What gas is best?

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River

New Member
Jul 9, 2010
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Gainesville, FL
Tadd,

You have brainwashed if you believe electric cars are the answer to air polution. All a electric car does is relocate the point of polution from its tail pipe to the location of the smoke stack of the natural gas or coal fired generating plant that created the electricity that car is using.
There is really no practical replacement for oil in the forseeable futire. A big step would be to get busy and build nuclear power plants as fast as we can build them. Tough to do with the powerful enviromental lobby. sadly there are no easy answers. When ever we ride our HT powered bike instead of drive a car we can say we do our small part.

Jim
Yeah, unless everyone had bicycles that were turned into generators, and just rode the bike to power the car, but then it would create pollution to make the bikes, and the cars, unless the factories were solar powered, but then it creates pollution for the solar panel company to make the solar panels, in todays world, there is no escaping pollution, reducing, yes, not eliminating. Geothermal would be the best option, we would have little need for gas, coal, petroleum would still be used, unless everything would made of wood instead of plastic.
 

taddthewadd

New Member
Mar 1, 2009
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Visalia, California
You guys are right. Maybe electric cars wouldn't solve smog, but maybe oil dependancy. Anyways you are also right this is off topic so here is my input on what gas I use. I use chevron 87 octane fuel with opti-2 100:1 mix. It works well for me.
 

jauguston

New Member
May 1, 2010
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Bellingham, WA
For those around the gulf being impacted by the spill I sincerely hope the cap they just put on stops most of the leak until they can plug it. There are a lot of folks down there that won;t be able to afford a HT due to their jobs being impacted. On topic--right (-:

Jim
 

ferball

New Member
Apr 8, 2010
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NH
Just as a side note in my time wasting internet searches I have found some interesting information about water fuel type stuff, nothing practical yet, hybrid are a joke 50+MPg in a prius, big deal, my 1974 VW rabbit Diesel got around 56MPG and that was when I inhereitted it with 300k on it.

But on topic. I only by a gallon at a time for my bike and I find that the 87 cheapo is working fine, I really had no idea about how bad ethanol screws things up so thank you for the info, and the oil I use is the only 2 cycle the gas station had when I needed a quart, it works fine too. I do check my plug and re adjust my plug when if and when I switch oil brand and or mix. But lets be honest, you paid $150 dollars for an engine and strapped it to a bike, Is high performance fuel really that big of deal when you consider everything else involved?
 

bairdco

a guy who makes cool bikes
Aug 18, 2009
6,537
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living the dream in southern california
quote: "... Is high performance fuel really that big of deal when you consider everything else involved?..."

exactly.

apparently, since this thread's been wandering around for 5 pages, it is a big deal for some people.:)
 

Salty Gator

New Member
Aug 3, 2009
672
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Florida
quote: "... Is high performance fuel really that big of deal when you consider everything else involved?..."

exactly.

apparently, since this thread's been wandering around for 5 pages, it is a big deal for some people.:)
yeah....for folks whom are too disinformed....naive ....gullible.....and a whole lot more......a 2 stoke motor for a bike......doesn't care what kinda gas....as long as it has THE RIGHT OIL......pretty simple actually.......sigh....

Salty.shft.
 

jauguston

New Member
May 1, 2010
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Bellingham, WA
I think at the heart of it all is that most of us that put motors on bicycles are at least somewhat mechanically inclined guys that love to tinker. Doesn't matter what it is we love to tinker with things. A very healthy fun diversion from the boring but sometimes stressful lives we live. Lets face it they are FUN. They don't have to be rationalized to anyone as practical they are just fun.

We who love to tinker with stuff cannot resist the temptation to see if we can improve upon what we start with and that is half the fun. There is nothing serious about any of this stuff and we need to keep that in mind all the time. Whether you go to great engineering lengths to invent some new wonderful addition to this hobby or bolt on and ride it comes down to "Its fun".

