A friend who has a '04 1150 GS and myself riding my '09 1200 GS filled our bikes with ethanol free gasoline today and rode approximately 140 miles. I immediately noticed my bike not popping on decal and the throttle response was much better. It also seemed to smooth up the rough idle. I can't believe how pump gas makes the bike run so crappy. Wow! Has anyone else tried straight non ethanol gasoline in their bike?
There are fewer ethanol-free gas stations in California than there were California Condors in the wild when they rounded them up in the 80's
I went to the distributor and conned them into letting us fill up. I'm heading back later in the week with numerous dump cans in tow. They have a 300 gallon minimum, but would make an exception if I bought 50 gallons at a time.
I work at a refinery and only use clear gas in my GSA. But I still have a healthy popping on deceleration, I don't think your conclusion is completely justified.
Not what you could call a double blind test. They filled with the expectation of a difference. Perception is reality
We found that last summer in Mexico. Pemex is really good fuel. I was getting fuel economy in the high 40's on my 01 GS at above 90 mph speeds. In the US I might get in the high 30's at similar speeds and load. Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize were a different matter for fuel though. Lots of pinging even on premium. It went away on the first tank of Pemex.
Interesting link. In Canada I just go to a Shell station located all over the country. No ethanol when you fill with premium. I'm planning a cross US trip to the west coast this July. Is there a national chain of service stations, like Shell in Canada, that supply ethanol free gas so I don't have to hunt down one with a computer while going cross country? Thanks for any info!
I'm with you, popping equals unburned fuel in the exhaust (why is it there?) plus unconsumed oxygen (how did it get there?). Sounds like deceleration misfire leading to unburned fuel in the exhaust system. Maybe he can figure that out. Perhaps pure-gas isn't popping because it lack ethanol as an oxygenate. I know popping is not uncommon but misfires, even on decel, can add a lot of heat to the catalytic converter and cause damage. If you decelerate at part throttle, the ECU does go open loop and lean out the mixture--too lean to combust? Aftermarket exhaust allowing air reversion into the system?
No national chain that I'm aware of. I've been using pure gas for about 6k now, bring it home in 5 gal. containers. Pain in the rear but moto likes it. When on the road I carry a list of the states I'm riding in. Nor cal has a couple/will try one of them next week.
You can click on the "POI file" link (at pure-gas.org) and download a csv file to which you can insert (those points of interest) into your GPS; that shows all of the ethanol free gas stations listed in their web site on your GPS.
On another bike I had the popping on decel was caused by something called a PAIR valve - some sort of EPA-mandated thing. Aftermarket vendors sold PAIR blockoff plates which you could use to plug the resulting hole when you pulled off the PAIR valves (one per head). Once I got rid of the PAIR valves the popping was gone. Anyone know if the GS has these?
I spoke with a buddy of mine who owns the local Ducati franchise about his thoughts of running the pure gas and the popping on decal. His assertion was the straight gas may be burning quicker and having less raw gasoline entering the exhaust stream. In my previous post, I wasn't talking about partial throttle chop, but complete throttle closure on deceleration. Considering I have several Ducatis and their expanding tank issue is supposed to be caused by ethanol, I'm going to start buying several dump cans at a time and keep around.
Although I have ethanol free close by, I have several boat fuel tanks I fill occasionally. Quick connects, some hose, old computer power supply and an electric fuel pump, I have a mini fuel farm for my motos.
Don't know how much your using but may need to add some Stabil or some other product to help keep it fresh if its sitting around for an extended period.
Take the info from the web site with a lot of salt. For my state and general area it is both wrong and many years out of date.
There are so few stations listed in CA, it is really unlikely that a petroleum company is going to reserve such a small quantity of fuel for them. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the stations listed actually had ethanol in the fuel.
In Oregon most are correct. The only problem that I have seen is that some of the stations listed are for fuel card holders only (private or commercial fleet fueling stations). There should be a notation whether the fuel station is public or private. I agree - you can not totally rely on this, but it can come in handy - referring to pure-gas.org.
