Hawk 250cc fuel type?
 

Now I'm not sure how true this is but my friend has a hawk also he told me he got a manual with his bike and you are only supposed to use premium unleaded? Is this true? He claims 87 will mess the engine up long term.

He's wrong, the cheapest 87 you can find is perfectly fine. If it's going to sit for a while, add some fuel stabilizer, but otherwise, whatever's cheapest besides E85 (don't use that), will burn fine.

I think the only time that premium will be called for is if you do performance work to the engine such as port/polish the head, cams, increase compression and/or increase timing

87 is all that's needed unless like tknj99 stated performance mods have been done. Main thing is run ethanol free fuel. Ethanol will deteriorate the fuel lines and gum up the carb and fuel lines as it absorbs moisture. I've been working on outboard engines and small engines for a very long time. I've seen what ethanol can do. It ain't pretty.

Maybe he got a manual that was meant for Europe. In most countries is quite hard or impossible to find 87 fuel.

Here for example 87 was banned 10 years ago, they went to 96 "regular" to 99 "premium".
Then they had to change 96 to 93, because a lot of older or cheaper cars had issues with 96 ron.

So if you come to Argentina you will only find 93 or 99 fuel. If you check any manual made for Argentina, they will either say 93 or 99 ron.
But if you check any manual made for Brasil, they will list more fuel options, because they have ethanol fuel.
In fact some of the cars made in Argentina and Brasil are made to use up to E100 fuels.


But down the road, you shouldn't have any problem using 87 ron fuel on a CG 250.

It's not RON in the States, it's R+M/2. A little bit of ethanol won't hurt, I've only ever run E10 because that's what available. You might want to change the fuel line, but I have run just stuff available at the auto parts store without a problem. E10 isn't the end of the world.

Yes, most definitely replace the fuel lines.
Also If you live in a dry climate it usually isn't an issue with moisture. Living along the coast with high humidity the ethanol is like a sponge and soak up the moisture.

Then even better, because from what i'm looking at, 87 R+M/2 should be around 91.1 RON.

Back in the early 80s and 90s people used 87 RON with the CG engines

When I was daily commuting year round in southwest Arizona on my TMEC 200 (I had two of them, back to back for approx. 2 years each one) and TGB scooter I just payed the extra cash and put in 91. I cannot state one way or another with certainty that it did, or did not, behave better with the extra octane. I never ran either bike with the 87. I can say, it did not hurt any of the bikes putting in the higher octane :)

I second that! Used to be, my lawn mower would sit over the winter and every spring it would not start and I'd have to take apart the carb. There would be this white jelly substance in the bottom. Started using ethanol free fuel, although I have to go 15 miles to get it, and it starts on the first pull now after sitting all winter. All I run in my small engines and the motorcycles.

I think this recent reply of mine on a different thread also applies here. http://chinariders.net/showpost.php?...8&postcount=18

Just to throw something else out there to think about.

The octane on the pump is the minimum it can be legally. So if you get 86 octane you could be pumping 86 up to whatever their highest octane premium is.

My dad used to work at a gas station and said he's watched them fill all three of the station tanks with the same gas.... Lol

Is this the same for the Tao TBR7?

I've only had my TBR7 for about four months, been using premium from day one. I use premium almost exclusively in all bikes, cars, trucks, saws, blowers, generators (I think that's it ;)

At different points in time, with different rigs, I was meticulous about tracking mileage in each rig between Reg, Mid-Grade, and Premium; it's been clear to me for years that we get better mileage with Premium -- enough so that it pays off to spend extra for it.

The performance increase has been more of a "feel" (no dyno tests). But if I didn't feel it, or record the higher mileage, I would save my money.
(Note: none of our vehicles or engines "require" premium)

Back to the TBR: installed an E3 spark plug, use premium fuel, changed front sprocket to a 17 (stock 46 rear), drilled the carb jet out (new jets didn't arrive until after a bike trip, and the stock 88 wasn't going to cut it). The smallest bit I had worked out to a 140 jet size -- I'm sure that's way bigger than anyone would recommend, but...the bike runs great. I hit 65 mph without fully wide open, and wide open creeps past 70. Doesn't appear to run rich.

I also use Seafoam as a stabilizer in the cans that get stored.

Until I get less mileage and "feel" less power, I'm staying with the premium. You should experiment and make the call according to your results.

Hope that helps!
mh

I have a 2020 X-Pect and run it on Ehtanol free gas I get from a local marina which is regular gas of the lowestrating. Now I can remember in the mid 1960's working for the South African govt and riding around in Chevy or Ford pick up trucks allrunning on the lowest grade of gas and when accelerating the engines would rattle some and we called it pinking and it was due to the gas as the pickups were designed to run on a higher octane gas. Now I get a similar rattle when accelerating through the gears on take off and I think this also could be pinking so I will try the higher octanes and see if the rattle goes away.