Petrol to which ethanol has been added is being sold in UK and because this mixture is deemed to be “greener” than petrol alone, is likely to become more common as time goes by.  Ethanol for fuel can be made by the industrial processing of agricultural crops and is therefore considered to be renewable energy.

There is an EU Directive which requires than all petrol sold in Europe contains 5 – 10 % ethanol by 2013.

But what does this mean for our precious GoldWings, including our classic bikes, built when four-star leaded petrol was still the norm – how ill they cope?

The move towards ethanol-containing fuels is happening gradually in UK and 5% ethanol has been added to some fuel (without necessarily announcing it) for some time.  But 10% ethanol (E10 fuel) is likely to come into wide use in UK over time and it’s already fairly common elsewhere, especially in France and the US.

The good news is that either of these fuels, E5 or E10, can be used in any model of UK or US-spec GoldWing.

With pre-GL1800 GoldWings (mostly carburetors but including the 1985 GL1200 Ltd and the GL1200 Aspencade SEi) models there may be some loss of performance because ethanol has about one third less energy content, volume for volume, than petrol.  But the bikes should come to no harm running on this fuel.  And because the GL1800 has a clever sort of fuel injection, there should be no noticeable performance loss.  When using E10 fuel a 3% decrease in fuel economy compared with petroleum is likely to be noticed with all GoldWing models.

So for E5 and E10 fuel no modification of the GoldWing is necessary and you can simply start using it when it becomes available in your area if you wish.

Brazil is already using E25, so 25% ethanol, nationwide.  GoldWings are sold by Honda in Brazil so presumably those bikes have to be able to run on E25 and it would be interesting to know if Honda modifies GL1800s specially for that market.  I did look at Honda’s Brazilian Website but there was nothing obvious to suggest that the GoldWings are different and my Portuguese isn’t wonderful so I gave up.  If you are planning to take your UK GoldWing on tour to Brazil it might pay to make further enquiries before you go!

Not currently in prospect in UK

There are also over half a million “flex-fuel” motorcycles in Brazil which can run on 100% ethanol (E100) and Honda manufactures some of these.  Alcohol has a higher octane rating than petroleum so flex-fuel engines are designed with higher compression ratios and they have also usually needed a small auxiliary fuel tank filled with petroleum (or a low concentration ethanol/petroleum mix) for cold starting.  Even with specially designed flex-fuel engines, problems occur with cold starting at alcohol concentrations above 70% and seasonal reductions in alcohol concentration are made in some countries because of this.  These are changing times.

Ethanol for fuel is made by fermenting sugars with yeast, as for drinks production, but an additional five-stage water-removal process is then necessary to achieve the high purity from water to allow ethanol to mix and stay mixed with petroleum properly.  Some of you will remember from school chemistry that ethanol is hygroscopic, i.e. it absorbs water from the air around it and this happens even when it is mixed with petroleum.  Ethanol can also be subject to contamination and is more corrosive than petrol, so introducing it is not straightforward.

High concentration ethanol fuels (above 10%) therefore present increasing problems and would do so for GoldWing owners, including if E25 fuel became mandatory (Brazil style) in Europe.  There would be substantial performance and economy disadvantages, even for the GL1800.  Steel fuel tanks, which older GoldWings have, would be at risk of accelerated corrosion and other fuel system and fuel filtering problems.

Fortunately higher concentrations of ethanol fuel are not currently on the EU agenda and given the typical age of a UK GoldWing owner, we can even hope that they won’t be a problem during our motorcycling lifetime.

In summary therefore running on E5 or E10 fuels should not be a problem for GoldWing owners in UK, even classic GoldWings, just don’t expect quite such good fuel consumption.