Biofuel for bikes?

[carver]

Yeah worth keeping an eye on eh.



Yeah lots of people seem to get the R for the looks which I'm not sold on to be honest and I think the Nekkid one suits the engine and geometry better. You stop thinking obout the power so much and enjoy the feeling more. And wind blast at 120 keeps things fun without too much hassles from the man.

The fuel lines look like normal rubber to me, no braiding etc in them.

oh yeah?
my GS 500 had terrible fuel hoses, they were more like air line
im not sure if that was a frosty addition or standard

[Pancakes]

They look fine, nothing magic that I'd expect to hold up to constant use of gas they weren't made for but better than some cars I've had.

[roadkillnz]

Hello fellow KBer's.. my first post. Just bought my first bike.. KLR250

I use Gulls E10 fuel in my car - I read through all their blurb....

Key points from their blurb...

1. For the very first fill up, fill up from almost empty, and don't only half fill... the reason - The ethanol absorbs water. Water slowly accumulates over time in fuel tanks.

My car has a 60L tank. Lets say 500 mL of water had accumulated over time. If I filled my car up to the brim, then 500 mL out of 60L is fairly insignifigant. If I only put 5 litres in (just to see if it works in my car), then 500mL is 10%.

Subsequent topups don't need to be full ones. As the water would have been absorbed and burnt.

2. Don't go to the Skifields on your first fill up.. althought they don't mention the reason, I suspect it's to do with point 1.. it might freeze your fuel lines because of the water content?

3. Check your fuel filter more often, as it has a tendancy to get the debris from your tank

Reference....
http://www.gull.co.nz/html/force10/tips.htm

Sorry if this has already been mentioned in above posts, I didn't have time to read through all the posts - only a short smoko break.

[motorbyclist]

It has more oxygen in it so it can be more efficient, however it has less energy so it burns slower, so adjusting the timing is important
There’s a lot being said about its propensity to absorb moisture, especially when used for the first time – they say after several fills it actually cleans out you fuel system of excess moisture and runs better?

ok, without reading the thread to see if this has been covered, here's what my research has told me:

ethanol is a powerful solvent, and will dissolve/degrade rubbers and plastics, which is not good for most bikes with carbies, rubber fuel lines, or for dirtbikes, plastic tanks.
if there is any old deposits it will dissolve them, but remember that crap will exit via the combustion chamber, and if a "lump" is dissolved off your fuel system it can block fuel injectors

ethanol is hydrophillic; this means it will draw water from the atmosphere into your tank. obviously less than ideal.

ethanol has an octane rating of 130, which means that engines running pure ethanol can run at very high compression, which makes up for the next property of ethanol..

ethanol has lower energy density than normal petrol - so you need to run very high compression to get equal - or greater - power output

ethanol burns at a different rate than petrol, so your timing (and ideally the shape of the combustion chamber within your engine) should be changed to tune the engine appropriately

and finally: using biomass for ethanol production to replace oil as a fuel source is an economical and environmental disaster. it is already pushing food prices up, has lowered mexico's tequila output as they get more money from fuel than tequila or food, and for the states to eliminate it's dependancy on foreign oil it needs to convert 60% of it's farmland from food to fuel production, creating a dependancy on imported food rather than oil.



so, considering the environmental benefit of ethanol is negated by the extra farmland required to process it, and my bike manuals say not to run it, and by using my bike to commute i'm cleaner than a car/half empty bus anyway, i ain't buying it!


it's a shame really, i used to be a big fan of Gull fuel, now i'm restricted to BP ultimate. but, if either of my bikes were confirmed to run the ethanol mix without damage i would consider buying it

[motorbyclist]

Here’s a chart that has some bikes on it – that can and can’t run on the stuff.

bah it's missing both honda and yamaha! owell, i'll stick to the manufacturer instructions..

[smoky]

..... has lowered mexico's tequila output as they get more money from fuel than tequila or food

well that settles it then - I'm not buying it either