Nothing has changed since last summer except maybe more carbon on the pistons and as you alll stated poor gas. We only have 91 octane here in Arizona but down at one of the shell stations here they have racing fuel. $7.99 gal. I have thought about a using a half gal or a gal of it. That is why I was thinking of having them tweak my tunning.
If you put a gallon of that in a 6 gallon tank, your pinging will likely go away, and you might like the way the bike runs as well. Stock bike, a half gallon might do it.
I have had some pings with 11/1 compression and a gallon of that fixed me right up! but it is leaded and is not good for catalytic converter or O2 sensors over time. You can pull timing, but that takes away from performance. Knock sensor can pull too much timing, hurt performance. Is yours turned on? You use that fuel and you can likely add some timing.
Also,TOrco makes an unleaded additive that some people say works better than most octane boosts