Fuel....

I always use petrol company garages,not supermarkets.Mainly because two local supermarkets had water contamination in their fuel.Also use the premium fuels available.I don't do many miles so don't count the cost of the grades.

 

you would think with all this debate some one in the know ie which or other would have a definitive answer.

 

Many, if not all bulk fuel tanks will contain some water. The sg of water is 1.00, petrol about 0.73 and diesel 0.84. This means water is heavier and will lie in the bottom of bulk fuel storage tanks. It gets their cos water and nitrogen are often used when pigging pipelines between pumping refined products, petrol, diesel, condensate etc.
I must say though, before I do a track day I go and fuel up with Shell V power because someone told me it was the best and gives performance gains. It might be bollocks but I don't really know.

 

I have heard lots of people say V-Power is really good, I don't have a Shell garage near me so my bike gets run on Texaco Super Unleaded, tbh.. I think there is more variation with garages that do and don't sell a lot of Super Unleaded than there is between Super Unleaded and Normal Unleaded tbh (if that makes sense)

I know that various people have done quality studies with Fuel if you google it, however I have to say I have always put it down to being one of those things that has variation, because it's about 'batches'.

 

Ha, yeah. And its reassuringly expensive so it must work. It makes sense a higher octane will give an edge. That said though, I read somewhere that ECU software makes compensatory calculations on modern engines so it'll make no difference with some bikes/cars and there will be performance gains with others.

 

I am not sure we have knock sensors in the bikes tbh, we may do. I do think that they use close loop Lambda's though so would potentially adjust the fuelling to compensate if there is a higher octane content changing the gas mix..

I may have just confused myself... may be totally talking bollox...

 

No, I think you're right, I think I read similar stuff but don't recall it clearly, doh... I just brim my tank and jerry can with Shell V Power just in case all the hype is true. Am I a sneaky fucker, or what??

 

About a year ago I spoke to Texaco Uk about the Ethanol question.I was told that their Super Uleaded did not contain any Ethanol,but it would soon have up to 5% Ethanol added before leaving the depot.This was/is an important issue for me as I have old bikes with carbs .

 

I run my 350 powervalve race bike on V power. It won't run properly on normal unleaded, detonates, less power. There is a difference but I don't know if it makes a difference to a Ducati. I've tried both in my 999 and couldn't tell any difference. Maybe on the race bike I'm more tuned into what its doing because its always on the redline and I have a consistent reference to performance, can't really do that on the road.

 

theres an interesting post on DSC here

essentially it depends on which depot the fuel comes from in the country as to if and how much ethenol is added

 

2 stroke carb'd bikes, there's a whole different kettle of fish, always ran mine on super unleaded, u could feel a really soft throttle connection (like running rich) with normal, but I think 2 strokes are the extreme and probably the best use case for sticking with super unleaded.

 

knobs, lets get em!