The End of MBs in the US

Ok, Tyler, I want to apologize for my rant. I did not mean anything personal against you or to call you a liar. I understand your fear of loss of personal freedom, and will stand by you till the bitter end. I studied up on this, and found a couple of interesting things. First, the 4 gallon limit is intended to prevent motorcycles and other small engine owners from fueling with blends that might damage their engines. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any alternative fuels available in So.Cal. I found a site that lists no-ethanol fuels, but the only ones in Cali are in the northern part. Second, this law is not supposed to go into effect until 2022, giving us plenty of time to protest. Remember, all it takes for tyranny to reign is for good people to do nothing. We all should bombard our elected officials with this info, otherwise all they know is what the ethanol lobby pushes upon them. Also, we should get big oil involved, they have the clout to fight this. Now, I'll get off my soapbox and stop with the politics! lol. Thank goodness I still have a fuel choice here, and will continue to ride my little baby and spread the word.
 
I'm pretty unfamiliar with 2-stroke engines. My family had small 2-stroke outboard boats years ago, and friends of mine had 2-stroke snowmobiles back in the day. So, I don't know what ethanol -- and an increase to 15% ethanol gas (YIKES!) -- means to you 2-stroke MBers. My MB has a 4-stroke Huasheng, and I just replaced my original gas tank, after spending a fortune on it to make sure that it won't rot inside like the previous, ethanol-devastated tank I had.

Here's what I did:

- Purchased a new, black 2.5L tank from PistonBikes.com

- Purchased and applied Caswell Plating's phenol novolac epoxy tank liner (this is apparently the latest and greatest fuel-resistant liner)

- Roughed up the finish on the tank with 1200-grit wet sandpaper, washed it with soap and water, and then lots of clear water, then a final wipedown with acetone

- Purchased and applied new vinyl tank graphics from DoItYourselfLettering.com (over the roughed-up paint)

- Applied five coats of SprayMax 2K "Glamor High Gloss Clear Coat" over the tank and graphics

- Waited three weeks, then brought the tank's finish to a mile-deep shine with multiple steps of rubbing compound, polish, and finally Turtlewax.

I was pretty happy with my original stock gas tank and the uncoated custom vinyl lettering on it. But when ethanol-containing gas caused my original tank to leak from beneath one of its studs because of internal rust, I embarked on the expensive, time-consuming project outlined above.

Maybe the trouble that ever-increasing ethanol percentages of gas coming out of pumps is causing will move more MBers to 4-stroke engines. It seems that the ethanol is causing performance problems for you 2-strokers. I feel fortunate that the effects of ethanol that I have to deal with as a 4-stroker can be dealt with (as I've described above). But it's a VERY expensive process -- even for those of us who can "afford" it.
 
Ok, Tyler, I want to apologize for my rant. I did not mean anything personal against you or to call you a liar. I understand your fear of loss of personal freedom, and will stand by you till the bitter end. I studied up on this, and found a couple of interesting things. First, the 4 gallon limit is intended to prevent motorcycles and other small engine owners from fueling with blends that might damage their engines. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any alternative fuels available in So.Cal. I found a site that lists no-ethanol fuels, but the only ones in Cali are in the northern part. Second, this law is not supposed to go into effect until 2022, giving us plenty of time to protest. Remember, all it takes for tyranny to reign is for good people to do nothing. We all should bombard our elected officials with this info, otherwise all they know is what the ethanol lobby pushes upon them. Also, we should get big oil involved, they have the clout to fight this. Now, I'll get off my soapbox and stop with the politics! lol. Thank goodness I still have a fuel choice here, and will continue to ride my little baby and spread the word.

PurpleHaze:

Alright man. It just seemed like you were saying that I was making this all up or something and that is definitely not the case. It's true that I am not a big Obama fan, because of stuff like this, but it's not like I'm posting this to make him look bad in an election year or anything. You are correct about the fuels available in southern CA. I can't find any gas stations that sell un-blended nondiesel gas in So CA, it's all 10% Ethanol here. I didn't know that no-ethanol fuel is available in Northern CA, I thought these were state wide mandates. Also, I didn't know that these new requirments don't go into effect until 2022, that's good news! I will lend my voice in protest to these fuel mandates if anyone in the government will listen but I appreciate your support till the bitter end. Us MBers need to stick together and not let our elected officials push us around no matter what party is in power.

Ride on :)
 
There will never be a minimum purchase on fuel. This whole thing is silly.

I've been a fuel specialist for the DOD for last 14 years and watched alot of fuel blends come and go. There is an option for those who can only get fuel with ethanol in it. Get a container with a petcock valve on the bottom, fill it with your ethanol blend fuel and dump a couple quarts of water in it. The enthanol will attach to the water and sink to the bottom. Drain off the water. What's left is pure gas.

Yes it's a little bit of work, but in my opinion it's worth it to keep ethanol out of your engine.

Don't even get me fired up about E85 and BIO diesel......... what a bunch of garbage fuel!

Wow, I had no idea I could do this. I'm definitely going to try this. This is a great idea!! If I can run without ethanol I prefer to. How many quarts of water per gallon of E10 should I put in? Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this! Way to go!!
 
Wow, I had no idea I could do this. I'm definitely going to try this. This is a great idea!! If I can run without ethanol I prefer to. How many quarts of water per gallon of E10 should I put in? Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this! Way to go!!

One quart will be plenty for a gallon, a little more won't hurt. No matter how much water you add it will seperate and fall out to the bottom.

This is a common pratice in the 2-stroke RC world, guys have been doing it for awhile with great success. Glad I could add something useful.

Take care
 
Anybody remember "Thunder Road" with Robert Michum? I smell opportunity knocking for those of us who live on the Canadian or Mexican borders. I'm on the hunt for a 1949 or 1950 Ford right now!!
 
Fear not. Our crack team of Redneck engineers are working diligently on a way to circumvent this new government edict. Keeps things from getting boring.
 
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