Query Approved.

Brother in my personal opinion, there's no point in literally wasting away 4-5rs per litre of petrol when you buy the so called premium petrol. The premium petrols have only added lubricants/solvents or whatever the hell you wanna call them which don't do much to your engine's smoothness. You may think that the engine is much smoother than before but that's just in the mind. I did a double check on this funda when my friend gave me keys to his bike and a 500rs note to fill her up. He always used premium petrol but this time I filled in normal petrol. Guess what He didn't feel any change at all in the engine's sound / performance / harshness or anything. when He was almost done with the normal petrol I told him that I filled normal petrol in her FZ16 and since then He's been using normal petrol and is quite happy with it.

I too never ever use premium petrols coz quite frankly they are just another way for the big companies to suck more money outta you.

there IS a palpable difference when Shell Super unleaded petrol is used, at least for me.

Pure petrol without any adultration is the best possible fuel for indian bikes. Fill normal petrol at a reliable petrol pump and fill from the same petrol pump always. Occasional use of Speed or Premium is also advisable.

Since your bike has an engine compression ratio of <10.0:1, it would be best to stick to normal unleaded fuel from a reputed petrol pump.

More and more Indian bikes are now coming with FI option, also there are many choices of fuel..like xtra premium from IOC and speed BPC. Both these branded gasolines contain cleaning agents and friction busters and claims to be better burning fuels. while IOC in their website says that xtra premium is a better option for new generation cars it says nothing about the use of same in bikes. Usually its understood that high octane petrol's like xtra premium and speed are good options for engines with high compression ratrios and F1 engines are comparatively high compression engines. however, there are fundamental changes between a car engine and bike engine.

Is it advisable to use high octane petrol in new generation Indian F1 bikes? unlike a car engine where combustion chamber and gear box are separated and is lubricated differently bike engine is one unit and same lubricant is used to cool and lubricate all the component including pistons and gear box (this is why using car lubricant with friction busters are not at all advisable as bike engine oil). in such a situation is it advisable to use petrol with friction busters ? also how does the cleaner burning fuels perform in FI bike engine? can anyone throw some light on this?


a high octane petrol like xtra premium contains friction busters, cleaning agents and burns more efficiently. clearly there is a difference in the composition and it is not a marketing gimmick completely. however the question is, is it advisable to use it in bikes or not? what would be the long term repercussions ?

Also, about one year back my friends CBZ classic was opened up for de-carbonation by his mechanic who has been working on his bike ever since the completion of free services. he said that the bikes internals where surprisingly cleaner compared to other bikes with same amount of kilos. he has always used high octane petrol like speed and switched over to xtra premium when it became available. however i am not aware how does it affect the long term engine life..(its actually experienced that ethanol mixed fuels results in degeneration of certain components in car engines unless its ready for receiving such fuel)

Personally, I'm using normal unleaded petrol from HP pumps since I bought my R15. I'm also confused as many people offer different advice regarding the fuel to use on the R15. Manual says "use premium unleaded gasoline only". Never had any problem yet using normal fuel.

R15 owners, please throw some light... what does yamaha officially recommend? I read somewhere that premium fuels like speed/xtra premium have higher octane numbers and can damage some specific engines...

Which petrol?

Unleaded petrol from a reliable pump as Shell.

As per my mechanic, high octane fuels burn at a higher temperature than Unleaded. Indian bike engines are not built to quite withstand that temperature safely. Plus, you'd never find ONE ad which suggests you use high octane fuel on an Indian bike!!

Why risk it? The company manual would tell you the same. Unleaded.

Well in Bangalore normal unleaded petrol at Shell is about Rs. 4 more than the other pumps. Last time decided to use HP instead.

Fuels have activation energies and if the compression is high enough that it can provide energy higher than the activation energy and lead to autoignition which is something you don't want to happen inside an engine. Octane ratings indicate the ability of the fuel to withstand autoiginition, the higher the octane rating the more resistant it is to autoignition. The octane rating of a fuel is usually boosted by additives which raise the activation energies but it doesn't change the energy content of the fuel so I'm not sure if the mechanic is right in saying that that higher octane fuels burn at higher temperatures.

None of the Indian bikes have compression ratios that would warrant higher octane fuels than the normal unleaded which is about RON 90. BTW the premium petrols we get are not higher in octane rating but the same unleaded with additives which are supposed to boost engine performance (higher octane fuels don't boost engine performance, they allow for higher compression).

So it turns out to be that using normal unleaded petrol is the cheaper, better and safer bet?

Bikes in India use low compression ratio so normal fuel is just perfect.
we don't really need a premium fuel in our bikes,
they don't rev high, used for city commutes mostly, low end power is not great.

Stick to normal fuel.

I heard somewhere that petrol from BP pumps are more reliable. Well i use speed in my p220 and its good i guess. Any fuel won't harm your machine so you can just try out and experience yourself if you are picking up any change. feed your baby the best it can digest and make use of it.

Use normal unleaded petrol.
Premium isnt really meant for bikes. Besides there is no significant change observed in case of premium petrol except for the cost difference.

But always be alert while filling petrol at a petrol pump. Some people try to act smart and fool you with the meter. Dont let urself get distracted.

Drive safe.