Triumphrat

razman

do you use regular unleaded? premium unleaded? (wondered if that little bit of octane would help)

and lastly, do you put in a lead additive? thanks, Rick

Garioch43

You should use premium unleaded.

I don't use a lead additive, but don't do a lot of miles.

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Sam Murray

Aberdeen, Scotland

rambo

I use a lead additive.I run on normal unleaded now.Built an engine with 8.5 compression pistons.Mine is a 71 t120 imported back to the uk from the states so it had been using unleaded.Never had a problem with valve seat recession.40,000 miles and the valves have just been lapped in once during a rebuild.Your 66 model would benefit from higher octane and a bit of lead substitute

Redmoggy

Simple answer would be suck it see. Standard compression for your bike was 8.5-1 so you may get away with normal unleaded. Try it, if the old girl pinks go for a higher octane. I have 9.0-1 pistons in my 66 and larger Bonnie valves. It runs ok on 95 but i like 98.

Rod

394c

I use super unleaded (no particular make).
I had to fill up with normal unleaded recently and found a noticable reduction in performance and first kick starting.

cognosticator

I just bought a 2011 S3 three weeks ago and I have been feeding her premium from the start. I thought it was required.

Dickie Doyle

You're all very lucky, here in California we have terrible gas. 91 is premium and it's all E10 (10% ethanol)

henryanthony

Octane is rated differently in different countries. U.S. premium with 10% ethanol would be rated about 97 octane in Europe.

JohnA

The craze for special valve seats that would work ok on unleaded petrol was a con, and a surprising (and disappointing) number of engineering firms sepcialising in 'classic' cars & bikes cashed in on people's fears. If you were running an old iron-head bike or car, maybe it would benefit from (or in some cases definitely need) new steel seat inserts to replace the existing iron seats, when switching to unleaded. Otherwise, there's nothing to gain and a lot to lose (a fair bit of money, and the risk of loose seats in the future). The additives might act as anti-knock agents but unless running unusually high compression, there shouldn't be any knocking/pinking/pinging or whatever you call it on straight superunleaded. On straight ordinary unleaded there might be some pinking on heavy throttle openings, but it should be avoidable with careful riding.

Snakeoil

That's an interesting comment that I've never heard before. But, I do know that there are a lot of vintage bikes running around and I'm doubtful that they've had their seats replaced with hardened steel inserts. Same goes for vintage cars, which probably get a lot more miles on them than vintage bikes.

regards,
Rob