been lurking around the site for a few weeks. lotsa great info. so, here goes...

i've heard different opinions on using regular unleaded or super for my 1985 XL350. what are the thoughts here?

also, i had it re-jetted when i was living in Colorado at 6,300', but i live in Las Vegas at about 2,700'. should i get it re-jetted again?

You should be able to get by on regular. However, you are a bit lean and it's hot in Vegas. If you ride it really hard it may ping on regular. Gas also looses octane as it sits. After a few months it is a few points lower. A small amount of pinging is OK. If I run regular in my 600, I do get a some pinging. The owners manual seems to indicate that regular is all it needs. I usually run premium and I almost never get pinging with it. I feel it's cheap insurance. I have run regular when it was all that I could get.

Bottom line, if the bike doesn't ping you are fine with regular.

The bike might run a little better, and cooler if you rejet to your current elevation.

cleonard said:

running better and cooler sounds like a good idea for a bike this old!

I used to run Premium (91 octane) in my 86 XT350 (9.5 to 1 compression) and then tried regular (87 octane). Always thought higher octane was better even if it wasn't required. Have read a few articles that an octane rating higher than required will result in excessive Carbon build-up. Any feedback on this issue would be nice.