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Bad fuel on the Silk Road Bad fuel on the Silk Road
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Old 4 Nov 2019
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Bad fuel on the Silk Road
In some countries along the way, notably Uzbekistan, it can be hard to find fuel pumps and you may have to resort to buying from unofficial bottled sellers along the way. Much of this fuel is poor quality, 80 octane or lower.

How have people coped with bad fuel? OK some bikes are soft enough tune not to worry but what about those that are a bit more highly strung or running FI? Anyone used octane booster?
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Old 8 Nov 2019
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomkat View Post
In some countries along the way, notably Uzbekistan, it can be hard to find fuel pumps and you may have to resort to buying from unofficial bottled sellers along the way. Much of this fuel is poor quality, 80 octane or lower.

How have people coped with bad fuel? OK some bikes are soft enough tune not to worry but what about those that are a bit more highly strung or running FI? Anyone used octane booster?
I have read in a few places other than here that the fuel they hadwas less then 80 Octane. Are these just wild guesses - is there equipment that can measure it easily - does it make much difference for bike not too highly strung?
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Old 23 Nov 2019
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I have been 3 times in Usbekistan.

Benzin is 80 Oktane, and this is what people tell you when you buy it.

I used in my Transalp without anything, just the 80 Oktane.

In 2018 I was in Usbekistan with 1150 GS BMW and with 3 Others which drove Honda Africa Twin 1000, BMW 800GS and KTM 1290.
Here we used Oktane Booster ( I only because the others had it )

For me i did not feel a difference, and I cannot tell you if it helps.
But you have no other choice anyway, so just get benzine and drive.....
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Old 27 Nov 2019
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If anyone's interested, I've raised the question with my dealer who have referred it back to KTM. I understand there is a "bad fuel" mapping available but I don't really want to use that since I have no way of changing it on the road and would be stuck with a suboptimal setting for the rest (the majority) of the ride. I've also asked them to check what is the lowest octane they would expect a 790 to tolerate without damage. Failing that I'll just have to take octane booster with me, which is weight I'd rather not carry.
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Old 1 Dec 2019
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The guy with the 1290 did change the mapping to "Bad fuel" and drove al the way with this mapping.

It still does not cover 80 Oktane benzine, but it works perfect.

It has less power as far as I remember and this should not be the problem.

Only the ignition is set to less preignition.

I would use it anyway, because you can sometimes only find 92 oktane .
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