Mike's other article on gasoline
https://www.motorcycleproject.com/text/gasoline.html is worth a read. Some of it is overlap with the one posted above, but his recommendation of "fuel stabilizer" might raise an eyebrow or two.
I'm certainly no expert. I'm not even qualified to judge who is or isn't likely to me more correct in this. I would encourage everyone to look into Mike Nixon's bio before judging him a whackjob from what you read somewhere else though.
This is PARTICULARLY pertinent to
old Hondas!
Like many, I've experienced some issues I've blamed on fuel because everything I read or heard said that was what caused it. The single most convincing thing in Mike Nixon's explanations though is common sense. He's literally had his hands in this issue since the days before ethanol. He does a pretty good job of explaining it in layman's terms. I was already aware of his references to the marine industry driving the anti-ethanol movement. THAT is all about the moisture issue raised by some here. Boats have to work around wet environments. I know from back in the 70's everyone used to use "dry gas" in the winter. It was like 99 cents a pint on a display beside the pumps. I read the label one day and realized it was nothing but alcohol and began using solvent alcohol from the hardware store where I worked. That was about fifty cents a quart! Dry gas, et al, in contrast to its name however, ATTRACTS moisture. It gathers the water already in your tank (from whatever source) and allows it to be passed with the fuel rather than collecting as a separate substance where it's susceptible to freezing in winter. One source of water in fuel "
back in the good old days," was leaky underground storage tanks. ALL fuel had some water in it, some more than others.
As to the AG industry. It has certainly benefited by the adoption of corn for fuel. That attachment is unlikely to go backward any time soon. It wasn't their idea though! I recall two decades ago certain politicians advocating ethanol not merely as an additive, but a potential replacement fuel (like was tried in Brazil). More than one was heard saying something to the effect that
half the country is planted in corn. We have plenty of fuel growing every year... and it never occurred to them that, that corn was already being used for something else. Like FOOD! :-? Farmers don't care who buys their corn or what they do with it. They just want the best price. Can't blame them! Those commodity guys though. They're the ones with the wherewithal to influence policy for the greatest profit for merely buying and selling someone else's work.
