Odd fuel observation

[slickt0mmy]

I just got back from a week-long trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains and ever since I got my bike it has sort of stuttered in the mid range RPM's (6500-8000), particularly in 5th gear. This causes the bike to bog down every once in a while when traveling at highway speeds.

This happened on the way down to the mountains and when discussing it with a friend of mine, I mentioned that I always put 87 octane fuel in my bike because that's what the manuel says to do. So just for kicks, I began filling the bike with 93 octane for the rest of the trip. Once all that 87 octane stuff was used up, the bike ran like a champ. No stuttering or bogging down of any kind. Does that seem weird to anyone else?

I've always heard that anything above 87 in a 250 is just wasting money but it really does seem to be running better with the 93 octane.

My bike has 10,000 miles on it now and has never had the valves adjusted, if that makes any difference. I'm not sure if that could contribute to this somehow but I thought it might be worth mentioning. Could that have anything to do with it?

[k-os]

Did the 93 octane happen to be ethanol free?

[az3200]

Originally Posted by slickt0mmy

I just got back from a week-long trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains and ever since I got my bike it has sort of stuttered in the mid range RPM's (6500-8000), particularly in 5th gear. This causes the bike to bog down every once in a while when traveling at highway speeds.

This happened on the way down to the mountains and when discussing it with a friend of mine, I mentioned that I always put 87 octane fuel in my bike because that's what the manuel says to do. So just for kicks, I began filling the bike with 93 octane for the rest of the trip. Once all that 87 octane stuff was used up, the bike ran like a champ. No stuttering or bogging down of any kind. Does that seem weird to anyone else?

I've always heard that anything above 87 in a 250 is just wasting money but it really does seem to be running better with the 93 octane.

My bike has 10,000 miles on it now and has never had the valves adjusted, if that makes any difference. I'm not sure if that could contribute to this somehow but I thought it might be worth mentioning. Could that have anything to do with it?

My bike does that too sometimes, but only like you described..steady throttle mid range rpms. I've chalked it up to needing a carb clean because it hasn't in atleast 7k.

I'm guessing this problem could be more than one thing.. maybe bad spark plugs, dirty air filter, bad gas, carbs need cleaning...or I could be completely wrong lol.
I'm curious to know though. You said you were in the mountains, would altitude have anything to do with it?

[slickt0mmy]

Originally Posted by az3200

You said you were in the mountains, would altitude have anything to do with it?

I was wondering the same thing. I'm from Ohio, so I'm close to sea-level pretty much all of the time, and then suddenly my bike is at 6,000 ft. Maybe that caused it to behave differently and the fuel really had nothing to do with it. I guess it should be noted that it was fine the entire way back as well though.

As for the ethanol, I'm pretty sure it was not ethanol free. We went to various stations (BP, Speedway, etc) and I don't remember any of them saying it was ethanol free fuel.