Octane for a V-Star???

[wes0778]

Friend (100 miles away) who has a V-Star (1100 I think) and has been running premium exclusively. He mostly rides it to commute (5 miles, maybe one way) back and forth to work. Talked to him tonight and he is complaining that he is having to jump it off and it runs like crap! The AutoZone battery is only a year old and he has not been using the tender that he has. I told him that with his short trips the bike cannot recharge completely, so he is gonna start using the tender. I wonder if the low battery could be contributing to the rough running?

My main question for you V-Star riders, is what grade gas do you use? My friend tells me that the owners manual says "86 octane or higher". I would guess that 87 would work, but then again I don't have a V-Star.

[awsmsrv]

Yeah, 87 is good. The premium gas won't do any harm, but, might be running poorly because of that. I used to have the 1100 before I traded it in on the RSV. It was a good bike, but, it ain't a V4 & it's air cooled.

[CaptainJoe]

2005 650 V Star 25,000 miles

87 octane since new and no problems.

Normally get 48 mpg

On trip out west went down to 34 mpg? so I switched to 92? octane and mpg improved...

 

As for the battery, have him charge at 1.5 amps for 24 hours and the battery will be as good as its gonna get. If it's fully charged they don't take much to hold charge. check to ensure it's charging at or above 14 volts when running.

[TwoStars]

When I got my V-Star 6 years ago, I had the same gas questions. My google search was overwhelmingly in favor of 87 octane. Some claimed that performance degraded with higher octane, most just said it didn't help. I've run regular with no problems. The valves still make a racket but that's another issue.

[Chinto]

My 01 V Star 1100 ran great on 87 octane from day one as the owners manual indicates. Put over 30,000 miles on before I traded it for my 06 RVS. It only have one battery replacement in the entire time but I use a battery tender. I doubt that only 5 miles a day would consistently fully charge the battery. Average gas mileage was 49. I had a stage 1 kit installed so it was quicker that stock but never needed higher octane gas. Premium gas is just a waste of money.

 

[Condor]

It's possible for the battery amps to get low enough to not fully recharge the coils and get a weak spark and poor ignition. Charge the batt and see if the bike still stumbles. If it does, change the plugs. Don't hold me to this, but I think I read somewhere that it takes a 45 minute ride to replace the amps used to turn the starter over.