WHICH FUEL?
A couple of years ago, on a long day ride with
mates, my bike, a 2012 Suzuki GSX1250, developed
a seriously bad misfi re at just over four grand
and would barely pull the skin off a roast chook.
It seemed to me like it was a fuel issue and the
guys at the bike shop confi rmed it: the main fi lter
a ached to the fuel pump inside the tank was
chockers with what appeared to black algae.
How it came to be was the cause of much
speculation, the most common theory being
bad petrol. Trouble was, I’d been fi lling up
with BP 98RON pre y much exclusively as I
had only been doing day rides for a couple of
months, with just the odd tank of something
else thrown in, if at all. In went a new fi lter and,
silly me, in went more 98. Well, it couldn’t be
“premium premium” causing the problem now,
could it? Actually, now that you mention it ...
A short time later the misfi re returned and,
again, the same fi lter was blocked. And again,
the guys at the bike shop wanted to know
where I’d been ge ing my fuel from. “Nothing
but BP 98,” I declared, only to receive looks that
said “This guy is a dick” and “Yeah. Sure, mate”
despite my having been a regular customer
for over 20 years. Thanks for believing in me,
fellas. But that was it for me and I swapped to
either 91 or 95 and for close to two years had no
further problems.
So why, recently, did I put two tanks of 98(interestingly, not BP) in the bike in the one
day, on my way to the Tumbarumba TT? Who
knows? Probably best not to ask. But, sure
enough, the very next day, while a empting
to wear out the sides of my new tyres through
the Kosciuszko National Park, the misfi re
returned once more. Only this time it was
worse than ever; virtually no power at all
over four grand this time. Filling up with 91 at
Jindabyne and chucking in some fuel injection
system cleaner helped a bit and for a while
I thought I was in the clear. Not ever having
removed the fi lter myself, I was reluctant to
a ack it in the camping and caravan park
or anywhere else for that ma er, so kept
shovelling in fuel injection system cleaner and
91 RON for the next couple of days.
Alas, by the time we were nearing Lockhart
on the road from Rand, the bike was down to a
top speed of 65kmh. Oh, joy. A er I fi lled up again
with 91RON in Lockhart and added more magic
cleaner juice, things were once again looking up
slightly. With the next day being a Monday, I’d
be able to get to Jerilderie no worries and fi nd
someone who could help, as my mates (one with
a bike identical to mine) were as reluctant as I
was to a empt to locate the guilty party.
No such luck in Jerilderie, but a phone call
ahead to the Yamaha shop in Deniliquin set
up a consultation upon my arrival in saidtown. Would they believe my sordid tale of
the ghastly and evil 98? My oath, they would,
and they didn’t even appear to think I was the
slightest bit crazy, having heard similar stories
before hearing mine.
And so it was that the young mechanic
there, with me as (barely) able assistant and
cheer squad, located the blackened culprit,
which he promptly washed in carbie dip
(whatever that is) and again in clean petrol
(91RON of course) before blowing the whatsit
out of it with compressed air. Back in she went
and, voilà! Back to normal for the blast across
to Moulamein in the glorious a ernoon sun at
unmentionable speeds.
Two months down the track and no more
misfi re. And defi nitely no more 98.
Brad Downs
Bairnsdale, Vic
Greg: Hmmm. This is a curly one. If you ride
your bike regularly, 98RON is fi ne. For bikes that
sit, and you mention that you had only been
doing day rides for a couple of months, 98RON
can drop away in performance and thicken.
This can lead to blockages. I run 95RON in
my Blackbird because there is zero benefi t in
running 98RON. Your bike runs a compression
ratio of 10.5:1 and there’s no way it will ping on
lower-octane fuel. People get all gooey about
98RON, in many cases unnecessarily.116 | AUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDERLETTERS
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