Ethanol & Bikes

Well looks like little johnie is helping his mate and Ethanol will be used
in fuel. So nothing new but I would expect it to be more widespread then now
and some service stations will add it and not inform you ( or reduce the
price ). New cars will be allowed a 10% blend ( little johnnie getting a
trade off from the motor industry for industrial reform ??? ) but how will
this effect bikes ? In all the news I have seen motor bikes dont rate a
mention. Also if 10% is ok then why not 15% ( who is going to monitor
this ) will be how a few operators think. I guess at home you use the same
station so should be no problems but on trips what will you get ?

Now I see the crap fuel post just below and is this what will happen more
often ? Will premium be the safe route to go ?

 

'The government' (DEH) already are monitoring fuel via random sampling
and testing I think. Didn't they introduce laws a while ago saying
mixed fuel must be labelled and max of 10% mix?

There are only a small number of petrol refineries in Australia... and
because of the paper trail that must follow all fuel, the chances of
post-refinery mixing are probably much lower than they used to be.

1 crap fuel post does not an epidemic make. Its not even a certainty
that it's a fuel system problem he has, and if that is what he has, that
it was caused by fuel.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

random sampling and testing dont fill me with confidence

where money in involved paper trails are pretty easy to forge

That was just an example. I guess there are plenty of others that dont post
here


But my major point is how will ethanol ( 10%) mix effect bikes ?

This has been discussed in the past but now with Johnny getting his mate the
green light for ethanol mixes we will end up with a lot more stations
selling it so it may be a problem by next year

 

Totally un-scientific, but I have run a few tanks of petrol containing ethanol in the VTR and have seen an average increase in range
of around 10 kms.

As for long term effects, no idea.

 

thats because you didnt let cat ride it that week

 

To be on the safe side you should take your own testing kit and sample the
fuel when you fill up.

 

Whatever they're putting in the fuel is rather hungry...
Left my near new, BM, K75 parked in the shed for a couple of years unused
with a full tank.
It ate all the rubber/neoprene (?) hoses to the fuel filter & destroyed the
electric fuel pump & fuel level sender. They came out looking as though they
had been immersed in acid. NOT cheap to replace!
Grump.

 

Seriously though, is there any simple roadside testing kit you can get
to determine the % alcohol in fuel (on the spot, not having to take it
back to a lab or cart several hundred kg of stuff with you)

JL
(just curious)

 

Why is that? It is the basis for excellence in unbiased testing.

Tell me how I can do this and I'll split the money with you....

So, you know what is *in* the fuel right now?

Hammo

 

See the rules you posted not long ago.

Cheers

Hammo

 

I asked the (well, a similar) question a while back of the food-
technologist wife of a home brewing friend. (Specifically, I asked
was there a test that could determine the percentage of alcohol
in home brewed beer and similar beverages).

She described a device that did some sort of optical magic that
would give a decent evaluation. That sentence is the extent of
my knowledge on the subject, and I suppose that there's also the
caveat that it's probably a lot harder to find ethanol in petrol
than in beer. Apparently it wasn't a cheap bit of kit.

I could re-ask the question if you'd like.


G

 

[...stuff...]

Nev, you've made a couple of comments to the effect that
Optimax isn't inherently evil (which had been my take up
until now) but rather (implied) that it is only really a
problem for weekend and/or fair-weather warriors.

Would you care to expand on that a bit please. I'd like to
know more.

Ta,

G

 

LOL Good point!

 

If you would like show me the facts and figures used I may be happy but
random sampling most probabley means one in a thousand every 2nd year

Ask the taxman and he will tell you. Just get a greedy accountant and he
will do it all for you

Let me see, water, dirt, muck , petrol & god knows what else.

 

Random breath testing doesn't catch any drink drivers ?

so the GST and the whole tax system in general is a farce?

If 100 people posted the same issue here.. you'd be quite right in
assuming the problem was widespread. If 10 people posted the same issue
here, you'd probably have a few people agreeing with you that it was
widespread. If 2 or 3 people posted the same issue here, a few of the
people who won't be happy unless they're being oppressed (ok, so just
Birdman) would agree that it was some sort of conspiracy. When 1 person
posts a single issue, the cause of which hasn't even been determined,
and you extrapolate that to be a widespread problem with a particular
cause...

Why would it be a problem if the cure to the previous 'issues' regarding
blended fuels have already been put into place ? They have ethanol
blended fuels all over the world... are you saying this is some sort of
world wide conspriacy against you?

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

So the police are going to be doing a thousand or so random tests a day

Well ask some samll buisness holder about the GST and he will tell you what
a fucking farce it is

And once again you open your mouth so far you can drive a bus down there.
It just happens that I have been discussing ethanol with a few people and
decided to ask here about it and thats before I saw that post.

Are you dumb ? The question is will ethanol blend effect bikes ? In the
past car manufactureres have advised not to use ethanol and until the recent
petrol price explosion it looked like the future of ethanol was just about
finished. I am not asking if there is a conspiracy about who killed Kennedy
ot King , I am asking how will it effect motorbikes. As you appear to know
all about the fuels supplied all over the world I will await you showing
facts and figures on how engines work with blended fuels .

 

Wot ? The one's about sports tourers ? Oh I get it, if you have a tourer
it won't be a problem ?

JL
(but seriously is there like a litmus test type of test for alcohol
percentage you can fit in your pocket ?)

 

Ahh OK, I suspected it might be, just curiousity on my part.

I wouldn't go to any effort - if you happen to think of it next time you
see her, find out how expensive and bulky such a thing is. Are we
talking chromatography or whatever you call it when you say optical?

JL

 

Yes.

Thanks for coming.

G

 

(fred puts on his asbestos suit)