Beer

by John Reblin

First off let me start thanking all of you that attended Biker Day in the Capitol. How great was it to see all of us roaming the building meeting with our State Legislators pushing our agenda of motorcycle issues?

How many of you made it through the whole Super Bowl, Rams versus Patriots, for the chance to say we are the champions. No, I didn’t make it either. The commercials are what we really enjoy in this household along with a good half time show. Maroon 5 is a good band, but they are not the type of show that thrives here in this arena. The commercials? They, I thought, were lame. Not really any talk the next day of “Hey, did you see the monkey driving the new car”, or whatever we laughed at during the previous games.

There was one commercial that did catch my eye though and made me think. It was the Bud Light commercial that claims it does not use corn syrup in their formula.

Adding corn syrup to anything also adds the fear of consuming empty calories. Something inside of you can’t handle high doses of corn syrup and changes it into body fat. Hmm, no kidding. Large amounts of something might be bad for you. So large amounts of beer or soda with corn syrup might cause an issue. Thanks, federal government for watching out for me again. There are a couple of billboards in Milwaukee that are stating that Miller Lite adds corn syrup to their beer and bars are protesting the ad campaign. Do I really care about this issue? Not really, but it probably got you to read a little further down the column.

The reason for this rant? Why doesn’t someone do the same thing in a commercial about the corn being added to our fuel as ethanol? As we get ready to pull our bikes out from under the cover, or from under the lawn chair cushions to take that first ride, we will need to get some fresh fuel. Just as the grass peaks out from the snow for their fresh fuel of spring. All of those air-cooled engines or older vehicles cannot use the high amounts of the ethanol in the fuel.

In the southeast corner of the state you cannot find fuel that does not contain some percentage of ethanol. Our premium fuel at the corner gas station has 10 percent added. If you go north or west an hour or so yes, you can find premium fuel that has none of this additive in it. All we can do down here is go out of the area with cans to bring it home to use in our lawn mowers, bikes and outboards.

Way, way back, when my dad decided he had enough of riding a motorcycle for various reasons, he decided to give me a deal on his slightly used 77 HD FLH that I still have today. The requirement for fuel on that bike was a premium fuel with the lead still added. I ran into the same issue back then, the correct fuel not being available. After a short while of using it with the fuel that was available without lead, the valve seats went out causing the motor to not have compression in the rear cylinder. Being a member of 1H, I took the heads off and Willie, from Willie’s Rand R, repaired the heads using a style of seat that did not need the lead, fixing me up to avoid this issue in the future.

The federal government now, due to standards set up during the Bush era, has large amounts of ethanol being produced and really does not have a place to use it all. With cars getting better fuel mileage, hybrids, and people driving less there is not enough gasoline being consumed to blend the abundance of ethanol into it for a 10 percent mixture. Ten percent is the maximum we can “safely and legally use in our motorcycles, boats and other small engines”. So, the plan now, is to expand the amounts of ethanol blended into the gas raising the percentage to 15 percent in order to use this excess ethanol. What’s 5 percent, right? Well if you are running low in your bike seeing the sights and pull into a gas station and all he has is fuel with 15 percent or has a pump that has confusing labeling on it and you grab the wrong nozzle or push the wrong button, you just broke the law. What if that pump handle you grab has a high dose of the previous user’s higher blend of ethanal fuel in it? You will have an issue with the higher blend of fuel if your motor quits or a fuel pump seizes, and you have a bike under warranty. If that is the case, the manufacturer does not have to repair it since you did not use the correct and recommended type of fuel for the engine. You should have taken some of that beer or soda money and gotten a tow to another gas station. Got an older car?… maybe redoing that classic mustang hidden away in the back yard, and finally had some cash to get the motor running and want to take it out for a drive and relive 20-30 years ago? Sorry, you’re out of luck. Can’t use this gas!

No, I don’t care if they put corn in your beer or soda. I don’t care if they add it to some of my other foods. I understand and watch out for that and try to make good decisions for myself. I do care that the government is adding the corn to my fuel, making it harder to ride my bike, cut my grass or go out on my 4-wheeler while hoping the fuel is not damaging my fuel system or motor, like it did back on my old bike. Take some time. Spend some money. Test the higher amounts of ethanol in our fuel and see what the real cost of using corn in our fuel is, so we can make a better decision before using it.