Modern Vespa

They say here, that a 20 to 30 % higher ethenaol content could be even better for gas mileage than the less than 10% we're now pumping. Who are they,, American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE). So don't hold your breath.
I thought it had already been proved that ethenal (alcohol) had less BTU's per gallon then Gasoline. More BTU's = more power right ? Hummm ?
http://www.ethanol.org/pdf/contentmg...se_12507-1.pdf

Bluegrass

From Consumer Reports....

"Ethanol emits fewer smog-causing pollutants than gasoline, but one major misconception is that it will provide better fuel economy. In fact, cars running on E85 ethanol (a mix of 85 percent ethanol with 15 percent gasoline) get worse fuel economy and go fewer miles per gallon than they do on gasoline. Yet, automakers have an artificial incentive from the government to produce flexible-fuel vehicles (FFV) since they get credit in CAFE estimates, boosting their average.

When we tested a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe flex-fuel vehicle on the two fuels, we found that the mileage dropped 27 percent -fuel consumption went from 14 to 10 mpg overall."
"

Can I just put E85 in my Vespa? Will that kill it?

NO!

avoiding ethanol is still easy in my neck of the woods

Hi!

I'm form Brazil and we've been using ethanol as fuel for 30 years. I can give you some answers. Gasoline is more fuel efficient than ethanol. Ethanol is less pollutant and what makes it a better choice than gasoline is the price. Ethanol must be 30% cheaper than gasoline on the pump to be worth it. the advantage of the flexfuel vehicles is that you can fuel with ethanol when is cheaper or gas at your will. You can even mix both fuels and have a consumption in between. So people over there do this practice and flex fuel is a success. Now if your vespa has a electronic fuel injection you can use ethanol without problem, otherwise the engine will not work because ethanol uses a high compression tax to burn. One last thing. ethanol or flex fuel engines need to start on gasoline. All vehicles with an ethanol engine or flexfuel has a small container with gasoline. This gasoline is uesd to start the engine and then it automatically changes to ethanol. Specially when is cold. So I'd not recommend using ethanol in your vespa, because on a cold morning would not start. You would need to opend the carb and put some gas.

-1

Actually ethanol can do damage to the rubberized portions of your fuel system.

We are down to only 3 stations still selling pure gasoline. After January 1 they will be forced to move to gas with ethanol as a result of a new state law. It is fairly well known that in the USA, the cost to produce the ethanol is higher than it is to produce the gasoline, thereby elevating the overall cost per gallon by approximately 6% (at the pump).