E10 Fuel in Older Bikes

A silly question from a friend with an original Le Mans about using E10 fuel.
I can only find much more recent lists although they do confirm that whilst EFI engines should be OK, carburettor models will not.
Is there a list anywhere I can use to prove the point?
Thanks
P.

whatā€™s to prove? let him bang a tankful of the rubbish in and see for himself how it runs. if itā€™s anything like my T3 engine, from the same era, that will be pretty much like the chokeā€™s stuck on. but the over-whelming advice from seasoned Guzzisti is (for bikes of that era) drain the carbs after use, and donā€™t leave it sat in the tank for too long (or replace with ā€˜betterā€™ fuel, as available) - one tankful wonā€™t break it. probably.

if youā€™ve got access to the MGCGB Facebook group, the search facility will reveal a rake of discussion, opinion and controversy on the matter.

to the best of my knowledge, there is no ā€œlistā€ that will tell your mate whether or not to put E10 (or greater ethanol-content fuel) in his Le Mans.

Thanks Barry, just what I wanted to here!

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I use Esso Supreme Unleaded in all of my older Guzzis (1938-1974怋The pumps say E5 but in some parts of the country it actually is E0.
However they will transition the E0 to E5 from September 2023

I have read that Ireland is removing all E5, so anyone not living near the border who can drive to the north to buy it is going to be stuck.

Itā€™s going to reduce visitors using their own older vehicles too. Seems like a bad decision.

Well Iā€™m glad my 4 wheeler runs on diesel! Thanks for your thoughts.

I think my friendā€™s got the message! Thank you. My Bellagio Custom gets E5 although Honda did a good job of confirming E10 compatibility for its bikes over quite a few decades. My VFR1200 runs nicely of E10 thankfully.

I have to say, my Le Mans doesnā€™t even run properly well on E5/0. Itā€™s very unwell on Regular. This is not surprising; they were designed to run on 5 Star, 100RON. Even the ā€˜high octaneā€™ stuff we get now has a lot of combustion time variation which means some firing cycles burn late. This leads to vibration, more heat in the exhaust port and consequently the head. On a warm day this can lead to overheated carbs. Even Premium rattles a bit and goes off after about 2 weeks in the tank.
Bottom line is, just get the best you can find and freshen it up when you can.

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Iā€™ve been confused and worried about the fuel thing for some time, so just spent forty minutes with a cup of tea and looked at options with my friend g oogle.

I found an additive claiming to counteract ethanol in petrol and decided to take the plunge and ordered a couple of bottles.

Donā€™t know how long iā€™ll have to use it before considering it successful.

Just stick to E5. A few pence per litre extra wonā€™t break the bank and will pay dividends in the long run. Also as Barry_Conway says, drain the carbs if youā€™re not using it for a while but best of all, just keep using it!!!

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My old G5 V1000 idles and picks up well on E10 although I tend to drain her down through her unused winter months. Perhaps that is because it is so low tuned.
My recently bought Le Mans engined T3 California didnā€™t like the petrol that was in the bike when I bought it, and that went into a mower. It still pinks on what Tesco reckons is E5 in spite of the timing being correct, so Iā€™ll probably have to retard the ignition to compensate. But Iā€™ll wait until Iā€™ve tried some E5 from somewhere like Shell or Esso.

This, really, is the bottom line. For sure, others can offer generalised advice, but ultimately it comes down to how your ride behaves with whatā€™s available in your local pumps. I had two radically different experiences a while back when there was no E5 locally. Faced with no choice, the alternative from my regular place was OK, but I could feel the difference. A week later, still no E5, the stuff I put in at the (different) place Iā€™d tried was terrible, and had to be drained as soon as I limped home. A Jerry can of the stuff from my local and good as gold again.

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Iā€™ve had problems with supermarket petrol so i stopped using it, i use e5 97 octance or 99 when available.