Rockin_John wrote on 06/16/08 at 23:23:13:seanbo wrote on 06/16/08 at 22:27:58:I know I'm new to the savage, but I have noticed a skicker on my bike on the frame, on the right side of the forks yoke, and it has all kinds of info and on it it says fuel : unleaded gas 91 min.
Just went and looked at all mine, and the requirements on the 87 is for: :Low lead or unleaded gasoline. Both of the 99s have the recommendation for a minimum of 91 octane calculated via RON. At a total cost of about 20˘ - 30˘ per fill, I've been running 93 octane most of the time in all of my bikes. However, I have to say that when I have filled up with 87 or 89 I've not noticed a difference in performance or any engine noise.
The way I understand it, we're talking apples and oranges here. Or to be more precise, miles and kilometers
RON is a way of measuring octane and most(?) European and Japanese motor manufacturers use it in their technical specs. However, it's not the method used at most American pumps - if you look at the little yellow sticker on the side, you'll see that it's measured as "(R+M)/2".
In that formula, R = RON (which actually means Research Octane Number), and M=MON, which means Motor Octane Number. Both are measures of the performance of a fuel - MON typically refers to performance under a higher severity load than RON (like racing or aviation applications), so for a given fuel, MON is typically a lower number than RON. Anyway, the reason this is important is that the "pump octane" is an average of the two numbers. So, if you have a fuel with say a MON of 83 and a RON of 91....
(91+83)/ 2....
dang, I have to take my socks and shoes off for that one.So what this means is that if Suzuki says "91 or higher RON".... the 87 gas at an American pump may already meet that spec.
For further info -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_ratingY'all have fun with the cheap gas, now! (Just broke $4/gallon here at the cheap places today. Urg!)
Regards -
Todd Perry