I am sure all of this can get very seriously detailed and intense. I know in my profession professionals are ready to go to war over details like this as well.
But it was kind of nice to get all the responses here. Thanks to everyone for that and keeping it civil LOL. I sure learned a lot.
Maybe as my final comment maybe more from a business like point of view. Imagine Ducati recommends 91 and 87 would damage the engine. Even though they know 87 is available everywhere. Considering that fact, that would be insane business practice. The chances some ..... like me puts 87 in the bike. Maybe because of a mistake, or the only one that is available or because whatever. That chance must be huge considering all the parts on the planet Ducati sells bikes to. So if in fact 87 is available and knowing idiots like me exist everywhere, wouldn't it be much much smarter to make the bike work with 87 as well without damage? Otherwise how many bikes would come in with blown engines during the warranty period. How will Ducati be able to prove it was from sub standard fuel. No way. The financial loss would be insane.
So I think it is reasonable to think that 87 will not damage the engine.
As for me the rest is somewhere between the sand on the beach and the clouds in the sky. Until then I hope to see you out on the road somewhere tearing it up with a Ducati.
You must remember that DUCATI also have performance targets to meet
regarding power and emissions.
Only the use of higher quality fuel will realistically facilitate that.
They also know what fuel is available in a given locality where the failure occurred (if it's fuel related).
87 may not damage an engine in the short term (as a once off occurrence)
Prolonged use almost certainly will do damage under various circumstances.
The minimum quality fuel required by your machine is clearly set out in your manual. If you can't understand what is written in your manual there is the dealer to go back to if they already haven't explained to you the relevant information at hand over.
Or there is a help line one can call for clarification.
Regarding the potential financial implications for DUCATI.
They will always reserve the right to disapprove a warranty claim
There are a number of ways to tell if an engine was damaged from use of the wrong fuel.
The contents of the fuel tank is the first.
The nature of the failure is second.
The third and most powerful is the computer really tells a thousand tales with the aid of the various sensors.
Actually the computer will also tip the bucket on an owner who has operated their machine outside of what would be regarded as normal operating parameters as well.
I personally like it when a bike comes in for what is initially a warranty claim due to an engine problem or failure.
The owners nearly always say they haven't been hooning up on their bike.
The bike tells a thousand stories in it's own right, then when the computer starts to spit out information it's sadly game over.
The owners will swear black and blue and jump up and down and get hot under the collar about how they've done nothing wrong.
And then we say sorry to inform you, but you've been playing up because of the data the computer has logged that tells us otherwise.
You should see their faces
At the time of the failure you were doing whatever, and in the preceding months leading up to the failure the computer logged other data which indicates you were doing this and or that at regular intervals or whatever.
It's an interesting world we live in these days, where once you couldn't prove anything about operating parameters and had to honour warranty claims on a good will basis.
Now the game's over
