Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Around these parts the majority of stations sell ethanol free premium.
So I just looked on the pure gas site, and found in my home town in Taxachusetts I can purchase 5 gals. of this (normal) fuel for a mere $75.00 at the local lawnmower shop. It reminds me of when I worked in the Dallas - Ft. Worth area and people would ask "Why Y'all live there?"
Back to one of the basic questions: "What gets damaged?"
Not an exhaustive list but here are a few things. Airhead carb floats, fuel lines, and carb diaphragms. Since ethanol attracts water if it sits it can damage fuel tanks. Bing does have alcohol resistant floats for E10.
Classic K bikes - ditto fuel tank damage. The biggest problem is it turns fuel pump mounts to mush which can then foul the fuel pump and injectors. This can be a $1,000 problem. Bob's BMW has aftermarket mounts that are alcohol resistant to E10.
Oilheads - seem fairly resistant to damage from E10 although the same issues as for other bikes crop up on models with metal fuel tanks such as the R1150R.
Later bikes? I have no idea. Others need to add to this list.
And the cost to produce it is equal to gasoline. Diminishing returns for a fuel that creates less energy.
Around these parts the majority of stations sell ethanol free premium.
Nrpetersen--the ethanol is blended at the terminal where the tank trucks fill up.
Henry Ford uses ethanol to power 1908 Model T.Trump made this decision to curry votes in midwestern states impacted by his trade wars (sorry if this is getting into politics, but that's what E15 is all about). I don't know if he actually has the ability to force fuel companies to sell E15. That might take an act of congress. Last I knew, ethanol was more expensive that the normal components of gasoline, so there is no economic incentive for either fuel companies or consumers to push for E15. If it's not mandated, it won't happen. There has also been pushback on Trump's E15 from both consumers and business interests.
Then factor in the environmental impacts from marginal land, land that in many cases used to be prairie grass pasture, being tilled and put unto service growing corn,
Best,
DG
GTRider--The "blender pumps" I have encountered are more appropriately called "selector pumps". A single pump dispenses fuel from two or more tanks. If you want E0, you select that grade and it gets pumped from the E0 tank. If you select E10 or E15, that grade comes from the tank containing the appropriate grade. Of course, residual fuel remains in the dispensing hose and if you select E0 and the last guy selected E10, you will end up with some ethanol in your fuel. The only way around this is to get a test kit and test the fuel. This is not practical to do "on the fly". What I do, is pump fuel into a 5 gallon container and test the ethanol content when get home before I dump it into my R90S. Here in central Indiana, I buy E0 fuel from 4 stations. The presence or absence of ethanol is not listed on their pumps, so I am never sure of what I have until I do the test. Hypothetically--if a station wanted to add their own ethanol, they would have to get a RIN number from the EPA and then comply with the tracking mandates of the Reformulated Fuels Standard.
Politics? Well, once a snowball starts rolling downhill it's impossible to stop if politicians/voters/lobbyists get acclimated. And motorcycles having IC engines just get rolled into the mix because, well, because. After the clean air act in the early seventies, the rest is history.