i have felt a noticeable difference in the smoothness of my unicorn when i use Xtra premium... dont know if its psychological though

It would actually be difficult to quantify that so and so brand is better in such and such way.... Simply coz the quality across same brand differs even in COCO bunks!

But maybe we generalize our experience with a certain brand of fuel by taking an average of our experience with it across various bunks!

I have been associated with oil companies for the past 4 years and the field input is there's no noticeable difference except a commercial advantage for companies to cover up losses occuring due to subsidies and operations.

Now here's the catch :
whenever I fill in speed it is always a better riding experience as compared to normal ULP.This I have tried atleast 8-10 times and finally switched to full time usage of speed.

Just my thought.No reference to any particular oil company.

^^Might be the case, but *mostly* *everyone* perceives a better experience with a Premium fuel.

And keeping that in mind I don't think everyone must be feeling a purely psychological gain rather than a functionally better experience.

So definitely there must be some of the added benefits that oil companies mention in using their premium fuels!

^I only noticed a diff when I had switched to speed 97 long back , the performance was definitely better but engine used to heat up a lot.

The remaining fuels , they all seem the same to me , so I just fill up the normal gasoline.

Have tried Speed97 on my ride for about 4-5 tankfull, I *perceived* a smoother and cooler running engine.

Between normal and premium in other brands the difference is rarely perceivable and when it is, it just has resulted in more refinement from a engine POV. No idea about mileage coz I rarely check it.

But this is barring my experience with Shell norma and premium. The premium fuel of Shell i.e. Shell Super is well Superb! Till date my overall best experience with a fuel.

I was also curious about this whole XtraPremium / Non-XtraPremium stuff and once i happened to speak to one of the attendants at the petrol pump and following is excerpts from our conversation... Really don't know to what extent this is true but its convincing in a way...

The petrol gets transported in tankers and its practically not possible to have a separate tanker for premium / non-premium fuels due to logistical reasons... The petrol pump also gets some additives which should be added in the fuel in fixed proportions (1 drop per liter) in order to make it into a premium fuel... I became much more curious and asked him, "What if the petrol pump add less additive or no additive at all ???" for which, i got an answer, that's something which is really possible and many pumps do such practices Ever since then, i insist only on non-premium fuels , no matter how hard they try to convince me...

At the first place, its not sure whether the additive is added in the right proportion... Even if its added in the right proportion, donno if it makes any difference... Even if it gives 2-3 kms more per liter, it might be compensated with 4-5 rupees extra that is paid...

Smoothness between the two, is something which can't be quantified and is more of a feeling

The lack of proof to quantify their (Oil companies) theory only makes others (Bunks) make use of this to their advantage no? We as you said will have a psychological fixation that Premium is worth the extra buck, and this the local bunks might take advantage of when the actual fuel is ordinary. But in a different light i also think people would be able to spot something different with the fuel, and probably go to other bunks to verify this. It's always better IMO if we are able to somehow verify the authenticity of the fuel we are using, i regularly use Xtrapremium, and like praful said i presumed it to be better eventhough there's no difference in terms of figures or performance

on My R15 I felt no difference what so ever with any fuel... any pump... any location (Hyderabad or a remote town)...

Any thing I would have felt at one moment didn't last till the tank needs a refil.

I tried fuel from IOCL, HPCL & BPCL... regular unleaded and premium - barring Speed 97.

PS: another list of experiences is posted in previous page

Thank god for that! I thought i was the only one seeing how stupid this was!

And the petrol pump guys force you to fill this shit up coz they say they have no "normal" petrol left..who knows what is normal petrol and what is not! in india, you can't guarantee nothing..

and there was no noticable difference ever..in average or whatever..its like the psychological thing..just like ppl feel just fitting a k&n has made their 200 a 250..

almost all of our cars/bikes do not need high-octane coz they don't run high compression ratios..

Weird but true.. my bike returns more mileage when i fill in normal petrol compared to the higher octane petrol .

LOL! That is wierd...really!

Differing opinions from different bikers. Very interesting thread.

I second that Mithun. My Mach500 gives more mileage on regular unleaded than Shell super unleaded. But the smoothness is a little more on the super unleaded. I am shifting to speed 93 this time to check how speed works on my bull.

^^^ this is indeed true in some cases... Where is Satish???

His RTR started giving low mileage and upon Ravi's suggestion he switched to regular Unleaded from Speed. Voila, great difference in mileage