damage.

Just read the owners manual said 87 is good.

I ran on 91 same as your 87, here in New Zealand no pinging but I was told it's not good for the injectors or plugs it will dirty them, my other 2 weel bike mates had similar fixes due to low octane. I see it as no different to the use of oils full synthetic, semi synthetic, mineral, all do same job but ones purer than the other making it better.