The sun is shining and I am retired - I think I will go ride my HT powered SBP shifted Schwinn Mesa mountain bike soon to be repowered with a HT built by Foureasy. I can hardly wait (-:

Jim
 
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andrewflores17

New Member
Jul 12, 2010
479
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colorado springs, CO
Yeah, unless everyone had bicycles that were turned into generators, and just rode the bike to power the car, but then it would create pollution to make the bikes, and the cars, unless the factories were solar powered, but then it creates pollution for the solar panel company to make the solar panels, in todays world, there is no escaping pollution, reducing, yes, not eliminating. Geothermal would be the best option, we would have little need for gas, coal, petroleum would still be used, unless everything would made of wood instead of plastic.
just saying if u wana save it diesel is the way to go if their was a diesel kit i would by one biodiesel is the fuel of the future not hydrogen or ethanol my turbo jetta gets 55 mpg
cant wait for a diesel kit :-||
 

5446

New Member
Jun 7, 2010
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on a bike
I think at the heart of it all is that most of us that put motors on bicycles are at least somewhat mechanically inclined guys that love to tinker. Doesn't matter what it is we love to tinker with things. A very healthy fun diversion from the boring but sometimes stressful lives we live. Lets face it they are FUN. They don't have to be rationalized to anyone as practical they are just fun.

We who love to tinker with stuff cannot resist the temptation to see if we can improve upon what we start with and that is half the fun. There is nothing serious about any of this stuff and we need to keep that in mind all the time. Whether you go to great engineering lengths to invent some new wonderful addition to this hobby or bolt on and ride it comes down to "Its fun".

The sun is shining and I am retired - I think I will go ride my HT powered SBP shifted Schwinn Mesa mountain bike soon to be repowered with a HT built by Foureasy. I can hardly wait (-:

Jim
Ya I love my Mesa. I also have a SBP shift kit and I just tricked out a new motor Iam about to bolt on. We have a nice ride Jim.
 

River

New Member
Jul 9, 2010
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Gainesville, FL
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't switching to diesel be as simple as replacing ONLY the engine, with a diesel engine of the same power, compression, torque, size etc?
 

BarelyAWake

New Member
Jul 21, 2009
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Maine
Yep that's about it River... catch is, try finding a 50cc(ish) true diesel. The RC "diesel" engines are about the closest - but that's not actually pump diesel fuel, it's a mixture of kerosene, ether, castor oil, amyl nitrate or isopropyl nitrate & would be prohibitively expensive to run @ about $30 a gallon.

Of course I'd LOVE it if someone proved me wrong by finding a 50cc that'd run on pump diesel, I've been lookin' and lookin' - I wants one bad :( There's been some talk about conversions but the problem is the compression for a diesel needs be so high that they're suffering destruction of all major components in the modified engines as the result...
 
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jauguston

New Member
May 1, 2010
142
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Bellingham, WA
The closest and not close at all you could get is the military has multi-fuel motorcycles that will run on most anything , gas, diesel,jet A just like the trucks they have now.The big issue is a diesel engine has to be built heavier than a comparible gas engine to deal with the 400 psi compression pressure. In the case of the military motorcycles they keep the engine weight down with the ues of exotic very expensive materials. Model airplane diesels that are designed from the beginning to be diesels work very well. Diesel conversions of nitro model engines have a history of breaking crankshafts due again to the high cylinder pressure.

Jim
 

katoomer

New Member
Jul 15, 2010
20
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Rose City MI
if you are like me, I only buy 1gal or so of gas each time, i think i am just getting what ever is in the hose left behine from the last guy who fill up. probably 87.
If you use algebra to calculate it out, you're absoluly right. I always run a gallon into the car first, then switch over to the can unless you can find a dedicated pump.

Another concern is nowdays premimum is selling very little as some places. Paticularly at low income areas. Most stations carry a very low volume of fuel in the premimum tank depending on the way that paticular station has mixer pumps or not. I deliverd fuel for a while. Thats why I'm familar with it. That fuel may not be very fresh. And the lower levels if not monitered can be run down low enough to start pulling water.

I purchased premimum gas in my old 2-stroke street motorcycle often. One day in a run down suburb of Atlanta GA. I put some in the tank. I went about one block and the engine died. I carry a tool bag so I suspected what the problem was. I drained the float bowel and sure enough, some water came out.