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Premium Fuel vs Regular with ethanol

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Old May 13, 2010 | 11:01 AM
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Default Premium Fuel vs Regular with ethanol
I'm sure this horse has been beaten to death on the forum... but I ran into a biker this week who says he runs "only" regular gas without ethanol in his Harley.

I have always run 93 octane premium fuel with ethanol in my bike...



1st does ethanol hurt your engine?

2nd premium or regular?
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 11:04 AM
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Originally Posted by chasmo46
I'm sure this horse has been beaten to death on the forum... but I ran into a biker this week who says he runs "only" regular gas without ethanol in his Harley.

I have always run 93 octane premium fuel with ethanol in my bike...



1st does ethanol hurt your engine?

2nd premium or regular?
Maybe his bike has really low compression for whatever reason.

Running anything but 93 Octane in a newer Harley is a recipe for very bad things to happen.
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 11:10 AM
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Some areas like Kansas, don't have a choice. Ethenol is in all our gas and pumps are not required to state this. Special intrest groups for corn farmers slid this into a bill. Some people (farmers) claim that ethenol/methenol/alcohol is the most wonderful crap to put in your gas tank. First off, it's corrosive and will eat just about everything known to man. Second, it takes almost twice the quantity of alcohol to equal the BTU's of gasoline. So it's going to lean your engine out a certain amount and your economy will drop about 25% with 10% ethenol.
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 11:11 AM
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I made a similar comment to him and he said that regular fuel without the ethanol was better than premium fuel with ethanol...

I haven't studied the question but was wondering if he was right.
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 11:13 AM
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Originally Posted by chasmo46
I'm sure this horse has been beaten to death on the forum... but I ran into a biker this week who says he runs "only" regular gas without ethanol in his Harley.

I have always run 93 octane premium fuel with ethanol in my bike...



1st does ethanol hurt your engine?

2nd premium or regular?
Yup. Thanks for continuing to do so.
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 11:32 AM
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Originally Posted by chasmo46
I made a similar comment to him and he said that regular fuel without the ethanol was better than premium fuel with ethanol...

I haven't studied the question but was wondering if he was right.
No, he is not.
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 11:37 AM
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What about the ehanol question... would we be better to use the non-ethanol premium... I think you can still buy gas from a couple of suppliers in this state without ethanol.
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 11:49 AM
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Originally Posted by chasmo46
I'm sure this horse has been beaten to death on the forum... but I ran into a biker this week who says he runs "only" regular gas without ethanol in his Harley.

I have always run 93 octane premium fuel with ethanol in my bike...



1st does ethanol hurt your engine?

2nd premium or regular?
I had my bike tuned to run Ethanol.Lots of people will have to re-tune their bikes to run entanol, as the gas in certain parts of the counrty is slowly be changed to ethanol.It naturally causes a bike to run leaner.Have your bike tuned to run it, then when you install regular gas it will run a tab bit richer!!!
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 12:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Grendel4
Running anything but 93 Octane in a newer Harley is a recipe for very bad things to happen.
Really? I run ethanol-free 91 octane. What very bad things do I need to prepare for?
 
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Old May 13, 2010 | 12:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Wyde Glyde Bry
Really? I run ethanol-free 91 octane. What very bad things do I need to prepare for?
The rapture.
 
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