Some folks think that using fuel stabilizer is only for off-season storage. While this may have been true in the good old days of pure gasoline, its not at all true anymore in this day and age of ethanol bastardized fuel.
Unless you enjoy pulling carbs and cleaning pilot jets, etc., here are some words to live by to keep your carbureted bike(s) running crisp, year after year:
1) Add a quality fuel stabilizer to your tank at every fill-up. Yes, every fill-up, 24/7/365. This is especially critical in hot humid weather, when ethanol laced gas degrades several orders of magnitude more quickly*.
2) Contact with atmospheric oxygen and moisture (AKA humidity) are the two things that will (further) accelerate the degradation of the gasahol fuel in your tank. To minimize these effects, keep your fuel tank full when your bike is sitting unused between rides and in the off season. The less headspace in the tank, the better. The oxygen and water** in the ethanol will still be causing degradation of the fuel from within, but by minimizing contact with additional moisture and oxygen from the air you'll be minimizing the oxidative degradation process as much as is possible.
3) Add some seafoam to your fuel every 3rd or 4th tankful. This detergent mixture will keep things clean and your max purring.
* - Every 10C (50F) increase in temperature will double the rate of a chemical reaction. Translation - gasoline will degrade about 4X faster at 30C (86F) than at 10C (50F), which is why its so important to use fuel stabilizer during the summer
** - 100 proof food grade alcohol (AKA grain alcohol) is actually 95% ethanol and 5% water (something known as an azeotropic mixture). Fuel grade alcohol, unfortunately, sometimes contains a lot more water than that!
Unless you enjoy pulling carbs and cleaning pilot jets, etc., here are some words to live by to keep your carbureted bike(s) running crisp, year after year:
1) Add a quality fuel stabilizer to your tank at every fill-up. Yes, every fill-up, 24/7/365. This is especially critical in hot humid weather, when ethanol laced gas degrades several orders of magnitude more quickly*.
2) Contact with atmospheric oxygen and moisture (AKA humidity) are the two things that will (further) accelerate the degradation of the gasahol fuel in your tank. To minimize these effects, keep your fuel tank full when your bike is sitting unused between rides and in the off season. The less headspace in the tank, the better. The oxygen and water** in the ethanol will still be causing degradation of the fuel from within, but by minimizing contact with additional moisture and oxygen from the air you'll be minimizing the oxidative degradation process as much as is possible.
3) Add some seafoam to your fuel every 3rd or 4th tankful. This detergent mixture will keep things clean and your max purring.
* - Every 10C (50F) increase in temperature will double the rate of a chemical reaction. Translation - gasoline will degrade about 4X faster at 30C (86F) than at 10C (50F), which is why its so important to use fuel stabilizer during the summer
** - 100 proof food grade alcohol (AKA grain alcohol) is actually 95% ethanol and 5% water (something known as an azeotropic mixture). Fuel grade alcohol, unfortunately, sometimes contains a lot more water than that!
