Fuel Changes in the GB and Northern Ireland.

News and talk of the motorcycling sport, industry and community
Post Reply
User avatar
englishstiv
paso grand pooh-bah
Posts: 1111
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:57 pm
model: 907 I.E.
year: 1992
Location: Manchester, England.

Fuel Changes in the GB and Northern Ireland.

Post by englishstiv »

Hi folks long time no speak :fart:

Us folk in the UK ( England, N Ireland, Wales and Scotland are now playing with E10 Graded Fuel ( 10% Ethanol) in our Petrol and I was wondering how this works with you folk around the world as I know quite a few of you have been using it Nationally for a few years,

Does anyone use it or do you still play with pre leaded stuff or thrown in additives etc.

I see Ducati say most bikes from the mid 2000's are okay to run on the stuff without issue. ( Unless you are leaving it in storage for any length of time etc)

So just wondering? :thumbup:
DUCATI 907ie 1992
HARLEY DAVIDSON ELECTRA GLIDE CLASSIC 1991
Stepaso
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:30 pm
model: 750 Paso
year: 1988
Location: New Zealand

Re: Fuel Changes in the GB and Northern Ireland.

Post by Stepaso »

Hi, I run a White 1988 750 LTD in New Zealand, here we have a fuel company that imports from Singapore & the big four BP, Caltex, Shell & Mobil they are all owners in a refinery, in reality are all just retailing the same product.
The independent company Gull that imports from Singapore has ethanol in it.

I understand what made the Paso LTD different from the not LTD's is 50 of them were made with fast cams and high compression pistons, this was done to qualify them to be production bikes so someone in America could race them.

Putting the non ethanol 98Octane from the big for companies makes my Paso run like shit, it won't idle, it coughs and burps and stutters up at about 5K, flush it out and put 98 Octane from Gull (with ethanol) and it instantly settles down to a good idle and it purrs like a kitten, and pulls strongly all the way to the red line.
The difference is amazing and makes the kind of gas that goes into my bike the most important thing when out cruising ...
*MB
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2013 12:34 am
model: 750 Sport
year: 1989
Location: New Zealand

Re: Fuel Changes in the GB and Northern Ireland.

Post by *MB »

Personally I stay well away from any ethanol blend. Confusion from the masses continues to surround octane values... In simple terms the higher the octane rating the more compression it resist before detonation. Whilst some argue it burns cleaner, unless you have increased your compression ratio from standard you gain very little other than emptying your wallet...
Far more important is understanding that petrol has a higher calorific (energy) value than ethanol. Simply put ethanol has ~70 percent the energy compared to 91 octane petrol. Changing from petrol to E10 (petrol with 10 percent ethanol) means you lose ~3% of the energy content. If your looking for maximum bang for buck ditch the ethanol and run 95 petrol... Just my two cents worth in any case...

Cheers,

Marc
User avatar
Mirinn
Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2017 1:47 pm
model: 906 Paso
year: 1989
Location: Czech Republic

Re: Fuel Changes in the GB and Northern Ireland.

Post by Mirinn »

we ride motorcycles on 100 octane petrol, it has the smallest share of ethanol 0 - 5%
Post Reply