Buying a big BMW bike; concern on availability of RON 95 fuel

RON 95 or even the premium grade fuels are not available outside of major cities.

BHPian th2 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello,

I had a question for large capacity BMW bike owners here. The technical specifications for these bikes, on the BMW website, mentions RON 95 fuel as a minimum recommendation.

How do you guys manage long trips? RON 95 or even the premium grade fuels are not available outside of major cities. Or does the fuel sold in Indian bunks equate to RON 95? Does regular fuel have a negative impact on the bike?

Would help to know before plonking big bucks for one of the BMW Motarrad machines.

Thanks.

Here's what BHPian CrAzY dRiVeR had to say on the matter:

Finding 95 octane petrol is not a major concern nowadays IMHO.

Indian Oil claims to have made XP95 available to 40% of their network. The price difference between XP95 and regular petrol is rather minimal too. Could even spot bunks with XP95 in hill stations like Coonoor and Ooty. In my small city of Trivandrum- I have a choice of 7-8 bunks available for XP95.

If you have concerns around the availability of 95 octane fuel in any specific area - use this link to find the list of bunks in the area, where it also shows which all bunks have XP95 available.

Here's what BHPian Turbanator had to say on the matter:

Usually all bikes and most cars are detuned for our market. It's a touchy and conflicting subject, some of the newer electronics allow use of regular fuel without any detuning as well. BMW bikes can run easily on the regular fuels, but if you can manage, these sound and run very differently (better) on XP100 of IOC.

Here's what BHPian ninjax had to say on the matter:

I ride a Multistrada 1260 Pikes Peak which is “supposed” to run on RON95. Have done multiple trips on regular fuel when traveling out into rural Tamil Nadu. It’s not been much of an issue till date as my technician just told me run it back on RON95 once I was back in town.

Here's what BHPian Haroon had to say on the matter:

I am among the earliest people to get myself in this dilemma as I had privately imported my first generation Hexhead 1200GS.

A few things I learnt and what I do:

The 2004 1200GS was the first to come with the technology to adjust to any grade of petrol. This was primarily done as lots of GS bikes were going round the world and deep inside Africa or Mongolia etc it was impossible to find premium grade fuel. HOWEVER, my bike which ran smooth on 95 grade petrol in oil rich Saudi Arabia did knock slightly under certain load and acceleration circumstances in India back in 2010 so its not an automatic adjustment in the bikes fuel injection system. Therefore, spoke to a few BMW gurus and apparently, the bikes from 2007 onwards have an option to recalibrate the fuel grade either from factory based on the importing dealer's request (or it can also be locally done on the BMW dealer's MoDiTec unit- I saw it myself at the Navneet Workshop in Bangalore), so generally I am given to understand the dealers (including Triumph and others) calibrate it down to 89 Octane to accept a wide range of fuel grades as well as compensate for some small fuel adulterations etc. SO you should be FINE with regular unleaded petrol also. Besides, if you are going to do some serious touring in India, its not practical to always find premium or Shell bunks etc as your route should be determined where you want to ride rather than where Shell or Premium petrol is available! Of course whenever available fill the highest you can get. I have ridden a BMW bike even on 100 grade fuel in Italy and sure you can feel the marked difference between your legs as you go higher on fuel grade but the regular fuel is fine as I have ridden BMW bikes in many countries with all kinds of fuel and its been fine. I have never used Octane boosters but from the general discussions with knowledgeable techs and reading on international forums etc, its better to avoid it.

Personally, I would be more concerned about post sales service quality of BMW dealers which I gather across India is a hit or miss esp after the warranty period. There are some horror stories on our forum itself. So having a good private mechanic handy is worthwhile as parts as well as BMW diagnostic tool etc can always be sourced thru the internet.

Good wishes on your purchase!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.