Anyone know if the ethanol that is used by many of the big gas companies(says this product contains 10% ethanol on the pump) is bad for the bike or will it make it run funny? Noticed mine has been kind of hard to start lately and runs a little rougher than normal. Went on about a 150 mile ride this morning with my dad and by time he came back he couldn't take his hand of the throttle to idle at a stop becasue the bike would turn off. Said he hadn't used this gas before. Any thoughts??

 

gasahol will not harm the fuel system, but will clean it out (fuel filters will clog up for a few fill ups). It does burn a tiny tiny bit faster (less mpg), but I have never had problems w/it. When ethanol is the major element (such as E85), you have to mod the entire fuel system to adapt to it.

 

Well said Grunt. That crap is all over here in the great state of SD. I haven't had any problems yet. I asked a local indie mechanic about it when I first got stationed here. He said the only time you may run into a problem is if you have an older vehicle that has never run ethanol before. Because as grunt said your filters may clog.

 

Mine is still new, but don't have any problems..

 

Here in Iowa everyone uses ethanol for their vehicles. However all my riding buddies and I will not use it in our motorcycles or small engines. The Harleys get Premium unleaded and the small engines get regular.

On a side note ethanol, which is always cheaper, went higher than regular unleaded this week, so I guess we'll see how many people continue to use ethonal.

 

Check your handbook. Mine for my 95 says it's ok to run. I just use premium unleaded even though the manual says 87 octane.. I just don't wan tthe spark knock.

Bubba

 

For what it's worth..The salesman that sold me my Heritage said it was ok to burn in it. Mine gets 91 or higher anyway !

 

By living in Brazil...we have ethanol on our gas many years now. According to the law (and the amount of sugar cane production) the percentage of ethanol in the gas pump may vary from 10-20% (this variation is because of the cane production)

There's no problem to the bike whatsover...the motorcycle will run fine without any major problems...HD has the EFI programmed to run such way so there's nothing that can damage the engine.

 

gas with ethanol will burn leaner which can be a problem if you are already running lean. also in the summer months it produces a lot more oxides of nitrous contributing to smog in certain areas. it can be hard on rubber seals/gaskets that are not viton.