Mix gas or not on Hodaka Road Toad

[myvirago95]

Hi,
I know this maybe a dumb question, but thought I better ask before filling the bike. I purchased a 1974 Hodaka Road Toad (it has always been started) the owner said they just used gas with not mixing it with oil so my question is do I need to mix the gas for this bike or can i just run regular pump gas in it? Do I need to purchase 2 cycle oil? I plan on just riding it around town. thanks!

[Dale]

The Road Toads have an oil injection system that allows you to place injection oil in the oil tank and then just plain (preferably non-ethenol) gas in the gas tank. If it were me, I would not use the oil injection without completely testing it out first.

If you wish to just run pre-mix, I would just buy a quality premix oil. I personally use Yamalube 2R mixed at 32:1. You should consider blocking off the oil pump. Kits are available to do that.

If you wish to utilize the oil injection, here are the steps that I did with 3 different Road Toads. It worked for me...
1. Remove the oil line at the reed cage.
2. Block the hole with a short 6mm bolt.
3. Drain the oil tank.
4. Fill with a quality injector oil (I use Yamalube 2S).
5. Run the oil line that you removed in step 1 into a zip lock bag and tie it off with a rubber band.
6. Drain gas tank and re-fill with pre-mixed gas.
7. Check adjustment of the oil pump. The tang pointer should line up with the 1st line on the pump body with the oil pump cable loosened. The tang can be carefully bent to adjust. Once the tang is adjusted, the cable should be adjusted to begin to move the tang at the same time that the throttle valve begins to rise. Once you have that, then make sure that the line on the tang reaches the 2nd mark or beyond at full throttle.
8. Start and run long enough to run the remaining oil out of the pump and enough to be pulling fresh oil from the oil tank.
9. Once you are confident that the pump is working correctly, reconnect the line at the reed cage.
10. Drain the pre-mix from the gas tank and fill with "non-ethenol" pump gas.
11. Check your oil tank level with every gas fill up.

Dale

[myvirago95]

Thanks Dale,
Will I have any issues if I run gas with ethanol? I haven't had one of these bikes since the mid 70's and I was just a kid. The bike has the black casings and I know some have the silver what is the difference if any?

[bobwhitman]

Do not use ethanol! This is death to small engines like ours. Find a source for "clear" gas (gas without ethanol) and use it exclusively. The modest inconvenience of locating & using clear gas will more than offset the cost and frustration due to engine, fuel line & similar problems caused by using ethanol.
Bob

[Dale]

I strongly second what Bob said!

As for the different case colors; there are a number of variations in the different models over the years. Besides the color difference, the later years saw the addition of the oil injection, reed valves and different cylinder design.

[RHall1972]

Here's a link that will help you locate stations that have non-ethanol gas: http://pure-gas.org/.

Gas stations located near boating ramps commonly have non-ethanol pumps, for obvious reasons.

[myvirago95]

Thankfully I do have a gas station close by that in non-ethanol. But would it hurt once in awhile having to put ethanol gas in it. As I mentioned mine is a 74 with the black casing. Also, will it be hard to find directions for this? The bike has a title, so I do plan o registering it. I know my hand signals but I think I really would like to finish it and put directionals on it.
Thank you for all the feedback, I probably will have more questions.

[socalhodaka]

Thankfully I do have a gas station close by that in non-ethanol. But would it hurt once in awhile having to put ethanol gas in it. As I mentioned mine is a 74 with the black casing. Also, will it be hard to find directions for this? The bike has a title, so I do plan o registering it. I know my hand signals but I think I really would like to finish it and put directionals on it.
Thank you for all the feedback, I probably will have more questions.

Lets see this baby, picture picture picture picture

[Dale]

Every kid in America took his turn signals off of his Hodaka. They are out there for sure. The fun is finding a set.

As for your ethanol question, you are talking vintage 2-strokes here. Ethanol in our pump gas came about after these bikes were designed. There are many issues to be concerned about and debated with Ethanol gas. The fact that the gas goes stale VERY quickly and then begins to harden in the carb is enough for me. I will not put one ounce of it in my vintage bikes.

[Bullfrog]

In addition, switching back and forth from 10 - 15% ethanol blends changes required jetting because the fuel characteristics change. The difference between non-ethanol fuel and ethanol blend fuel is greater and is significant enough to cause problems. I too recommend using non-ethanol fuel.

Ed