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Old 19-11-2016, 11:01 AM   #13
utopia
No turn left unstoned
 
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: leicester
Bike: M750
Posts: 4,543
Yes indeed.
My comments were based on having heard it said that carb icing was less of a problem with premium fuel.
In fact my own experience leaves this question unanswered, but if there is some truth in it, it seemed reasonable to suspect the ethanol content of the regular stuff to be the root cause of its poorer performance.
I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that this is because of absorbed water in the fuel though because, as you say, there is probably more than enough moisture in the air anyway.
Therefore I was thinking that the reason could be that the ethanol might change the vapourisation characteristics of the fuel in much the same way as dosing with pro.fst does, but in the other direction.
This is merely supposition on my part though ... I have no evidence or logic to support it.
I don't even have confirmation that premium fuels are less susceptible to icing at all .. it may be urban myth, but if it isn't then it does seem likely that ethanol is involved somehow.

Anyway, this may be a thing of the past for me as I now have a box containing a shiny new pair of FCR flatslide carbs ... which I am told are far less prone to icing.
This is the hope anyway but I have to confess that once again I only have the experience reported by others on which to base my hope, rather than any hard factual analysis.
The fact that the cables pull directly on the FCR slides rather than via a butterfly/diaphragm system is reassuring though.
Anyway, we shall see.

Sorry for slight hijack there.

Hope the hangover is mellowing, Kato.
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