Hey,
I've searched through the forums and haven't seen a real consensus on the topic. I think they recommend 89 octane in all years? I'm soon to have a 2014.
Does there seem to be any correlation between piston crack/land issues and fuel used?
My understanding of the minimum octane that can/should be used in a motor relates to the compression ratio used. This bike has a 12.2:1 compression ratio which in a normal situation, that kind of compression rate, if you wanted to get maximum power out of it you'd have to maximize timing advance, in doing so, you'd need a high octane fuel. Under high load, you'd need race fuel with 100+ Octane. Modern cars use high compression ratio's and run on regular gas. The way they get away with that is by using knock sensors. When the knock sensors detect ping, it retards the timing until it stops. When the timing is retarded, power drops, hence why some cars recommend a higher octane, not to stay safe (the computer will take care of that with timing), but to keep power output where it's supposed to be.
So that brings me to this bike. It sounds as if they don't use knock sensors. If that's the case, there has to be some other capability to detect knock, and retard timing to accommodate (at the cost of power output). Otherwise the engine is designed to run on 100+ octane fuel with a compression rate that high.
Thoughts? Is there another method that these motors detect knock?
Here's a chart that shows the relationship of compression to octane (from here) Compression Ratio Fuel Octane Chart: (All You Need To Know)
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I've searched through the forums and haven't seen a real consensus on the topic. I think they recommend 89 octane in all years? I'm soon to have a 2014.
Does there seem to be any correlation between piston crack/land issues and fuel used?
My understanding of the minimum octane that can/should be used in a motor relates to the compression ratio used. This bike has a 12.2:1 compression ratio which in a normal situation, that kind of compression rate, if you wanted to get maximum power out of it you'd have to maximize timing advance, in doing so, you'd need a high octane fuel. Under high load, you'd need race fuel with 100+ Octane. Modern cars use high compression ratio's and run on regular gas. The way they get away with that is by using knock sensors. When the knock sensors detect ping, it retards the timing until it stops. When the timing is retarded, power drops, hence why some cars recommend a higher octane, not to stay safe (the computer will take care of that with timing), but to keep power output where it's supposed to be.
So that brings me to this bike. It sounds as if they don't use knock sensors. If that's the case, there has to be some other capability to detect knock, and retard timing to accommodate (at the cost of power output). Otherwise the engine is designed to run on 100+ octane fuel with a compression rate that high.
Thoughts? Is there another method that these motors detect knock?
Here's a chart that shows the relationship of compression to octane (from here) Compression Ratio Fuel Octane Chart: (All You Need To Know)
