Has anyone ever tried running plain ole regular as in 87 octane in a GS. I was told the ECU can compensate, but I've also been told that the bike does not like it at all. I've been caught several times at stations that did not sell premium and wondered what the results would be for the GS.
I put about 6 gal of 87 octane on top of about 2 gal of 89 (I've been cheaping out lately and often run 89) when I was in Death Valley on Sat. 87 was all they had. I had the bike loaded for 2up camping and had my son on as pillion, and made a pretty decent spirited ride 150 miles back to camp with no ill effects that I could notice. In fact that bike ran flawlessly.
I run standard UL and PLU and have found stuff all difference in milage and performance,.. have nerver run the 10% ethenol stuff in bike yet 07 12GS
The 1200GS has a knock sensor that should be able to compensate for the low octane fuel. Previous models have an exchange plug that tells the engine management that it needs to alter the timing for the low octane.
I did ride the 1200 GS some 100 kilometers with 76 octan fuel in Russia. No problems at all! Well the bike aprox. 1,5 Liter more as usual on 100km and I did not try max. speed, but I had no difference in the performance...
I run 87 all the time. I've even run 85 in the 1200 and it's been just fine. I've run with ethanol and without.... Face it, the 1200 will run on anything resembling gasoline that you put in the tank.
With the exception of two tanks, I have run the cheapest stuff I could find for 43K miles with no issues. Jim
I have purposely tried, mistakenly pushed the wrong button, or had no choice to run the low octane fuel a few times. When I have, I get a noticeable ping on hard acceleration and the shift between fifth and overdrive is preignition city. My bike is well maintained too. I'd really be surprised if anyone can run 87 octane and I'll assume they are very light on the throttle, if they do. They way I see it, the only way to do it on my bike would require retarding the ignition and giving up some performance in the name of low grade fuel. Toby 2000 R1150GS
Fixed the color to make it readable. The R1100/1150 bikes do not have a knock sensor, so are less ameniable to low octane gas. Jim
I must be getting old since the blue on dark background is about impossible to read unless Im at smelling the screen distances. Regards, Matthew
Put me down in the cheap-o category. I run 87 with no problems at all. I don't notice a difference in mileage either. There was another thread I read on here about 2 weeks ago that was talking about better mileage with lower octane, but more power (full HP on the top end) with the high-test stuff. I am no chemist or chemical engineer, so I can't attest either way. Just food for thought. My 2cents, wvcajun
Typically I run 89 in it. I run 87 if I'm going to be just cruising on the highway on non 100 degree days. If it's hot and the bike is under any sort of load it knocks. Even if it's a cool day out, if I have 87 in and I am lugging the bike a bit, it'll knock. Last year I did a two-up week long ride and I got it to knock a few times, so I ran 91 in it then. The 1150 is pretty finicky.
24k on the last GS and 10k on this GS and I might treat it once every 6 months to nice gas. Since it is out of control, the cheapest tractor gas goes in mine. I went geek style at one point to calculate the cost/benefit. For the improvement in mileage I saw as compared to the added cost, it wasn't worth it and still was more of a luxury.
1.Remove LYB (yellow plug). 2.Remove Cat,replace w/ Y-Pipe. 3.Cut off O2 sensor to Cat. 4.Run any fuel you want. 5.40k trouble free,surge free miles on 1150GS.