Winter has finally arrived here in Nebraska and i'm hard at work, thinking of ways to store my cbr F2, which will be in a fairly well insulated garage. I was at the pump at my BP gas station, a few blocks from my house, where i've been filling up since I got her 2 years ago. I noticed a 10% ethanol sticker next to the regular gas (87), that hadn't seemed to be there before. I pressed the button before it registered in my head, so put some in anyways. There was already about a gallon of premium in at the time. So I put a little over a gallon of the 10% in. I'm pretty certain that ethanol isn't all that bad, but not a good thing on a carbureted bike and since mine was made before all these ethanol mandates. I've read many threads about the ethanol blend and have learned that ethanol absorbs water more aggressively than regular gas. It can erode paint, rubber and aluminum fuel lines (?), gums up over time and starts to become acidic after about three months. My question is if I have a mixture of 40% 97 octane and say, 60% 10% ethanol blend sitting in the tank, should it be o.k. if it sits another 3 months (tank is 3/4ths full). And, if I add seafoam for storage out of paranoia, would it "neutralize" the ethanol and slow/prevent it from becoming more acidic/bad for vulnerable parts? Is there a non petroleum based alternative that may work better?

 

I have used 95 octane gas whit 10% of ethanol here in Finland in all my cars (older cars that should be used whit 5% ethanol gas) for years and last summer in a 98 600 cc Hornet. But they researched it in a local motorcycle magazine and the 10% Ethanol fuel absorbs more water then the regular when the bike is storaged. So i wouldn't be worried at the erosien part but some fuel stabilizer wouldn't do bad so it wount absorbe so much water. Lot of people here use it whit every fuel when the put the bike winter strorage.

 

BG makes a product called CF5, works great

 

I keep my 94 F2 tank and my 08 CBR1K tank full all winter here in West Virginia, about a 2hrs south of Pittsburgh Pa. But...........about once a month I siphon it out and put in fresh and run the old stuff in the work car that has 226,000 miles on it. But thats just me.

 

I stay away from Ethanol blended fuel - I'd rather not replace all the rubber parts of my fuel system. There are plenty of non-ethanol options out there. That being said, add some stabil and you should be fine. Also, brim the tank (minimize water condensation on the inside of the tank). Drain your carbs and you are good to go.

 

Avoiding ethanol is getting difficult with all the clean air legislation. And VERY difficult depending on where you live. Omaha Nebraska (me) and Iowa (A mile east of me) are 2 of the biggest corn states in the country. People in small towns in the midwest have even less options. I'm not sure about the full tank theory. With an empty tank, water can continue to condense inside, depending on the humidity. With a full tank, water can replace evaporated fuel. BUT, in the winter, I believe there's much less humidity in the air, so that's a plus. I have noticed that there's ALWAYS a little bit of fuel at the top of the tank around the key hole. This suggests that this is where moisture gets inside and fuel slowly evaporates out. Maybe if I seal that with plastic and tape, it will make a difference. Can't imagine where else enough moisture would be getting in to be worried about. I may just ride the rest of the fuel out, replace with regular, add more seafoam and call it good. The current concentration of ethanol in my tank isn't that much anyways, since it's mixed with non ethanol stuff. I'm not too fond of having to drain the carbs.