Thought I'd try V power.

[J_Dub]

Result: My bike runs like shit on Shell V power, spluttering & stalling. Tank drained, Texaco 95 ron in, runs good. 

[darrsi]

Result: My bike runs like shit on Shell V power, spluttering & stalling. Tank drained, Texaco 95 ron in, runs good. 

Shouldn't do?
I find the 99 makes mine quite zippy, so tend to use it more in summer, but overall i much prefer the 97.
Mine just doesn't feel as alert on the 95, it's not a problem, but just noticeable when i fill up with 97 again.

[NorthWestern]

Mine runs better on v power (or BP ultimate/99). Surprisingly crisper. I treat the old girl to a tankful now and then

[darrsi]

Mine runs better on v power (or BP ultimate/99). Surprisingly crisper. I treat the old girl to a tankful now and then

BP Ultimate is 97, that's what i try and use all the time now.

[NorthWestern]

Yeah but they do a 99 too.

[darrsi]

Yeah but they do a 99 too.

Never seen it, not on their website either, says 97 for Ultimate Unleaded.

[NorthWestern]

I am imagining a 99 on the pump. Will take a look in the morning

[darrsi]

I know someone did a 102 octane a few years back, but it was dotted about very sparingly and was a stupid price, plus unless you had some savagely tuned up engine you wouldn't really be gaining anything by using it.


Just read it was 8 years ago, also by BP, and was £2.42 a litre back then. 

[darrsi]

Interesting videos:


http://www.bp.com/en_za/on-the-road/south-africa/products-and-services/bp-ultimate-for-your-motorbike.html

[stevierst]

97 worked quite well in my gen II, but it cost enough to run the Bugger on standard fuel anyway!!

Tried it in most of my carb'd bikes with little or negative difference. A couple of them actually ran a bit worse!

[darrsi]

Result: My bike runs like shit on Shell V power, spluttering & stalling. Tank drained, Texaco 95 ron in, runs good. 

What air filter have you got in?
I'm wondering if it just needs a bit more air with the extra oomph?

[J_Dub]

The bike has a K&N filter, Motad venom s/steel downpipes and a Simmi Performance end can which I run with the baffle removed.
It is re jetted due to having a top end flat spot at 9000rpm+
The original flat spot happened after fitting the Venom downpipes.
It does run well, and pulls well through the rev range (usually) I've done various runs and checked the plugs they are a good colour when using 95RON.

I only put the V power in because I wanted to brim the tank with a fuel that doesn't have ethanol (I might be proved wrong and find out it does have ethanol) as I'm not using the bike a lot at present. I will go out if we have some good weather over the winter and top it up again. To be honest I wasn't expecting much if any performance gain by using V power.

So I rode about 5 miles before filling up and all was well, I filled up, rode out of the petrol station about 200 yards and had to stop at some lights and then the revs started to rise and fall, probably 200-300 rpm. When I went to set off it stalled. Same thing happened at the next set of lights 400 yards down the road.
I had been off on a bit of a bimble but decided to turn back home as it was running so badly. Route home was a 30mph zone which was OKish but if I wanted to pass anything and opened the throttle it bogged down. (Over 7000rpm all was great).

I asked my lad go out on it yesterday and he had the same experience, so he drained the tank and refilled it with 95RON and took it for a blast - all was good!

And he got a tank of V power for his Gixxer which only runs on V power  (BP Ultimate etc.) 

[NorthWestern]

Ha your right, its not 99 its actually BP Ultimate 97...  I even remember thinking its odd that its just sold as "99" and not a marketting brand like Ultimate or V-Power etc.  Must have been another garage I saw it at.

[J_Dub]

Tesco's Momentum petrol is sold as 99 RON. 

[The Gentleman Biker]

I tried V power once because I used to run a blown car on it. I found the bike stalling as well and generally not feeling as good as the usual fuel which is Esso 97. In fact I only ever use Esso 97 if I can help it, I've never put 95 in to test.

[Lank]

funny enough I been running my gen1 on esso super unleaded or whatever it is and my fazer has been shocking with it. Used to use tesco momentum but I changed job and there is not a tesco local to me.

Never experienced poor running from the 'better' unleaded fuels in all the cars and bikes I owned before

[Hedgetrimmer]

The bike has a K&N filter, Motad venom s/steel downpipes and a Simmi Performance end can which I run with the baffle removed.
It is re jetted due to having a top end flat spot at 9000rpm+
The original flat spot happened after fitting the Venom downpipes.
It does run well, and pulls well through the rev range (usually) I've done various runs and checked the plugs they are a good colour when using 95RON.

I only put the V power in because I wanted to brim the tank with a fuel that doesn't have ethanol (I might be proved wrong and find out it does have ethanol) as I'm not using the bike a lot at present. I will go out if we have some good weather over the winter and top it up again. To be honest I wasn't expecting much if any performance gain by using V power.

