My Softail is just 3 years old, and I have always ran premium U/L fuel, recently called at my usual servo, and none available! as I needed it there and then I filled with ordinary U/L, well I have now done 200 klms and it is running absolutely great, no pinging or popping , no extra heat and just as much get up and go!

Does anyone else use standard fuel or would I still be better going back to premium?

Will it harm my ride eventually if I stick with the cheaper fuel.?

Brother from what i heared and first hand expreince, the bike doesn't need Premium U/L..especially Shell..i too filled up with shell thinking its a better fuel, bike was sick as a dog even took it back to the dealer...they could not find a problem, until i said i use P U/L then a there he told me to not use it anymore, and the bike has been great ever since...

No idea really except that they recommend the Premium stuff. I have noticed that Mobil now have Unleaded, Premium95 and Premium 98. The Mazda6 has to run Premium so I'm sort of used to paying the extra. Personally I usually fill up at the local Caltex with Vortex. (A private owned servo, support a local) Petrol is a bit like the Oil subject, so many conflicting stories. However I do stay well clear of the Woolies petrol, which is also "Caltex", but someone told me that these outlets are usually filled with the lower quality of the fuel range. A mechanic friend rekons he can tell the difference with motors that has used the Woolies brand of fuel, when he pulls them down.....Let the debate begin.....lol

On another note I was listening to a motoring guru on the radio a couple of days ago and he was saying that Premium unleaded fuel has additives in it that stop it from going off as quick as plain unleaded. In other words if you only use your mower or whippersnipper not very often, then it's best to use the Premium, doesn't go stale and gum up your carby as quick. Most of us would be riding often enough for this not to be a problem.

Personal opinion, and I'm passionate about this but may be all in my head, IF you do use premium...

I ONLY use BP Ultimate.

Shell is not bad, but I reckon Mobil is no good and that Caltex Vortex stuff is useless!!

You might not notice on a HD but honestly if u use the above different fuels from full fresh tank on for example a modern injected Jap turbo car and I'm sure you'll feel big differences.

dont use the e10 mix not a good idea .......

i use mobil or bp fuels if i can get em when the gauge sez it needs a drink ......

i found on my ducati it liked the 95 the harley it makes fuck all diff

STD unleaded is all you need

ALL FUEL in WA comes from the BP refinery at Kwinana

I always use ultimate
but I do recall having a discussion on fuels with a Ducati indy shop owner, where they do a lot of dyno race tuning, and he stated clearly that time and time again 95 and 98 fuel gave the same power readings on the dyno, and you could not tell the difference
before I got a tts, bike pinged chronically even with the ultimate
I highly suspect that correctly tuned, with non race compression ratios, 95 would work well
A few years ago, after a service on an fxr, I noticed on the test ride that it ran extremely well, and was incredibly smooth. I commented regarding this, and discovered it was running bp100
there was a noticeable difference in that case
I did a "hot up" on a softy(way back) and it was pretty aggressive (more than 200psi cranking) and it was a little difficult to tune for street regardless of fuel used
In with the 7 point octane booster, and what a dream come true. So easy to tune, and the engine became so flexible in its power output
I will continue to "waste?" my money on ultimate, makes me feel better anyhow

Ive used premium and didnt like it.....to much pinging and only 250klm out of a tank

Ive used the normal unleaded no probs and get 290 klm

I have also used E10 and found that heaps better than any of them 315 klm a tank

Only my 2 cent

BP ultimate or Vortex 98 in our bikes. No real evidence, but like petrol reps say, it's just cleaner....

I'm a premium junky, use 95/98 in everthing I've got, mowers, quad, boat, chainsaws etc. Remember I ran my XR6 ute from new in '93-06 (300 000KM) on nothing but 95 or better and NEVER touched injectors, had a mis fire or poor starts. Good enought for me...Premium was pretty new in 93 I remember....

The guys in the US are pretty informed on their octanes, does make a difference if in the desert or altitude I imagine.

 

MMMMMM.........Very interesting, I believe all fuel (no brand) comes from Singapore, distributed to their branded tanks at the fuel farms here in Australia, a splash of colour added to make it look like Shell, BP, Caltex etc and then distributed to the servo's.

Yes, the premium unleaded has more addditves to clean it up and a higher octane. As was stated earlier, if you let stuff sit (boats are a good one) for any length of time and normal unleaded fuel dries up (especially in the carby) it leaves behind a shiny film that flakes off and blocks jets and injectors etc. They then have to be acid washed to remove the gunk. (expensive exercise, had to have the boat done)

As for performance, much of a muchness I reckon (but I do use premium)

2c

I use standard unleaded in my 04 nighttrain and my XR6, with no issues, I have tried premium but found no ferformance gain but a decrease in fuel economy.

must be different set ups, even as far back as when i was racing motocross.....shell vortex is bad for cars and worse for bikes, burns too dry and fucks the valves. premium fuels go off way quicker than regular even can go off in as little as 5 days, ask an owner of a 4 stroke dirtbike how hard it is to start on stale fuel and associated probs...lol.
i use caltex vortex or bp ultimate.............and petrol suppliers are in the same category as used car salesmen,lawyers,etc if u know what im gettin at.
my 5 cents worth....

Hey Ozroder, can you shed any light on fuel storage and refineries in the southern states ???

Read all of this and counted the number of brands of fuel and the number of types per brand and divided by the number of tanks at the port and then I remembered the PIPES that run from yard to yard around the port area and now I know the same as what I used to know.
Shell 98 chews motors if the tune is only a tad lean.
BP supply most of the 98 in Oz
and ............................................................................................. fuck it

Did get some E96 from a no name indy in the back of nowhere last week and the bike ran cooler and went 50k further on that tank and its the only E fuel I've ever used due to political views concerning cane farmers and Gov grants
So that puts me back where I allready was again.

I run along the same lines as AKA...run premium unleaded in the city mostly but when I head out of the city,

I usually only fill her up with normal unleaded because the price difference is so much, especially in

Gerladton when I am visiting my brother there. Bike seems to run fine on regular unleaded with no pinging.

 

My 97' Dyna runs just fine on reg. unleaded but just recently i filled my KLR 650[ Road Trail) with reg unleaded, i normally use e10 without any obvious problems EXCEPT i got 50% more k's doing the same sort of riding on the reg unleaded ,unbloody believable, so i've filled her up again on reg, unleaded and will see if the same thing happens again. I recently read something from RACQ saying that you burn 7% more fuel if you use e10 but 50% What the!!

Soapbox2627- I only MOSTLY run on premium unleaded in the city because thats what I was told to run the bike on

when I took delivery - the owners manual for my Dyna says to use 91 (95 RON) octane fuel: I don't understand all

the techincalities of the different fuel or even different ratings beween here and the USA. I suppose the point is that

I don't really notice any difference in the way my bike runs between regular and premium unleaded....like you said, its

the cost that does come into the equation as well - if the two fuels are very similar in price, I use what the manual says,

if not, I use the normal unleaded more....maybe the fuel companies are clever at marketing and have as all fooled!!

Cheers man

You get what you pay for, the better/dearer fuel is better in the long run for your enine. The standard unleaded is filled withal sorts of sit and the premium is acleaner fuel with some adatives. You will have less trouble with build up and dirty injectors using premium fuels.

I have old ute and it is outta sight with performance since using premium.

Just checked manuel for both my bikes , was suprised that none of them say use premium . only say unleaded 91-95 will give the std unleaded a go , have always put premium in but to be honest have thought on many ocasion i could be putting stale fuel in