I just bought Fat Bob and know to use stable when I store it, but if I'm just going away for a month does it need stabil or am I ok to just leave it? EFI instead of carb, if that matters.

 

No, need, IMO. I'm sure others will pipe up and say different, though. I have 6 vehicles, plus a boat. There's always something sitting for a month or so not getting ran. I don't use Stabil unless it is gonna sitting for much longer than just a month.

 

I've never used the Stabil before. Even when the bike sits over the winter. I just top off the gas and try to run the bike up to operating temp. every other week or so. Then top it off again. Sometimes I can't get out to the garage and start her up to get my fix of those sweet double barrels, but I've never had a problem. Where are you located? Still really cold there? If it's been hovering around 50 overnight, I say top her off and have a safe trip, ride her hard when you get back.

 

One thing you might throw into your consideration is where you live and the climate changes. I use stabil during the winter in my landscaping equipment. I also use it in my dyna from time to time. For me, I can go into my garage, depending on the time of day and or weather pattern, and pull open a drawer in my roll away, and find my sockets covered in sweat, almost cold to the touch, but yet it's not cold out, then again, that's gulf coast living for ya. I use to use a product back east, called heet I think it was in the winter, for condensation issues. I use the marine formula down here, little more money but it don't take a lot of the stuff either.
I think I've read somewhere that gas actually starts breaking down pretty good, like around 30-45-60 day time frame. I know where I live, I am telling ya, it's pretty good estimate. The winter here is about 90 days of no yardwork, and I've made the mistake of leaving fuel in weed eaters and tractors over the "winter", and they ran like my wifes chili out of me, after sitting for 90 days and not getting cranked up. So, I don't want to take the chance on fouling up the bike.

 

Hi Octane fuel won't break down quite as fast as reguar -- But it WILL Break down. And the thingie about where you live is more insidious than you might think.

If you live in or near a large Metropolitan area, the odds are good that the gasoline in that area is a 'boutique' gasoline designed to emit lower, much lower, emissions than a gasoline from a rural area.

If I go to Miami for a VA visit and I don't fill up with gas here? And I buy it in Miami to make it home? That gas just simply sucks. All of it.

It amazes me that the EPA requires crap be put into gasoline that lowers emissions and also lowers fuel economy. By a lot. It's like, okay -- You're emitting lower bad stuff but you're also getting far less fuel economy. So on a 300 mile trip (in my car) instead of burning 15 gallons of fuel, I have to burn 20 gallons because the gas sucks ***?

If somebody is letting an internal combustion engine sit for more than 4-6 weeks, I recommend a fuel stabilizer. Period.

 

Find somewhere that sells premium gas with NO ethanol in it and you'll be fine. I try to do this anyway just because I believe my bike runs better with it. I never winterize my bike because we usually get a few decent riding days even during the winter. But it has sat 3 or 4 weeks without being ridden plenty of times and I've had no issues. I pour a little seafoam in my tank every now and then but that's not so much for the gas as much as just cleaning out the whole works.

The small town I live in has 1 station that sells non-ethanol gas and they only sell it in premium. They get all my business if I'm gassing up close to home.

 

Yes. I use Stabil if it's going to be a month or more. I can't really say that it works -- it's just sort of insurance.

But I have a read a post or two where people found that it left a white gummy residue . . . .

 

I use the marine grade all the time. In all my vehicles. The gas from one pump to another is horrible. I have used gas from one it would run great next fillup runs like chit. Since using it have had no problems get bad gas. Marine grade is a ethonl treatment. the red is not.

 

For 1 month if the weather is above freezing I would not use stabil, I would hook up the battery however.