Early M600 and E10 fuel

[tridentperu]

This is a saga that has been ongoing - my 98 M600 has always been tricky on small throttle openings - hesitating and spluttering slightly. Once the tap is open all good. No amount of carb fiddling helped much. Iridium plugs did help but didn't cure it completely. A good blast up the motorway helped but it always returned.

I have always used higher grade fuel, E5, as I do in my older bikes, reasoning that as the bike was built before ethanol came along the lower the E content the better....and the higher the octane too as the 600 is a fairly high comp motor at 10.5 :1.

On a recent 200 mile trip to Shropshire and back I needed fuel and all that was available was e10 - so, in it went. Performance was definitely improved. On the return more fuel went in, again e10 - the difference overall has been astounding.

Easier starting, no hesitation/ missing on small throttle openings and generally overall much smoother than before.

I wonder why? Does the ethanol burn faster? I have no idea but it's a result, and it's cheaper too!

Just my ramblings

Jim