Gasoline quality

[paulcbrowne]

Earlier I had posted a question asking if anyone had experienced rough idling as I had after switching to 93 AKI gas from 89.

 

Today, I was discussing this with a co-worker who has an R1150RS. He had moved up the octane ladder as well. He had just returned from a round trip from DC to Ohio and noted how much better his bike ran on the gas outside of our local area. His contention was that we have lousy gas quality in DC area.

 

Anyone know enough to comment on why 93 AKI gas in Ohio make a bike run better? One thing that he contended was that gas companies were adding extra ethanol beyond the posted 10% -- he said the law allows up to 20% even though it's posted as 10%.

 

He works for one of those big consulting companies that knows everything and so I figure that he must be right.

[99Roadster]

Not much to add except there is only one county in Ohio that actually quality tests gasoline and that is Summit in North-Eastern Ohio.

 

I guess it really doesn't matter what's in the pump to rest of the State.

[RedMac]

I'm not sure about DC, but here in SE Wisconsin they have "oxygenated" gas (emissions stuff).

 

My cars gas mileage increases about 10-15% if I'm on a trip once I get out of the local area and go onto "regular" gas. Plus it runs better.

 

Mike

[TomfromMD]

Living on the MD side of the metro DC area, I haven't noticed any difference between our gas and that of other states - although I rarely fill up in either VA or DC. I just returned from a trip which included VA, NC, TN, KY, OH, NY and PA and my '06RT ran flawlessly (and gave 51 MPG), just as it does at home.

 

I do notice a 5~10 increase in fuel consumption in the winter - now somewhat worse with ethanol than it was with MTBE.

 

Tom