What kind of petrol do you use in your NC700X?

[mburgess]

I was just wondering what other people use in their NC700X.

I usually only use the expensive 92 or 93 octane (in USA). Am I wasting my money? When I had a Kawasaki Ninja I only used higher octane as well, but that was more of a race bike.

 

[Beemerphile]

Am I wasting my money?

Yes. Any octane over the level needed serves you no purpose. It is built to run on regular. That is one of its many advantages. I'd make use of it.

 

[turbodieseli4i6]

87 octane no ethanol is the best bet. This engine doesn't require any higher than that, higher octane is a waste of money on this bike.
With that said, I choose 91 octane if it doesn't have ethanol and 87 does.

 

[Flaferalcat]

I only use 87 oct. I used 91 once in the Ozark mountains, and the bike felt less punchy in the lower rpm's. Higher octane numbers = slower burn rates, so there's also 'theoretically' a possibility of extra carbon buildup from incomplete fuel burning, as the NCX has low piston compression ratio. (<11:1) Ninja's and all of it's sibs and cousins use a higher piston compression ratio that raises combustion pressure and heat, (typically 12:1 to 14:1 or even higher) and therefore need a slower more stable burning (higher octane) level of fuel. Air cooled bikes recommend higher octane because of the extra heat generated by the engines, even though the compression ratios are usually lower. (average about 9.5:1 to 10:1)

 

[670cc]

I use 87 pump octane in most areas. In Colorado at higher elevations, 85 will work although the manual calls for a minimum of 86.

Are you wasting your money? I think some people pay more for what they perceive to be "the good stuff" and they get some kind of gratification from that. The NC700, on the other hand, absolutely doesn't need premium, and won't run any different either way. You will have paid money for nothing.

I don't know what kind of Ninja you had, but the '86-'07 Ninja 250 (Ninjette) called for 87 octane, and I believe the later 250J model did as well.

 

[jtkirk]

As others have said 87 is fine

 

[670cc]

Before we just repeat everything that's already been said in a half dozen similar threads from the past, Google this phrase "nc700-forum.com octane", and it will show you some of the older threads. (I didn't feel like merging this one with the last three from 2015).

NC700 and Fuel Quality
Jul 4, 2015

Premium Speed
Feb 11, 2015

Fuel Choice?
Jan 9, 2015

 

[Grey1one]

You're not only wasting money with high octane, you're also wasting gas as the NC doesn't have high enough compression to burn all of the fuel each cycle.

 

[Olythom]

Regular gas / ethanol-free.
>T

 

[Deckyon]

I go mid level octane. The fact I write off all the gas for business, I dont worry. The bike is made to run on the lowest (89 or so) doesnt mean you cant run higher. I honestly dont think it really matters.

The biggest thing that matters is Ethanol... lower the better...

 

[670cc]

. . . you're also wasting gas as the NC doesn't have high enough compression to burn all of the fuel each cycle.

I don't follow that logic. That it gets such good fuel economy suggests that the NC burns the all the fuel. Unburnt fuel would an emissions concern. While high compression engines, particularly really high like diesels, are more efficient in terms of extracting kinetic energy from the heat cycle, I don't think that means that the lower compression engine doesn't burn all it's fuel.

A truer statement would be that the NC doesn't have a high enough compression to have pre-ignition/knocking/detonation/pinging problems using "regular" low octane fuel.

 

[Grey1one]

The higher the octane, the slower it burns, which is great in a high compression engine because there is more "squish". The fuel being in a much more compressed/smaller area which means the flame doesn't need to "travel" very far to burn up all of the mixture.
The fuel is more spread out in the cylinder of a low compression engine, the slow burn rate of high octane can cause unburned fuel to cycle out with the exhaust stroke.

 

[TigerDude]

You're not only wasting money with high octane, you're also wasting gas as the NC doesn't have high enough compression to burn all of the fuel each cycle.

Octane is the measure of susceptibility to compression ignition. That's it. There may be an advantage to lower octane in that a small bit of pre-detonation (usually ignited from pressure from the flame wall) may help the mix.

