Gas Prices

[DonTom]

Maybe when I slow down I'll appreciate charging time, but not yet.

Yep, there was a time when I wanted to have the largest gas tanks available. That was when I was younger and often rode more than 200 miles between gas stations.

Now that I have slowed down, I enjoy shorter trips more, and riding to charging stations to check in has become a hobby of mine. And from those places, I will often take a hike. Such as down to the Yuba River at Gould Park when I charge up at Cisco Grove. There I can do things such as type out these forum messages--stuff I do at home way too often. I would rather do this under a shade tree next to the river.

My long days of doing nothing but riding long distances nonstop are over. But in case I still want to take a long motorcycle ride, I still have my 1K lb Harley Ultra (six-gallon tank) as well as my Triumph Trophy (7-gallon tank). And they each get around 50 MPG until I ride fast. My Harley gets great MPG at 65 MPG but very poor at 85 MPH.

But I find I mostly ride my electrics these days, and I enjoy the charge breaks.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[stangmx13]

My wife's requires premium as well.

How many dummies put in premium when they require only regular do you suppose thinking there's some king of "magic"?

The google says 20 percent.

My truck gets better mileage with higher octane, ~5% improvement from 87 to 91. Sometimes I do the math to see if the price diff is under 5%.

 

[GAJ]

My truck gets better mileage with higher octane, ~5% improvement from 87 to 91. Sometimes I do the math to see if the price diff is under 5%.

We've had two cars that recommend premium and in both cases they got better mpg using premium.

My old Miata only needs regular but for a few years I ran premium as it would ping going up hill.

Cleaned out the system with Magical Mystery Oil before switching to synthetic and then ran some Seafoam through it and now it uses regular as designed without pinging.

Sticking hydraulic valve lifters seem to have been the cause but using synthetic has cured that and I use Techron every few months.

 

[GAJ]

Bad news for the Northeast.

From November through March of last year, for comparison, we spent only $400 on nat gas and electricity to heat our house, (and power everything else). We do have solar.

Heating oil households will pay an average of nearly $2,300 between mid-November and mid-March, the National Energy Assistance Directors Association projected in mid-September. That represents a 31.3% increase from last winter in total seasonal spending per household, according to National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA).

 

[ThumperX]

We have been primarily using the electric milk truck or our bicycles for runs. Today marked a new milestone, I filled up Tundar the Tundra who now holds $149.92 of gasoline. Winning

 

[PorradaVFR]

My truck gets better mileage with higher octane, ~5% improvement from 87 to 91. Sometimes I do the math to see if the price diff is under 5%.

From what I gather using higher octane in engines that are not higher compression is not likely to deliver much...interesting that you see that since (again to my understanding) higher octane is LESS volatile so I’d expect it to be less efficient without added compression of turbo / supercharging.

Any engineologists here to clarify?

 

[stangmx13]

From what I gather using higher octane in engines that are not higher compression is not likely to deliver much...interesting that you see that since (again to my understanding) higher octane is LESS volatile so I’d expect it to be less efficient without added compression of turbo / supercharging.

Any engineologists here to clarify?

My truck does have a turbo. It’s a Ford ecoboost.

Generally, modern engines have knock or ping sensors. They use these to adjust ignition and sometimes fueling. So diff octane fuels can utilize diff maps, producing diff performance. I’m sure you can find many examples of NA engines getting better mileage all over the internet - and this is probably a major reason why.

 

[AbsolutEnduser]

All these talk about electric is just proving that nobody cares about the environment and current/future world honking conflicts .

-

Just "drive".

 

[Das MotorRad]

My truck does have a turbo. It’s a Ford ecoboost.

Generally, modern engines have knock or ping sensors. They use these to adjust ignition and sometimes fueling. So diff octane fuels can utilize diff maps, producing diff performance. I’m sure you can find many examples of NA engines getting better mileage all over the internet - and this is probably a major reason why.

I was surprised to feel a difference running around 96 octane (half a tank of 91 half a tank of 100). It stays in higher gear longer going up hills, I suppose that tracks with the knock / ping sensors doing their job!

 

[DonTom]

higher octane is LESS volatile so I’d expect it to be less efficient without added compression of turbo / supercharging.

Any engineologists here to clarify?

You have that correct. Octane is an additive. Its only purpose is to raise the temperature at which the gasoline will explode. IOW, prevents pinging (which can cause a big loss of power). But a car/ motorcycle designed for lower octane that doesn't ping should do best on the lowest octane that can be found before any pinging starts.

However, there is an exception. Sometimes the lower grades (at least in some areas) use more ethanol than the higher grades. In some states, they add NO ethanol at all in the higher grades. Ethanol is a lot less efficient than gasoline. So that causes a lot of confusion, where an older car/ motorcycle can do better with the higher grades not because of more octane, but because of less ethanol.

-Don- Auburn, CA