Octane

[wilcom]

I am in Iowa, we have 3 choices at the pump.

There are currently 206 stations in Iowa that serve up "pure gasoline"

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=IA

[georgesgiralt]

Hello!
In France  we have 95, 98 which both may  have up to 5% ethanol and 95-E10 with 10 % Ethanol added.
There is also an E85 which is up to 85 % Ethanol and can only be poured on special flex-fuel engines

These mixture should be available everywhere in Europe, with the possible exception of the 98 which is promoted by French (I've seen 98 in Germany where Porshe and Mercedes people seem to enjoy it)

If I heard right the percentage of ethanol in gas will be risen up to 10 % for the "non E10" and to 15 % in the 95-E10.

I made some trial run on the R65 with 95-E10 because it is the cheapest and tend to be replacing the "plain" 95. I had to change the main jet (going bigger) and change the needle jet (bigger) and needle position. The bike ran relatively fine but with a more lower mileage per gallon which made this gas more expensive than the premium 98 ... Add to this that this gas sucks water from the air  so if you live in a humid area, it's properties will deteriorate very rapidly on storage...
In France, beetroot grower are a huge political force. They promoted the use of ethanol from beetroot in gas even if it costs more oil to produce than the amount of oil it replace....
Also bear in mind that ethanol will eat the glue in fibreglass tanks... and there is no proper substitute for now so if your tank is dripping or wet, do something about it NOW ! It is also said to eat some internal coating on tanks but I wonder if the BMW are affected.

[Bob_W]

I know from an unpleasant experience ethanol will eat certain fuel lines. In a corn producing state, the farmers don't use ethanol to produce ethanol so of course the gas stations will sell non-ethanol gas.
They are happy to let the rest of the US put up with the problems of ethanol so they can put some dollars in their pockets. Legislation should require anyone involved in ethanol production to use the product in lieu of petroleum, but the producers know the stuff is worthless.

Opinionated Bob

[mrclubike]

I am in Iowa, we have 3 choices at the pump.

There are currently 206 stations in Iowa that serve up "pure gasoline"

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=IA

I had no idea you could still buy E free fuel in the USA at all.
After looking at the E free fuel list for Missouri USA I now see why I thought this
Because there is NONE in this area. (St Louis)

And it also may be why my bike is so sensitive to were I set the timing.
I had to install a pointer thru the case to get the timing spot on

[JBwell]

When I filled up yesterday I noticed that gas with 10% ethanol is 193.9 and the next step up with no ethanol is 233.9.  It used to be about half that much difference.  

[Bob_Roller]

I was surprised to hear no-ethanol fuel was available for highway use vehicles .
Had an engineer from a major refinery in Texas, Valero visit us a few years ago, we had fuel quality issues with jet fuel  .
I asked the engineer if they produced non-ethanol fuel and his answer was no .
Going online today, I saw that regions with a lot of agricultural activity, don't have ethanol in the fuel and it's set by the individual state, whether or not to use ethanol in the fuel supply .
Well, I learned something today !!!!!!

[marcmax]

I live on the east coast within sight of the ocean and there are a lot of fishermen that fish 2-3 miles offshore and don't want ethanol in their fuel. There a number of places that sell "marine" fuel at the pump for the fishermen (and anyone willing to pay the price increase). It is typically 35-40% more than the most expensive blend. I don't go out of my way to only fill up there but if I happen to be near one of these stations I usually top off the tank with the non-ethanol fuel.