What Fuel To Use
Fuel Gauge - Lack Thereof
SORRY!!! Everyone wants a gas gauge for these bikes! They keep forgetting to reset the trip odometer on fill up and then are forced to find gas using the auxiliary tank after the "cough and sputter"
Sounds like a nice idea - but this topic comes up constantly and the answer always is NO. No one has engineered a sensing / sending unit / float mechanism to fit into the tank, be calibrated for the tank, and interface to some gauge. It's one of those things that more experienced 1100 riders just find unnecessary. Gas gauges on any motorcycle are notoriously in accurate anyway.
That's the bad news! The good news - you have 40-60 miles on reserve to find a gas station or backtrack to the last one! AND the experience will eventually teach you to rest the trip odometer every fill up.
Gasoline Stabilizers / Storage
New Ethanol Fuel Treatments - Thread - http://forums.delphiforums.com/yamaha1100/messages?msg=44104.1
The petrol used today is different in characteristics and components used as compared to the petrol seen even 5-7 years ago and vastly different than that seen 10-15 years ago.
Two factors are present to shorten the shelf life of fuel:
1. Economic: stretching the amount of petrol available from a barrel of crude oil
2. Environmental: addition of oxygenating ingredients in an attempt to improve overall air quality.
Both of the above factors result in fuel which has shorter shelf life, is harder on soft components (elastomers) and leaves deposits (gum, tar, varnish) at a far more rapid rate than for fuels of the past.
In the 1950s, approximately 28% of a barrel of crude oil was refined into petrol. This was known as straight-run petrol. As the most lucrative high-volume product of crude oil is petrol, petroleum companies have developed ever-more exotic refining and cracking methods to pull more petrol from a barrel of crude oil. Today, that 28% has been increased to over 45% and, depending on the source of the crude, can go to as much as 75%. The negative effect in the more exotic refining processes is that they create olefins and diolefins which shorten shelf life due to oxidation and promote the rapid development of tars, gums and varnishes. For this reason, most OPE manufacturers recommend 30 days as the recommended shelf life for petrol. If used in extreme high temperature conditions and stored in an aboveground fuel container (plastic petrol container), we would shorten that to 1 week maximum.
Note: shelf life of petrol can be extended by use of an oxidation reduction compound known as fuel stabilizer. Several manufacturers offer this compound; among the most commonly used world-wide is Sta-Bil (tm) . Use of these compounds as directed can extend the shelf life of petrol as long as 1 year.
It is our position that use of a fuel stabilizer for engines that will be stored for a period of time is superior to draining fuel and running the carburetor dry. The potential for damage to diaphragms and gaskets is far greater as those components dry out.
More Than You Ever Wanted to know About Gasoline
Link provided by lownox: http://www.turborick.com/gsxr1127/gasoline.html