Pumping ethyl you twit...
As a sidebar.. Ethyl corporation is HQ in Richmond, VA.
Why is he a twit when it was impossible to know who you were responding to since you didn't quote him?
I regularly use 89 octane-anything higher is an exception on my part. The bike runs fine with 13k miles on it using the 89 octane fuel over the life of the bike so far. I have no pinging or pre-ignitition.
Fred
He's supposed to read my mind...
I wasn't on the same wavelength as you were at the time, I only had one cup of coffee in me.
Make it a bigger cup next time.....
I run no less then Shell 93 V-Power. I stuck CAM2 104 in her; but at $14 a gallon it was a luxury I will not repeat.
Generally speaking, you'll get the highest power (not necessarily the best economy) out of the lowest octane you can run without pinging or knocking.
That being said, these engines run fairly high compression ratios, hence the owners manual recommendation to use 90 or better.
I ran on 87 for several very cold months after first getting the bike with no issues, and now that things are warming up have moved to mid grade (typically 89 around here) and the bike's been happy as a clam as far as I can tell. However, that is also commuting and so I almost never red line the engine. I'm sure if I did that on a regular basis in the 100+ deg summer heat, I would have to go up to premium.
I've experienced no issues last Summer approaching redline in 100+ heat running 89. But the most destructive pinging will occur at lower RPMS under a heavy load - bogging the engine. I have not had an issue with that either.
I am not sure that all preignition is always going to be audible. I don't think it is a good idea to run lower octane than recommended by the manufacturer.