Same energy in reg & prem, same basic chemical properties in the actual burn. Higher octane just resists ignition without a spark.

Something to note: places other than USA may have different scales for Octane. US is the R + N / 2. One of the 2 test methods gives a higher number & is used other places.

 

[208rider]

I use regular grade octane, but I get the ethanol free gas whenever I can. We have quite a few places that sell it in Idaho. You can find where to get it in your area by going to the pure-gas.org website.

 

[L.B.S.]

As I have mentioned before in one or two of the 5 million or so threads on this subject lol, I put the lowest cheapest octane ethanol swill that is recommended by Honda in both my bikes without undue concern or cause for alarm, and have never suffered any ill effects because of it. But what I also do, is to randomly put in some gasoline anti freeze, and run a tank full of the spendy highest octane, highest cleaning agent techron stuff (claimed, anyway) through every once in a blue moon, and prior to storing my bikes if required.

Nothing to do with delusional performance or better mpg's, or whatever. Simply because of the *supposed* possible benefits of the cleaning stuff, and the (speculation on my part, I've read it somewhere, but can't say when or where) belief that the octane rating of gasoline drops after a more lengthy time period of sitting around exposed to air.

So for storage, it's a full to the brim tank of Chevron 94 non ethanol, highest techron, and the couple oz's recommended amount of fuel stabilizer. It's entirely possible I'm wasting the $5.00 difference in 94 vs 87, every 6 months and once per year storage, and maybe fuel stabilizer is just 99% kerosene and 1% snake oil, but for me it's at least a tried and true thing I've done for decades with zero problems, so it's a habit.

If someone were to conclusively prove to me putting in the expensive stuff every tank would do a better job of keeping the engine guts all sparkly clean and prevent carbon build up, yadda yadda, then maaaaybe I would consider it, but I still look at it as an unnecessary waste of my hard earned money, considering no fuel related problems have ever occurred in any of my motorcycles I've ever owned...

 

[TigerDude]

I learned by hanging out with a tanker truck driver who was taking away some fuel oil dregs from me that what makes Chevron fuel Chevron fuel is a little can of Techron the driver adds to the tank. So there at least is definitely something in it.

 

[supertux1]

From the (older) owner's manual I have:

Refuelling (Continued)
Fuel type: Unleaded petrol only
Fuel octane number: Your motorcycle is designed to use Research Octane Number (RON) 91 or higher.

Edit: It goes on to say 'To protect the engine and catalytic converter, and... Using lower octane petrol will result in decreased engine performance.'

It also says not to put in any ethanol blend greater than %10 or methanol greater than %5

Unless the gas station has separate pumps and hoses, you probably put a gas hose full of whatever the last guy put in his car when you fill up so it probably doesn't really matter and you're not getting what you think you're getting.

Use whatever you like, just beware of the E15 pumps.

 

[670cc]

From the (older) owner's manual I have:

Refuelling (Continued)
Fuel type: Unleaded petrol only
Fuel octane number: Your motorcycle is designed to use Research Octane Number (RON) 91 or higher.

The OP is in the US so we have been talking in terms of Pump Octane, or R+M/2. The RON number will be higher but I never see pumps in the US using the RON value. 91 RON equals about 87 octane (R+M/2) that we would see on pumps in the US.

 

[supertux1]

The OP is in the US so we have been talking in terms of Pump Octane, or R+M/2. The RON number will be higher but I never see pumps in the US using the RON value. 91 RON equals something like 86 or 87 Pump Octane.

Yeah it's the average of RON and MON aka 'Anti Knock Index'

In any case, it's a 6500 RPM water cooled half-car engine. Put whatever is cheapest in it and go ride. Maybe a bit of Seafoam if you still have the bike at 50,000 miles.

 

[OneGun]

Been running absolutely nothing but regular 87 in mine 4 years/8,500 miles. That's all it's ever going to get. Gets north of 60 mpg every time and runs great. No need for anything more whatsoever.