Ethanol dose decrease gas mileage, though not by much, my dad's truck gets a few more mpg when he fills up with non ethanol fuel.

Ethanol will kill vehicles not prepared for it. People won't be able to afford to get their cars updates, and cars cost to much for people to go and buy brand new.

And I wasn't talking about that in the first place, I am talking about paint thinners, and other chemicals like that. I got better gas mileage off of 4 year old gas I got out of an abandoned car we had on our lot than what I was getting from the pumps.

http://hybrids.autoblog.com/2005/08/25/ethanol-fuel-study-provides-unexpected-results/

The decrease in mileage you see could be the result of anything, from more city driving, harder acceleration, etc.... and not necessarily the result of ethanol. It is possible that it is the ethanol causing a slight drop in gas mileage, as the study above states, but the study also reports that a different car saw increased mileage with greater ethanol concentrates, hence my suspicion that ethanol is the sole factor in your observed decrease in gas mileage.

EDIT: @tifreak, again, same situation, can you be positive that you drove under as near as identical circumstances as possible in both situations? I'm not trying to defend the oil industry by any means, I'm just saying that before you point the finger at the fuel make sure it isn't the driver to blame. Your car's gas mileage can drop off incredibly quickly under heavier acceleration, and not necessarily as the result of different fuel. For example, my gas mileage varies between 13 MPG to 18 MPG even though I drive along similar routes between fill ups, and always fill up at the same place. The fuel used is not the reason for the large range, but rather my right foot is . Hell, using the A/C can decrease your gas mileage (obviously not a factor for a motorcycle, but for a car it certainly is).

Just to go grammar nazi on you for a second, "hence my suspicion that ethanol is the sole factor in your observed decrease in gas mileage." should be one of two things:

1) "hence my suspicion that ethanol is not the sole factor in your observed decrease in gas mileage."
2) hence my doubt that ethanol is the sole factor in your observed decrease in gas mileage.

Anyway, ontopic, sweet ride. And that's definitely a great thing about the gas mileage; if you're the only one riding anyway and you don't need baggage, why not?

No, I'm fairly certain that "Hence my suspicion that ethanol is the sole factor in your observed decrease in gas mileage" works just fine. Suspicion and doubt are synonyms, after all .

The way I've always heard and read 'suspicion' used, the sentence "hence my suspicion that ethanol is the sole factor in your observed decrease in gas mileage" would imply you think ethanol is the sole factor in the observed gas mileage decrease.

But thats not how the dictionary is describing it, and I read it in that I am suspicious of ethanol being the sole factor in that I doubt that ethanol is the sole factor (you know, because suspicion and doubt are synonyms ). If I was still in school I would ask my English teacher to clarify. Are you still on campus and able to ask an English prof.?

Yes, I am, and I can. What I assume is there's two possible phrasing that mean opposite things:

"hence my suspicion that ethanol is the sole factor in your observed decrease in gas mileage."

"hence I'm suspicious of ethanol being the sole factor in your observed decrease in gas mileage."

Notice the difference between the meaning when suspicion vs. suspicious is used.