Fuel

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Wagonpeddler_imp

Running like a top
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Just purchased a 2104 CB1100. Waiting for delivery. First bike ever without a fuel petcock...leading to a couple questions. Always used non-ethanol fuel in past bikes (with carburetors)....recommended for the CB1100?
Bike has been sitting for a few months. Would like to replace the fuel in the tank with fresh. IS there a way to drain the tank?
Thanks
 
The Honda CB1100 operates fine with regular unleaded gasoline with and without ethanol (up to 10% - typically in winter/cold seasons though).
 
Here in NY at least our summer fuel blend is 10% Ethanol and the winter blend is 15% ethanol. This is the same for most of the US. But states are switching to even higher blends with this emissions cuss.

Given where you live i would probably just add some seafoam to your fuel and leave it till the spring when they switch back to lower Ethanol blend fuel.

The fuel injected bike wi be less finicky with the common unleaded fuel like like mentioned above.

Just go for the higher octane fuel (premium) whenever possible.

Another tip is to use gas station that have a separate hose/nozzle for each type of fuel.

If you use a station with 1 hose/nozzle for all 3 octane types. And that car just filled up with regular (like most do) that line is filled with regular gas so you are gonna get your first half gallon or so of regular gas before the premium gas you selected gets through to your bike. And with a small 3 gallon tank or so that amount of regular gas is lowering your octane ratio. (This is overkill and won't effect the bike but its food for thought)

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca
 
Kind of disagree with mvk

The CB1100 is designed to run on 87 octane and up to 10% ethanol (not 15%) and says this in the owne'rs manual.(as most Hondas have been for years)

Running any higher grade of gas than that, is just wasting money. You get no more performance and it doesn't run any "better" or cleaner. Of course, it's your motorcycle and your money.

 
The ferret_imp said:
Kind of disagree with mvk

The CB1100 is designed to run on 87 octane and up to 10% ethanol (not 15%) and says this in the owne'rs manual.(as most Hondas have been for years)

Running any higher grade of gas than that, is just wasting money. You get no more performance and it doesn't run any "better" or cleaner. Of course, it's your motorcycle and your money.

Click to expand...
Yea I hate the extra ethanol in the blends. Ive been seeing other forums where this direction of fuel is gonna make it even harder on older/smaller motors. Idk what they're putting in there but im rebuilding the lawn equipment every season now no matter what we do to the fuel.

And my older bikes from the 80's, 90's seemed like they need a tune again since they went with higher ethanol around here. I think California might be up to 15% year round?

I also thought my manual said 93 octane was suggested but maybe I'm confusing that with my subaru? The 2.0 Turbo actually doesn't like regular at all it won't even idle the same with low octane fuel.

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca
 
I have a little over 50,000 miles on my bike. I almost always use 87 octane fuel and only paid attention to the octane and ethanol content when I was a newer rider -- spent too much time researching back then. Thing is, that I ride all year around and my understanding is that ethanol does whatever harm it might do if fuel is sitting in the tank for extended periods. I dump a bit of Seafoam into the tank every couple of months (if I remember), but that's all I do. This has worked for me, but if you're not riding 5-10,000/year, maybe some of the other tips will get you better results.
 
EmptySea_imp said:
I have a little over 50,000 miles on my bike. I almost always use 87 octane fuel and only paid attention to the octane and ethanol content when I was a newer rider -- spent too much time researching back then. Thing is, that I ride all year around and my understanding is that ethanol does whatever harm it might do if fuel is sitting in the tank for extended periods. I dump a bit of Seafoam into the tank every couple of months (if I remember), but that's all I do. This has worked for me, but if you're not riding 5-10,000/year, maybe some of the other tips will get you better results.
Click to expand...
Thats good to know, I usually do minimum 10k miles a year during the riding season and juat use the seafoam when I store it for the winter

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca
 
yea I have 63,000 on my CB and have never used anything but what is called for in the owners manual..87 grade with up to 10% ethanol
 
The ferret_imp said:
yea I have 63,000 on my CB and have never used anything but what is called for in the owners manual..87 grade with up to 10% ethanol
Click to expand...
Wow! Is that the highest mileage Modern CB we know of so far?

