Hi guys, it’s well technical and everyone is right!
As Bob says, the octane rating tells you how much the fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites. When gas ignites by compression rather than because of the spark from the spark plug (pre ignition), it causes knocking which is wear on the engine. Lower-octane gas (like regular 87 octane) is suited to low compression ratio engines like the 800 but you can use higher octane to increase power. But not the other way round. So, for the mean streak 93 octane (premium) is recommended but lower octane would mean the fuel pre ignites, you lose power and it causes engine wear. Still following???
Octane ratings of 115 (super) are commonly used to increase horsepower if the engine can take it (you can use one tank of super for every 4 tanks of premium in the mean streak to get extra horsepower and burn off any carbon but anything more than that would damge the engine too much). I don’t know what sea foam is but some additives work in the same way by increasing the octane rating of the fuel and burning off that carbon but minimizing the extra wear by having other additives like a lead replacement.
Like Bob, if we had all night I can tell you all about pinging as opposed to knocking too!!
Another way of burning off that carbon is to give the engine a hot run or good thrashing. If you maintain regular speeds like town riding or cruising, carbon builds up. A further way is changing the spark plugs to a higher rating (or hotter spark) and Kawa do recommend this for winter riding.
Final bit, promise! If you change the cam shaft and pistons you can change the compression ratio which is the key to significantly more horsepower from the same engine. The mean streak engine was modified to prove that it was strong enough to cope with the higher revs = more horsepower.
Here’s a good source of info
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question90.htm