So I rode about 5 miles before filling up and all was well, I filled up, rode out of the petrol station about 200 yards and had to stop at some lights and then the revs started to rise and fall, probably 200-300 rpm. When I went to set off it stalled. Same thing happened at the next set of lights 400 yards down the road.
I had been off on a bit of a bimble but decided to turn back home as it was running so badly. Route home was a 30mph zone which was OKish but if I wanted to pass anything and opened the throttle it bogged down. (Over 7000rpm all was great).

I asked my lad go out on it yesterday and he had the same experience, so he drained the tank and refilled it with 95RON and took it for a blast - all was good!

And he got a tank of V power for his Gixxer which only runs on V power  (BP Ultimate etc.) 

Hmmm, I wonder if the V Power cleaning agents loosened something, dirt or some such, and is causing a jet blockage? I have been advised by two separate mechanics to use the stuff, and have found that the bike benefits from it. Every time my plugs are checked, the colour is nigh on perfect, and the carbs are spotless inside. I notice the difference on a tank-by-tank basis.

I did read somewhere that ethanol is added to V Power (maybe other fuels too?) before distribution to petrol stations, but no idea if this is the case. I don't think it was any kind of official source where I read that.

[fazersharp]

So - its better - its not - its better - its not, I think I wont bother trying any of it.
I wonder if any of the perceived power / response increase is all in the mind or a sort of placebo effect. Sometimes I go out in the cold and think wow the engine is loving this cold air, and then I would go out in some hot weather and think wow the engine is loving this, some days it just does seem more responsive than others.

[Hedgetrimmer]

Quite possible I suppose, but have to say I'm convinced that it works for mine. A work colleague has recently bought himself an SRAD GSXR600, and says he notices the difference too. He reckons he's even getting better fuel consumption, although he hasn't checked this properly yet, so we'll see. Plus what the two mechanics I know have told me (both totally unconnected with each other, and both with plenty of experience) and what I feel I find, that's enough for me.

[darrsi]

So - its better - its not - its better - its not, I think I wont bother trying any of it.
I wonder if any of the perceived power / response increase is all in the mind or a sort of placebo effect. Sometimes I go out in the cold and think wow the engine is loving this cold air, and then I would go out in some hot weather and think wow the engine is loving this, some days it just does seem more responsive than others.

It's not a placebo effect at all, because I've given them all a go over YEARS.
There is no doubt whatsoever that 97 feels better than 95 on my bike, and even now i'll occasionally put 95 in just to make sure and it reinforces my thoughts about it.
As my bike is mainly a commuter then it simply seems daft paying for 99 just to let it burn for fun in rush hour traffic during week days to and from work. Believe me, the traffic around my way is shit even on a good day! 

[Hedgetrimmer]

Thing is darrsi, I don't get the same effect from using other manufacturers higher octane fuels as I do with the V Power. I don't know why that should be; can't be just the detergents used as surely that wouldn't be on a tank-by-tank basis?

[J_Dub]

Hmmm, I wonder if the V Power cleaning agents loosened something, dirt or some such, and is causing a jet blockage? I have been advised by two separate mechanics to use the stuff, and have found that the bike benefits from it. Every time my plugs are checked, the colour is nigh on perfect, and the carbs are spotless inside. I notice the difference on a tank-by-tank basis.

I did read somewhere that ethanol is added to V Power (maybe other fuels too?) before distribution to petrol stations, but no idea if this is the case. I don't think it was any kind of official source where I read that.

I did wonder about that too, but as it now runs fine again on regular unleaded I don't think so.
If there was a blockage it would still be there and still run badly?

Anyway it's not all bad - my bike runs on 'cheap(er)' fuel. Happy days!

[darrsi]

One thing that does alter the feel of my bike is the weather, it can feel slightly grumpy in cold weather, but I simply put that down to the bike not up to full operating temperature because of the low mileage I do.
No problems at all in summer though.

Saying that, the Fazer is the first bike I've had in years that prefers warm conditions, my last 2 bikes functioned better in cooler weather?

It's all a conundrum. 

[JoeRock]

Certainly with my 9, and it looks to be the same with my 10, using V-power makes the bike quite a bit more efficient, to the point where it was making it cost effective to run it on the more expensive fuel as the increased mpg cancelled it out. Need to check the petrol prices down here in Kent though to make sure that's still going on!


All I know so far is commuting in my 9 does about 45mpg on normal, and about 50 on V-Power. Long as the super is less than 10% more expensive, it's all good. Plus, means I save time not having to fill the bike up as much as I can get an extra day out of the range!

[darrsi]

Result: My bike runs like shit on Shell V power, spluttering & stalling. Tank drained, Texaco 95 ron in, runs good. 

Have you used it before with the same problems?

I'm clutching at straws here but is it at all possible you may have had water in the tank, or just a bad tank of fuel, and by draining it you've totally cleared the problem?
Just a thought!