Unleaded fuel in Central Asia in 2011

[wanderer78]

Hi all,

we're in the final stage of our Central Asia trip planning. We'll start out from Belgium on an f800gs and f650gs(twin) and hope to depart in the next two weeks. Although this is my first post, the HUBB has been an *incredible* source of information during our research, so thanks for that!

Okay, I thought we had most things sorted out, but now I'm getting a bit nervous about the fuel we might be forced to tank in some places in the stans. We'll cross Kazachstan, Takjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and possibly Turkmenistan.

Both our bikes have catalytic converters and getting it out seems to involve either cutting and welding the stock pipes (sounds scary to me!), or installing an aftermarket Remus header which is incompatible with our crashbars and bash plate (quite costly). Also, I do care about the environment so I prefer to keep the cat in!

So,

• does anyone have up-to-date information on unleaded fuel availability in the stans? Is it only available in cities/big villages and would that be enough if we carry a jerrycan in places like the Pamirs? According to some sources (eg. Countries where Leaded Petrol is Possibly Still Sold for Road Use, As at 22nd June 2009 and http://www.un.org/esa/gite/cleanfuel...aloverview.pdf) these countries have or are currently banning leaded fuel.
• if we do need to fill up on leaded fuel, will the cat die immediately? According to my BMW dealer it will and the bikes will be immobilised. However, reports on the HUBB suggest that the bikes will be fine although the cat will stop cleaning emissions after prolonged use of leaded fuel (how long?). Did anyone try with these particular bikes?

Thanks for any info!

[wanderer78]

Here's a 2010 overview by UNEP of countries banning leaded fuel, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia:

http://www.unep.org/pcfv/PDF/MatrixC...April_2010.pdf

Curious how this relates to reality.

-Wanderer

[colebatch]

i think you will be fine.

[Bobduro]

I agree with Colebatch.

You 'should' be fine, your only problem might be Uzbekistan. We were there in August/september 2010 and there wasn't a whole lot of fuel anywhere.

It became a case of use whatever you could find (rumours were of vegetable oil and coca-cola being used to dilute but didn't seem to affect out fuel economy!!....)

Maybe things have changed, maybe not. Either way stock up before you cross the border (preferably in Turkmenistan - it super cheap there!)

[dmitrij]

You should be fine, All the Stans have decent fuel. In Russia I found the 92 octane gave more miles per tank than 95 octane, and left more rubbles in my pocket. Same in Kazakhstan

[farqhuar]

Originally Posted by dmitrij

You should be fine, All the Stans have decent fuel. In Russia I found the 92 octane gave more miles per tank than 95 octane, and left more rubbles in my pocket. Same in Kazakhstan

.... and on my Suzuki I found the 76 octane even better again than the 92 octane.