Originally Posted by joejack951
[warning, no bike content]
Not only is there no benefit, in most cases it will actually lower your performance and gas mileage. To make more power, you need to cram more air into an engine. The more you compress the air, the hotter it gets. Higher octane fuel takes more heat to ignite (that it burns cleaner is a side benefit) than lower octane fuel hence why it's used in higher compression engines where the cylinder temperature is higher than a "normal" car. Without the necessary heat to ignite higher octane fuel, it won't burn completely and you'll have more emissions and less power.
[now back to bike talk]
Not so. You'll get the same economy, as it's the same air/fuel mixture being burned, but in most cases you'll be paying more for wasted potential energy. You're also a bit off target on the combustion process. You mention cylinder temperature, but you must mean combustion chamber temp. And the only thing that should ever ignite the mixture is a spark plug. But if you're only squeezing that mixture into 1/8th the space, rather than 1/10th, you don't need the extra resistance to spontaneous combustion. Higher octane fuel will burn just as fully as lower octane fuel, (we're talking pump gas here, right?) but it's like eating an energy bar and then going to bed alone.