Does fuel brand affect fuel consumption?

[Jay_Benson]

I have started keeping track of my fuel consumption on my new bike. I am also keeping a track of the different filling stations I have used to see if there is any trend related to the fuel supplier - I have a sneaking suspicion that the mileage I get from brands such as Shell / BP etc will be better than supermarket fuel due to the additives that are in the more expensive fuels. I am also tracking what changes I make to the bike so that, for instance, I know when I changed from a touring screen to the standard screen etc.

Does anyone else keep such information about their bike - I know that the big brands talk about reduced consumption with their brands but I wondered if anyone in the real world have any opinions / experience about the matter?

[brclarke]

Who do you think sells the supermarkets their fuel..?

Where I live at least, one distributor will deliver gasoline to all of the various stations around town. The fuel you buy at a Shell, Chevron, or an Esso might well have been delivered by the same tanker on the same day.

[shu...]

I haven't noticed brand affecting my gas consumption.

Four things affect mine radically, all but one related to air resistance:

1. High speed riding (70+ mph).
2. Big headwinds.
3. alcohol added to the gas.
4. Elevation.

Other than that, the only thing I have experienced from different brands or different stations is dirty gas, or water in the gas.

...........shu

[Alanymarce]

I think that the variation, if any, will not be noticeable - the variation in driving conditions (road surface, wind, temperature, tyre pressure, altitude, etc.) will have far more effect than the brand. Also, as brclarke says - the refiners sell their product to anyone (including their competitors).

Now, different countries? Absolutely, from our own experience in Venezuela (both living and travelling through) Venezuelan fuel is terrible compared with fuel in neighbouring countries and elsewhere. Which raises the question - "Is CITGO fuel made to Venezuelan standards or to USA customer expectations?". No idea, I've bought lots of PDVSA fuel but never, as far as I can recall, CITGO fuel.

[Jay_Benson]

I know that they all sell each other’s fuel as their own but the reality is that they have different additives for the fuel - those can be added at any point I would guess.

I used to have a company car and racked up reasonably large mileages each year. I consistently got better mileage than my colleagues driving the same car - they used supermarket fuel whilst i used branded fuel. I was also a notoriously slow driver which explains part of it but I think I got better mileage when I filled up with branded fuel - this may have been because I drove more conservatively subconsciously, or it may be because the engine ran cleaner and used less fuel, or both of the previous reasons. Hence the question of other people - gathering more data is always useful.I

[backofbeyond]

I do keep an eye on how much fuel I'm using but not to the point of cross referencing Esso against BP or even Tesco. If supermarket fuel is somehow less efficient than branded stuff it is at least cheaper. Do your figures show if those factors balance out - do you get more miles per pound paid with branded or supermarket?

I was driving through France last week and used supermarkets for all my fuel. What a number of them are doing now is offering three levels of ethanol - 5%, 10% or zero, with prices to match. The modern car I was using had a sticker saying it's happy with anything up to E20 (which I've never seen yet) and I used E10 because it was the cheapest - about 5 cents / L cheaper than E5. In the absence of concrete information about the relative effectiveness of each grade chosing the cheapest is about all you can do.

I've noticed the fuel lines hardening up quicker with E anything fuel on some of my old bikes but even with something super sensitive to fuel quality (a 70's two stroke) I don't notice any difference in how the engine runs.

[Jay_Benson]

With the new bike I am recording fuel used, miles, location and brand where the fuel was bought, cost of the fuel and any work done to the bike. I hadn’t thought of the percentage alcohol but I can back track as the fuel stations are all local - also an excuse to go out for a ride - and add that to the data. Thank you.

Another field I might add is what sort of riding was it - commute, Local, general, long distance, mixed etc

Hopefully I won’t be too anal about this.

[Tim Cullis]

You might want to try Fuelly to track your consumption. Here's my KTM 690 Enduro, an average of almost 70mpg over 15,000 miles: https://www.fuelly.com/motorcycle/kt...mcullis/251250

[rusty max]

Hi Tim,

Most of the world has difficulties converting miles per gallons and so have I.

Sorry, but nearly all nations have changed to the metric system.
Not the Yanks, being the leading nation in our world, lol.

Just me side of this.

Cheers
Rusty

[Tim Cullis]

Rusty, I actually measure the consumption in km/litre as this is my Spain/Morocco bike. All you have to do is click the 'units' pull down and lo and behold you get...

24.7 km/litre (over 24,000 km) average with a best of 30.7 km/litre
4.1 litres/100km
58 miles per US gallon

Hopefully you can understand one of those (grin).

[JMo (& piglet)]

Don't forget a UK gallon is 4.54 litres, and a US gallon is 3.78 litres.

Jx

[brclarke]

Originally Posted by rusty max

Sorry, but nearly all nations have changed to the metric system. y

Something I've never understood - the UK is mostly metric, so why are the speed limits posted in mph..?

[JMo (& piglet)]

Originally Posted by brclarke

Something I've never understood - the UK is mostly metric, so why are the speed limits posted in mph..?

The UK is only metric with certain weights and measures - typically those products sourced/traded with their near neighbours in mainland Europe (let's not go down that political Brexit hot potato please!)...

The UK still uses lbs for body weight (in fact they also use stone, which is 14lbs, plus however many extra lbs, up to the next stone); still use miles for distance, and still drink pints in pubs.

Fuel economy is still referred to in miles per gallon too - even though fuel is sold in litres these days (to hide the fact it is so expensive!)

It's also worth noting that while a lot of building materials are now sold by the metre (note spelling!) too, most people still talk about floor space in square feet, and land in acres too.

Jx

[backofbeyond]

Yes, it's a real hotch potch of weights and measures in the UK. You have to be familiar with both systems and able to swap from one to the other seamlessly. For example earlier today I was talking about some house door parts I needed to change and caught myself saying 'it's about a quarter of an inch, or maybe a bit bigger, about ten millimetres" What hope is there really

[Tim Cullis]

Yes, the UK really screwed up the 'change' to metric. I spend about four to five months a year out of the UK, and do 80% of my riding/driving in that period, so I made a personal decision to switch fully to metric a couple of years back.

My weight is in kg, my height in m/cm, my bike and car speedos are in kph—which confused UK KTM dealer somewhat. I think of distances in km, my satnav and smartphone nav apps are all in km.

Whilst we are at it, I'd also be in favour of the UK driving on the right. I remember Sweden's Högertrafikomläggningen back in the late 1960s when in the early hours of one morning all traffic came to a halt, then crossed over to the other side of the road, and carried on.



Only a little confusion!