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca
 
The Ferret's 63K is pretty remarkable given that he has had 2 motorcycles from which to choose throughout the time he's had the CB1100. Per the Forum Mileage spreadsheet, Haystack had 111,000+ on 1/1/2021. Not sure if that's correct, but I know he was racking up miles like crazy a few years ago.

update: Alprider mentioned in a post that he has 160,000 miles on his 2014. Haystack mentioned that he had 130,000 miles.
 
EmptySea_imp said:
The Ferret's 63K is pretty remarkable given that he has had 2 motorcycles from which to choose throughout the time he's had the CB1100. Per the Forum Mileage spreadsheet, Haystack had 111,000+ on 1/1/2021. Not sure if that's correct, but I know he was racking up miles like crazy a few years ago.

update: Alprider mentioned in a post that he has 160,000 miles on his 2014. Haystack mentioned that he had 130,000 miles.
Click to expand...
Was Alp rider in Kilometers since he was overseas?

I didnt realize we have a mileage spreadsheet.. I'm behind since I haven't been able to ride since I got hurt at the end of 2020 and have 3 other bikes but I will dedicate to racking up CB miles as soon as I'm back in the saddle

2014 CB1100, 1981 KZ440 LTD, 1993 Yamaha XJ600 Seca, 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca
 
63k miles? Good Lord, Ferret, think of your resale value!

Wagon, the bike I picked up recently had sat for a year. It ran ok, maybe balked at starting the first couple of times, but I just went on a long ride, ran through that gas, put fresh fuel in it, and it's been running like a jewel since.

We can only get 10% ethanol gas here in CA, and I used to be concerned about it, putting Seafoam or Techron Powersports fuel juice in my bikes every few tanks. But, I got lazy and stopped doing that quite a while back, and haven't seen any difference in performance or fuel range.
 
Wagonpeddler_imp said:
Just purchased a 2104 CB1100. Waiting for delivery. First bike ever without a fuel petcock...leading to a couple questions. Always used non-ethanol fuel in past bikes (with carburetors)....recommended for the CB1100?
Bike has been sitting for a few months. Would like to replace the fuel in the tank with fresh. IS there a way to drain the tank?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Seems some points have not yet been fully addressed:
- any standard fuel looses its octane rating over time, so if the engine needs 87 and you park her with 87 in the tank, the rating will eventually be too low for the engine and cause knocking,
- in your car you can hear knocking (which can destroy an engine), on a m/c you can hardly hear it, if at all,
- if you start with 95 or higher, the time to pass below 87 will of course be longer.

Back to your question. If you tank is (almost) full of old fuel, take a manual pump (cost 10$), pump it out, add e.g. 98 grade fuel - let's say a gallon or so - and start the engine. Ride 2-3 miles to make sure only the best stuff is in your injection system. Now you can fill up with whatever you care about.

Next winter - unless you ride through it - buy a fuel stabilizer, so you can simply forget about pumps, petcocks and octane.

If you don't know what to do with the fuel you pumped out, use it in your lawnmower, knocking is no factor in small displacement engines.
 
Here in Colorado, regular grade E-10 gasoline is 85 octane, not 87. My CB ran great on 85 even at 14.000’+ elevation. Zero pinging, zero noticeable power loss, zero issues, and gas mileage in the mid-60’s.
 
I remember that and thought it was weird, but my bike ran just fine on 85 too.
 
LongRanger_imp said:
Here in Colorado, regular grade E-10 gasoline is 85 octane, not 87. My CB ran great on 85 even at 14.000’+ elevation. Zero pinging, zero noticeable power loss, zero issues, and gas mileage in the mid-60’s.
Click to expand...
Knocking depends on how much power you actually pull. Knocking isn't ever an issue if all you pull is 30 HP at 2500 rpms. The Honda guidelines do have to take into account that somebody may run her at high rpms all/many a times.
The impact of elevation (or atmospheric pressure), this is compensated for by the injection system.
 
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