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I've banged on about petrol for years, and how the stuff supermarkets get is inferior, dirty crap that isn't worth the so-called 'saving' you make in the price over the big name brands.

There has always been strong opposition from people who say it's exactly the same petrol that they sell, I'm being a picky snobbish twat, and even if it did make a difference I wouldn't be able to tell.

Now I defend this by tests I've done using different types of fuel over the years which have shown that I get better mileage, and that far outweighs the price saving of the cheaper stuff. I've found there is a hierarchy with Shell at number 1 which I think makes an audible difference (and please note here that I'm talking about high octane 'Super Unleaded' fuels for all of this blog - I'd rather piss in my tank than put 95 RON crap in my bikes), with BP a clear second, and Texaco and Esso following up with not so big a gain to be had.

Things could have changed - so a few weeks ago I decided to put it to the test again. OK, so I got some fuel vouchers for Tesco and decided to use them. Whatever.



I put 3 tanks of their finest Super Unleaded in the bike for their bargain prices.

After a few days the bike started to run like toad. A flat spot developed low down in the rev range, which meant pulling away suffered big-time. Then shortly afterwards several more of these flatspots started to appear higher up the rev range, showing up when I was overtaking.

The bike started to feel down on power overall.

I figured it could be a bad batch of fuel, and so put some more in.

Here I should also say that normally I'll get 120 to 125 miles from a tank until I have to switch to reserve. With Tesco Super Unleaded? 110 miles.

So with the second tankful in all the problems remained. I started getting paranoid about the bike. I know some things ARE due to be serviced, and it all continued to run like crap. I started planning stripping the bike or paying huge bills out to let a garage do the work on the valves and carbs as I put in the third tank of Tesco's fuel...

Results were the same, so I was feeling a bit meh even as I finally switched back to Shell V-Power fuel last night...



Well bugger me if all the flat-spots haven't disappeared!

The bike is back to running smoothly and perfectly, starting much easier, and just generally being better!

The price difference is around 10p per litre extra, but with a 17 litre tank it's hardly worth crying over, is it?

I haven't tested the mileage I'll get yet, as I only filled up last night, but I'm 100% sure already that it will be much better once again.

In conclusion - suck my bawbag if you think supermarket fuels are the same! They're inferior cheap toad and will end up costing you more than the so-called 'expensive' fuels, if not in mileage then in servicing!

Don't bloody use them!

think i'll stick to being a skinflint and have a bike running like crap (not that i'd notice any difference) the extra £1.70 would buy me 2 flapjacks

masterofinsanity wrote:think i'll stick to being a skinflint and have a bike running like crap (not that i'd notice any difference) the extra £1.70 would buy me 2 flapjacks

Is that from The Pasty King???

I just got linked to this from another site - it could be the defintive answer:

According to the Petrol Retailers Association, there is no difference between the standard petrol you buy from supermarkets or franchised petrol stations. In most cases the petrol and diesel is even produced at the same refinery and delivered in the same trucks.

The exception to this is specialist fuels, such as Shell’s Optimax and BP’s Ultimate. In their case, the fuel is enhanced with additives, which produce that brand’s particular properties.

would it not be cheaper to buy a can of additive and add it to the cheaper fuel? have you tested that one Jamz?

masterofinsanity wrote:would it not be cheaper to buy a can of additive and add it to the cheaper fuel? have you tested that one Jamz?

Of course!

But the additives that actually make any difference are the £15 per bottle ones, so they work out more expensive than buying decent super unleaded.

Interesting discussion. I must admit Ive never really tested it out myself, I always look for the cheapest. However my pops always says that his old merc runs better on a good quality fuel and returns a better mpg than the supermarket stuff.

For my tuned race 400 I use Tesco super unleaded as its a 99 RON rather than most supers which are 97. I wanted to use Shell V power but theres no Shell stations near me so I have do a 50 mile round trip to get it! Bike seems to run good on the Tesco stuff tho and its cheaper. Incidentally I wouldnt have thought using the super stuff regardless of make in a road bike is worth it. Many peeps think its a "stronger" brew so therefore you get more power, but thats got nowt to do with it. Its all down to the amount of compression (and stuff ) it can take before take before self igniting. Thus only a well tuned engine would benefit from it. I'd stick with 95 RON and use what brand works best.

i agree with the supermarket fuels but only partially , as for the super unleaded your your carbed engine will know feck all what fuel is fed. Unless is a modern ECU managed engine WITH knock sensor to retard/advance ignition timing and a well sorted custom map only then you will benefit from ron 97,98,99 over the 95 . this is been done long time ago

my brother uses v-power in his scooby. i never really thought about it for the zx7. could explain some of my problems.

since i got my bikes, i've taken to running them on super all the time, there's lots of shell stations near me and they're the cheapest too. Super is always about 7p more, so when fuel was 80p a litre that was about 10% more, but now, with fuel at £1.30 a litre, and still the same 7p premium, its about 5%. So i'm still smiling. Plus despite running my gpz with a stage 3 jet kit and open bell mouths for about 12000 miles over the last 18 months, it's carbs are still sparkly clean. i think that gumed up carbs are just something that happens to other people i've got old bikes that do alot of miles with little in the way of cleaning (afterall, i'd never stop cleaning if i tried to keep them clean!) so i figure premium is worth it just to keep the hard to reach bits in order.