Back in '85? The Environmental Protection Agency forced a large chunk of the lead in gasoline to be removed
(lead removal actually started in 1975). At the time I was riding a KZ1000K2 that
loved premium...Union 76 92 Octane to be exact. After the lead levels dropped the mighty KZ started pinging under a load
(loud and audible) and the performance level dropped off significantly. The bike had an 85 Mph speedo and fixed engine timing
(I threw the 85 Mph speedo thing in just because that was mandated by the government too). Anywho to fix the pinging I had to slot the stator plate to retard the fixed timing to get the KZ to run on the new fuel without pinging. This degraded the already degraded performance even more. In the end I just sold the Kawasaki.
Moral of the story...be thankful,
be very thankful that all current bikes run fine on Regular
