Fuel stabiliser

[MarkCR750]

This stuff seems to work, I added some to the fuel when I last ran the engine about 3 weeks ago,  I just checked the accelerator pump jets before starting, all squirting nicely, started straight away, I got it on eBay.

[royhall]

What's that stuff do Mark?

[corromant]

Do you normally have issues after 3 weeks Mark?

There's quite a lot of reading about fuel stabilisers on the net, general opinion seems to be that they do have some effect but most info is anecdotal rather than scientific. If it was really effective why don't the fuel company's put it in at source which would only add a fraction of a penny to the cost.

[MarkCR750]

What's that stuff do Mark?

Hi Roy, evidently stops fuel oxidising, Generally speaking, the oxidation that occurs happens catalytically. Once a trace amount of a type of decomposition known as radical formation occurs, it's a downhill cascade. Stabilizers (which btw are not detergents) act as dead ends for these catalytic cycles. You can look up what exactly a radical is, but generally speaking all you need to know is that it's highly reactive and leads to all sorts of pathways that don't normally happen and leads to severe decomposition.

The mechanism, no matter what the stabilizer is roughly the same. The radicals are still there, just occupied in the form of the stabilizer, which doesn't propagate a cascade to further degrade whatever it's in.

All sorts of things can trigger the initial degradation; from oxygen, to light, to thermal decay.
By the way I copied that from another site, not trying to sound clever or anything!

[MarkCR750]

Do you normally have issues after 3 weeks Mark?

There's quite a lot of reading about fuel stabilisers on the net, general opinion seems to be that they do have some effect but most info is anecdotal rather than scientific. If it was really effective why don't the fuel company's put it in at source which would only add a fraction of a penny to the cost.

Not after 3 weeks admittedly but certainly after a couple of months, my accelerator pump jets became blocked and when I drained the fuel bowls the fuel was honey coloured rather than clear (system was clean), the bike also didn't want to start, I added new fuel and it fired up immediately.
I'm pretty sure that the blockage in the accelerator jets was congealed fuel, it cleared really easily with a squirt of carb cleaner.
Why don't fuel companies add it?, well they add detergents etc but where do they stop?, I guess it's not their problem if we leave fuel hanging around for months.