Ethanol blended fuel question....

[ReconLdr]

I was talking to my neighbor (Harley guy) and his buddy (Harley Mechanic) last night. The Harley mechanic was telling me I need to have my carb tuned to compensate for ethanol blended fuels to keep from damaging my engine. He claimed the blended fuels caused the bike to run leaner and could burn my pistons. Since I bought the bike used, I have no idea if the previous owner tuned the carb to the K&N + V/H exhaust and blended fuels....

The bike runs great and have never had an issue, I'm not sure if this guy was just trying to drum up some business or if he is legit. When I replaced the plugs this season, I didn't notice any issues with them. They just looked like worn out spark plugs. No indications of a rich/lean/oil burning conditions.

Question:

1) Is this something I should look into???
2) Could I tell by putting my bike on the dyno and get a print out of the A/F mix?
3) Am I missing something???

Thanks.

ETA: My bike is a 2000 M2 Cyclone

 

[uly luigi]

10-15% ethanol won't cause any issues, but E85 crap will cause it to run lean, also have to change out fuel lines, and any rubber that comes in contact with E85, the alcahol in it will make the rubber brittle and flake causing trash problems

 

[ReconLdr]

10-15% ethanol won't cause any issues, but E85 crap will cause it to run lean, also have to change out fuel lines, and any rubber that comes in contact with E85, the alcahol in it will make the rubber brittle and flake causing trash problems

Isn't E85 = 15% ethanol????

 

[Baal]

No, 15% GAS.

All that crap is a plague. But to answer the original question, and to agree with uly luigi, no, with 10-15% you should be fine; it'll just run better on unmolested gas.

 

[Stevenc150]

All that crap is a plague.

[mad][up]

 

[firefighter1c57]

Uhm... I thought a 00and Cyclone was FI?? Or was that just the lightning in 00?

 

[ReconLdr]

Uhm... I thought a 00and Cyclone was FI?? Or was that just the lightning in 00?

As far as I know, all Cyclones were carbed. Mine is definitely carbed....

 

[Mike88Recovery]

The cyclones were all carbed to keep the cost down since it was buells entry level bike prior to the introduction of the Blast.