Gasoline type VF1000f2

In the Shed
1

Hi Guys,

maybe a stupid question, but it has been bothering me a few days and just need to get it out of my system.

The VF1000f2 is an 1986 bike, is it able to drive with unleaded fuel already, and if so with which type, i believe this might be one of my issues with the bike running so rough when you gas it.

thanks in advance

Steve

2

The pilot’s notes from Honda when I bought my first one in 1987 stated that you can run it on unleaded fuel provided that every third tankful is leaded.

As leaded isn’t easily available, I run my current one on the highest RON I can find, and add some valve seat protector / octane booster to the fuel.

I try to avoid supermarket fuel too; the stuff from the oil companies themselves is much better, and my bike (and car, for that matter) runs much better on it.

3

Ok, interesting, in Germany they are saying that any bike from Japan from the 80’s can go full unleaded…but I might actually put in the 99 or 102 octane just in case…

thanks

steve

4

One other thing, Steve:

Ethanol is disastrous for aluminium castings, and not very rubber friendly either.

I strongly recommend adding anti - ethanol additives to the fuel, too. Most of the valve seat protector / octane booster additives have ethanol protection in them, but it’s worth checking.

5

thanks, i only use the one that has max 5% ethanol in there, but maybe i should buy a valve protector additive, although if then the damage is already there as i would think its been driven with unleaded since the 2000’s :sweat_smile:

6

The VF1000 is fully compatible with unleaded 95 ron. You can use stabiliser if you like but if you are using the bike regularly there is no need to until you lay it up. Using any higher octane rating is a waste of time and money and the bike will actually perform very slightly worse.

7

It’s not the octane that was the issue, it was the cushion effect the lead had on closing valves, that’s why everyone from Japan has been using hardened seats, and stellite (a chromium/cobalt alloy) or some other exotic valve material since the 80’s. Japan removed leaded petrol in the mid 70’s.

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8

Don’t let anybody tell you that unleaded fuel doesn’t affect performance.

In 1987, I bought one of these things new. Unleaded fuel was just appearing then.

Being ecologically aware, I filled it up with unleaded.

It was a disaster.

Compared to leaded fuel, acceleration was much poorer (down to the same level as my 750), top speed was much lower (down by about 25 mph), it delivered fewer MPG and produced noticeably less torque.

I never put unleaded in it again.

Mechanically, it may not be that bothered with the lower octane from unleaded fuel, but performance wise it certainly is. At the very least you need to be adding additives to protect the fuel system and aluminium components from the disastrous effects of ethanol.

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