i will be travelling through syria jordan and egypt later this year on my 2006 dl650 , i expect that i will be running on some pretty dodgy fuel . so does anyone know how the bike will deal with poor quality fuel ? is there anything i need to do to the bike to prepare for this issue ? thank,s . btw, the bike is a bog standard model , original exhaust .

Hi, I rode the DL from Europe to Australia, and sometimes in countries like Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia, had to use any "petrol" I could find (in Iran I had no idea, what the fuel was, because they have different alphabets). Only have needed to use bottled fuel a couple of times, though.

The thing seemed to work fine all the way. The only noticeable drawbacks, when using lower quality fuels were that you could hear engine knocking, if you used too much throttle at too low rpm´s. And sometimes fuel consumption went up by quite a bit, even up to 2 litres per 100kms - strange that this has actually been most evident in Australia, where there seems to be a really huge difference, whether you use normal or premium unleaded. I would´ve thought I´d get much worse fuel in the countries mentioned before!

I wouldnt touch the fuel system of the bike, because it works ok even in 3rd world conditions; you might actually do more harm by putting on additional filters, that could affect fuel flow.

One thing i definitely AM taking with me next time I´ll set off, is a portable filter, just a simple "sock", that can be put between the tank fill hole and fuel pump nozzle or fuel canister (or whatever it is your filling up from.) A real easy way to prevent at least the bigger dirt particles from entering. The more you will need to use bottled fuel, the more you will probably benefit from this extra filter.

Have a look at these. I know, Mr Funnel sounds like something off The Simpsons, but you do remember the name. They are the dogs bollux. I tested on a while back that a traveler who stayed here had. He was game enough for us to put a 25% water/75% fuel mix into his tank through it and it worked.

FourWinds Enterprises, Inc.

The little one is plenty small enough to fit in without taking up lots of space. The one we tested was the medium but I would buy the small one. US$11 is money well spent.

Regards

Nigel in NZ

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The mouth of a perfectly contented man is filled with . -- 2200 BC Egyptian inscription

I will be getting one for our fourby this week. I've only heard good things about it as well.

They are available through these guys in Oz

Wadeair - Fuel Systems

and hear is a link to the American site

Mr. Funnel

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www.seeyouwhenwegetthere.com

thank,s for all the replies , i will get one of the funnel filters , a very useful little thing to have .
thanks.

Last winter I rode my DL650 from Colorado to Argentina and went through some very desolate areas with some very poor fuels. Gas in Bolivia is so bad that it is jokingly said to have single digit octane, I suspect its not far off from that! Funny enough, I got my best gas mileage there while riding for days at 13,000+ feet. Go figure!

The Wee does very well with crappy gas. A pre-tank(ie when filling up) filter is not a bad idea, but over all the screen/pre-filter going into the fuel pump inside the tank is pretty well designed.


A gas station near Torres del Paine, Chile. Attendant pumping fuel from rusty 55 gallon drums inside the shack.

Fueling a pickup truck straight from a 5 gallon bucket while catching up on local gossip, Southern Chile