Dyno experiment

[clarkdw]

Saturday I had my CB-1 on the dyno at a local shop. Every year they have a free dyno day when you pay Cad $40, run your bike on the dyno and receive a $40 credit to be used at the shop. I always attend and use the credit to buy my next jug of semi-synth oil and a filter.

Last year my bike made 49.6hp. This year I tried an experiment.

Recently I have been hearing praises of the V-power gasoline from Shell. 91 octane (North American RON+MON/2), no ethanol added as it is certified as a marine fuel which requires that there be no ethanol because of the miscibility with water. I have been using it this year regularly and though I did not have noticeably more power, I definitely did get better mileage. This is something I also experimented with in my car on my 107 km one way commute daily. My commute is under perfect conditions to do mileage checks as it is with no traffic to the point that my commuting time is almost always within a 30 second range at exactly 60 minutes. Shell V-Power does give better mileage than any other fuel I have tried. My mileage is very close to 8% better than with any other. The same on the bike.  So, if you want to get really good mileage use Shell V-Power. Only problem with that is Shell V-Power costs up to 20% more than regular fuel so the possible savings are not there.

Now back to the dyno experiment. I had a small amount of V-Power left in the bike on my first dyno test and ran it. I then went for a short ride to burn off what was left in the tank and filled up with ethanol enhanced Shell regular 87 octane. I then returned for a second run on the dyno.

Result: Shell V-Power 91 octane 47.3 hp
          Shell regular 87 octane  49.6 hp

This is my second time for this type of test. First time several years ago I used Sunoco 94 octane ethanol enhanced and Sunoco 87 octane regular. Same result then as now. I really thought that the fact that Shell has no ethanol would help the numbers but obviously not.

The amount of hp loss surprised me as well. Almost 5% loss for using better fuel. I will stick with the cheap stuff from now on.

[Daveontheedge]

So you actually confirmed what was discussed in an earlier thread! Nice to see! Can't remember, but have you made any other mods to the jets, airbox etc...?

[clarkdw]

So you actually confirmed what was discussed in an earlier thread! Nice to see! Can't remember, but have you made any other mods to the jets, airbox etc...?

No mods at all. I was hoping to break 50 hp with the V-Power fuel but that attempt will have to wait for another year.