Preparing to journey to the Alps I find that France have decided to mess about with their EU petrol by adding 10% ethanol.
Our UK petrol is of course marked normal unleaded '95' and super unleaded '98'.
Ethanol is fine for cars but it is HARMFUL to many bikes.
The French petrol with Ethanol will have either 'E10 95' or 'E85' on the pump.
The more expensive '98' will remain unaltered and therefore the safer purchase.
Kawasaki and other Japanese manufacturers have all said NOT to use 'E10 95' or 'E85' in their bikes.
Stay away from France then? What is it with you Brits' ? always returning to France? ;D
Step into Germany and enjoy Autobahn - with octan 105 Super Fly-by-wire bike-petrol...
And you'll even fint good road around Harz-area....
What are you waiting for? 8)
I'll go through Luxembourg then !!! Simon at Harmonie in the Harz is vunderbar !!!
thxs for heads up heading that way myself next week
Simon is... Ohhh... "no comments" ;D
Its my understanding that all UK petrol is 5% ethanol and is OK for bikes its anything higher such as the 10% that some EU countries not just France are going to introduce that isn't as yet approved by kawasaki and others for their bikes
In the short term I don't think there is too much too worry about. FH and myself spent 10 days in France without any noticeable problems.
What intrigues me is comments like "it is all right for car engines but it is harmful to motorbike engines" Why is it ok with one but harmful to the other?
Steven
Simon.at the Harz is a gem........been to the Harz a few times..plans are afoot to visit again next year ;D
Hopefully the plans will come together to go back to Harz next year :)
Looking forward to it and hopefully the weather will be better than last time
Could it be a EURO GTR1400 meeting in Harz? I will be happy for planning ;D
In france you will find 3 differents type of fuel at the petrol station:
1) Dieseil
2) Super 95 including 10% ethanol
3) Super 98
All French motorbike driver use Super 98.
Almost all station have SUper 98
It is my understanding that by adding ethanol to standard petrol the RON rating is increased. The company that I work for are now concentrating on producing fuel with a lower RON number so that they open up a bigger market by being able to sell the lower RON product into France and other parts of Europe so that they can then blend in some ethanol to boost the RON to 95.
more long winded explanation if you follow the link http://www.triumphsportingowners.com/blog.asp?blogid=3211 (http://www.triumphsportingowners.com/blog.asp?blogid=3211) :)
I think that last link confirms lower RON petrol is brought up to 95 by the addition of 10% ethanol and that is where the concern lies - however, 98 is already a higher RON brought up to that standard by 4% ethanol - so that is what I will be putting in my tank !!
I have been to France and the continent many times. Never heard anything about this....is it a new thing?
Had 55,000 miles on me first Hayabusa, probably 25,000 in mainland europe, mainly France. Never a moments problem.
It seems to be a new thing. They introduced E10 in Germany earlier this year (up from 5% Ethanol to 10%) and most people refuse to buy it. Performance is said to be not so good and you'll get less mileage per tank. The main thing is that car manufacturers refuse to guarantee that it won't harm the engines of their cars, so people rather fill up with Super 98 since you supposedly get the same mileage for the same money.
Ah, OK i'll be on the look out for the Super 98 then.