Hi. I am in the process of prepping for a south america trip on x ktm 890 adventure and have a couple of fuel questions: What sort of range should i be looking at? Not sure on our route yet, but it would be nice to have an idea of where/what the biggest milages are. Also, the bike has a catalytic converter - does anyone have experience of how these are affected by S.A. fuel? Cheers in advance.
Karl.

IN terms of range our experience is that the longest distances between fuel availability are in Southwestern Bolivia, crossing the desert - 600 km or so, and in Argentina Patagonia, where there are fuel stations every 200-330 km BUT they often don't have fuel...

The only country with really poor quality fuel is Venezuela.

Your bike will make plenty of power without remapping , there are many local people driving your bike with the fuel available in SA The only bad place I have seen shite fuel is in the Guajira Colombia ,No Hay Extra it borders Venezuela and there is no quality control for what is sold.
Get ready to abuse your baby your going to South America

The socalled Lagunas route through highland desert in Bolivia is around 450 kms from Uyuni to San Pedro de Atacama. But there is actually as gas station in San Cristobal around 90 kms out of Uyuni so the stretch from there to San Pedro de Atacama is approx 360 kms depending what actual route you end up doing through the Lagunas area. But of course at that route you will ride in 1th and 2th and 3th gear a lot and fuel milage wont be good.

Also as mentioned above - south in Patagonia gas stations is often out of fuel - so always fill up where its possible.

Also in Brasil at the R319 Transamazonia there are some long stretches inbetween gas stations.

So what range is needed? Well it depends, where you plan to ride. Very few ride the Transamazonia, not so many do the Lagunas route. The best answer is the longer range you have the better it is. I wouldnt go anywhere unless I had a good 400 km/250 mile range.

Fuel quality - only place with low quality fuel that I encountered was Bolivia. They sell only 85 octane RON (used in Europe and most of the world) which is around 81 octane AKI (used in Usa etc). Even riding a bike with relatively liw compression one felt this, and one had to be a bit careful with the throttle.
I also experienced low fuel milage in Brasil - they seem to put a lot of «other stuff» in their petrol. Didnt hurt the engine though….
Didnt go to Venezuela so cannot say anything about fuel there.

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In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end....

My bike really struggled with low octane 'Corriente' fuel in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia (R1100GS with a John Gemi chip) A modern bike might be able to cope (maybe mine would have with the BMW chip in the ECU) but on corriente it pinked like hell and conked out a couple of times when the engine got really hot. This did not happen using 'Extra' which is a higher octane.


Extra is generally easier to get near large towns. I don't think any fuel there has lead in it so your cat should be fine.



I would definitely carry a fuel bladder and use iOverlander to try to plan for fuel stops - we got pretty lucky with fuel in Bolivia late last year/earlier this year (a perennial pain in the arse) but others have struggled. Never leave a town with fuel without filling up!

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I bought a fuel can somewhere along the way--probably in Bolivia, but I don't really remember. Used it twice: once crossing the Andes between Chile and Argentina, once after a long battle with ridiculous headwinds in Patagonia. There were one or two other times when I was relieved to have a bit of extra fuel when I encountered unexpected detours, miscalculations, and closed fuel stations.

My point is not to tell you what you'll need or where you'll need it: only that if wandering even minor bits off the beaten track you'll probably be glad for a longer range sooner or later. Most of the time, my fuel can stayed empty because why bother? I normally have a 250 mile/400 km range, so draw your own conclusions about what you'll need.

Aside: in those Patagonian winds I discovered to my dismay how difficult it is to pour gasoline in a 60mph/100kph crosswind. Next time I'd carry a better spout, not just a funnel.

Lower octane gas is normally sold at higher altitudes, even here in the USA. This is not mysterious, and there are good reasons for it. My non-fuel injected bike kept chugging along up to around 15,000 feet, although with reduced power (duh). I had the most trouble with Brazilian fuel, which has a high percentage of alcohol. YMMV, but my worst fuel experiences have been in the EU (badly contaminated fuel along the Poland/Slovakia border) and Central America (presumed water contamination somewhere in Nicaragua). There's a lot of luck-of-the-draw involved.

I don't know where in the world you'll find leaded fuel these days, but it's not something I've worried about for quite a number of years--anywhere.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

It's probably Venezuelan fuel...

I travelled along the Panamericana in 2024 south/central/north america with my 890 Adv ( EU - France ), 40000 km.
I had to use my additional jerrican only at the Chile / Bolivia border Tambo-Quemado , no gasoline, diesel only.
I refueled often ( before 150 km ) to prevent situations of gasoline temporary unavailability at gas stations.
I went short of gazoline near Santiago de Chile due to … left side tank tap in close position by KTM service shop in France ! I used my additional jerrican to get out of the tricky situation !
The KTM 890 Adventure fuel gauge is not reliable, i monitor the fuel status from the daily travel mileage indicator.
I used octane additive in south america strating from Peru depending of octane index gasoline availability.
On the KTM i located the 1 Gallon jerrican on the leftside above the passenger foot rest.

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