type of fuel

My bike has a 200 cc engine: Loncin Vertical single cylinder, 4-stroke, OHV air-cooled - bore & stroke 63.00mm X 62.00mm - compression ratio :9.0:1

The makers/importers say to use a 'premium unleaded fuel'.

In Australia that is usually 95 octane, which costs 5 cents + more per litre. or we can get 'ultra' which is 98 octane. These are different to USA ratings.

Ordinary unleaded is 92 octane here and E10 (ten percent ethanol) is 94 octane.

What do these engines really need and why? They are quite simple jobs, no EFI or engine management that I know of to be thrown out of whack.

Will I get problems using the E10 in the bike (I use it in my 20 yr. old car with no problems despite it has EFI.)? Would regular at octane 92 aus. really be a problem?

Is this 'premium required' rating intended just to raise above other world standards of 88 to 90 octane for regular?

I have owned three bikes in China, and my bikes were Chinese made and similar to yours. My friends and I usually use what the Chinese think of as 'premium' fuel, which is 93 octane, we also have 97 here which is 'super'. Regular octane here is 90 octane, so you should be fine with regular unleaded if it's 92 in Australia, although you could fill up with premium now and again if you are in the mood. I'm not sure about E10, but it should fine too.

Thanks. As long as I am not going to blow it up or smash the valves to pieces or something drastic then, I shall try it and see if it knocks. It is not a lot of extra money really and I could always mix it, but it is a bore picking up different fuels in different cans when I go into town! I had a feeling that what you are saying was the case.

I have read that the Ethanol 10 detonates differently but as I said, it is good in the car, in fact subjectively I would say the car runs better, less crap in the injectors and starts better in the damp and cold so probably OK in the 'bike too. I shall try it out first. E10 has been OK in the 4-stroke water-pumps and mowers ( and even as 2-stroke mix in some cases in chainsaws and brush cutter too) but of course they only get an hour or so of work at a time, here and there.

Jape,

We put Ethanol in petrol in the US and it seems to have a bad habit of gunking up carb jets here... especially if it sits too long. I try to run out (in one day) a full tank of Seafoam or other type of injector cleaner/detergent every now and then... seems to work so far on both carburated and injected bikes.

Ultimately, I don't think there's much to worry about. These are realtivly simple, low compression engines and I've had them running of watered down fuel before. Heck, I've had them running with water flooding the engine and in the oil pan. Sure it didn't run great but it still got me home!

CC

Lol, whatever will you try next? Emergency trip home from the bar on bourbon and coke?

My car has run on everything from leaded to unleaded of all octanes and mixes over the years and too often I have had to drain the chainsaws and other tools of 2-stroke to get enough fuel to drive to the petrol station here ... ethanol 10% was probably a relief to it!

I had years of cold starting problems that went when I changed to ethanol so if it might clog things up over time, it certainly starts better on the whole. Oh well, I don't want to push the bike home through the bush so I shall stick to normal unleaded and try the 92.