So, this is my new 98 F3. I picked it up with under 10k miles, but it had been sitting for 6-8 months. The gas in the tank had stabilizer in it, and idle is rough. So today, guided by the service manual and some stuff on this forum , I took off the tank and drained all the old gas out, put new in with some carb cleaner.
Spent some time making all the dogs in the tri-county area bark by revving in the driveway. It seems to run a bit better. My problem is that I'm a new rider, and not being able to roll gently onto the throttle is making learning hard.

Questions:

Gas: I don't have an owners manual, but the sticker on the frame says 91 RON. I looked this up to be equivalent to 86/87 octane. But when I look online, all I see are flame wars about what octane to use. Does anyone have the straight of this? I put in 87 for now.

Rough Idle: Is there anything else I should do, knowing that the bike has been sitting, to get it to run a bit better for me? I'm mechanically inclined, but bikes are new to me, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Edit: Pic was when I first got it home, have since removed tank bra and rear netting =p

 

I would suggest cleaning the carbs out, there is a lot of info around here about it. Make sure you go the whole 9 yards and clean everything in there, I had to go back in a 2nd time cause I half a$$ed it the 1st time.

 

+1 carbs will be gummed up if its been sitting around so they will need a clean.

Nice bike btw

 

Check your plugs, you might have the orginal ones in there and they're probably in need of replacing. If this doesn't resolve the issue, time to clean the carbs. The carbs are easy to remove and disassemble for cleaning. Download manual and you'll be good to go.

Regarding the octane level, continue to use 87 unless the engine is pinging.

 

nice bike man....rule of thumb always... "NEVER EVER PUT ANYTHING LESS THAN 93 OR 94 OCTANE"

 

Thanks for the compliments and welcome. I'll be sure to check my plugs and carbs this weekend. Heat index of like 110 here for the next 3 days though, so I don't think I'll be riding much

But aside from that, Will and Marc have given a good example of what's causing my confusion about gas. People seem to be split down the middle about whether high or low octane is the way to go. I'm not sure how I would go about verifying either side, except to say that I've had no pinging or knocking yet. Again, I don't have and cant seem to find (gonna check ebay now) an owner's manual for the bike, so I don't even know what Honda says about it. If anyone with an opinion has some sources for me to look at, I'd be very appreciative, always good to learn.

 

If your F3 doesn't run fine on 87 octane, there's something wrong inside the bike. It was designed to run on 87 octane.

 

I know you can download a manual somewhere. That's what I did. Just have to look around on Google.

 

Good enough for me, thanks for the clarification.

I man'd up and went for a ride in the heat earlier, bike is still running poorly below 3k . Clearly I need to do what everyone is suggesting and clean my carbs\replace plugs. I have the service manual, does anyone have any advice beyond what that will offer?

 

manual links in this thread