Super bikes on unleaded fuel.

[megsy]

Once upon a time, long long time ago, well in the 80's, I had 2 FJ 1100's, following the crowd into the servo I accidently put unleaded petrol in my 1100,
on that ride the grunt had gone & top speed was 200kmh, where it would do 230-240.

Now I own a super model FJ1100 in the year 2012, the same thing is happening, no matter which fuel I use, the grunt is gone & top speed is 200kmh,
this feels the same as in the 80's

Just wondering what the blokes that have owned pre unleaded bikes from 80 to now did, to maintain the loss of power due to unleaded petrol,
did you use additives, go richer or leaner or as some have said use moth balls in the fuel

[FJ111200]

Are you sure?   Not your memory playing tricks is it?

So how come all Jap bikes since 1973, so i believe, have been made to run on unleaded?

I once religiously ran a bike on unleaded until one day i pulled into a service station only to find leaded 4 star on sale, so i filled up and the only thing i noticed was that almost immediately the unleaded ran through the carbs the top end ran quietly.

I've got a couple of XS1100's and have run them on octane boosters to no noticable effect.

[megsy]

You must not ride hard enough 

I think a lot has to do with quality of fuel, I have been a car mechanic for 35 years, the first I started to notice towards the end of the 80's, cars started to
detonate or ping as we call it here under acceleration.

If a manufacturers suggested timing was 10 deg you could always get away with an extra 5 deg to boost performance, but from the late 80 into the 90's
you were lucky to get away with the recommended timing settings with out pinging.

Modern cars the timing is factory set & cannot be adjusted & also use knock sensors to retard timing if detonation is picked up, so poor quality fuel can be used &
the only noticeable factor is lower fuel efficiency.

I have a 85 leaded fuel FJ1200 & a 86 unleaded FJ1200, they are still in project form at the moment but will be interesting to see how they run on the same fuel???