This aricle is for those who push back against what I have written on my website about the ethanol fallacy, and particularly in my main ethanol article. If you haven't read that aricle, it's best you do.

Then consider the things the promoters of the ethanol scrare leave out of their rhetoric. This should help you see the big picture. This subject is not correctly portrayed. And although I mention these things in my original article, I revisit them in the context of, "why don't the anti-ethanol voices mention these things?"

• First, none of the major--certainly none of the Big Four--manufacturers are running scared. None oppose ethanol. Not in their consumer publications (repair and owners manuals) and not among themselves. I know many OEM people. They are not advocating this silliness.

• Second, the scaremongers don't mention the fact that much, if not most, race gas contains ethanol. Check it out. Why, if ethanol is so bad?

• Third, you can gauge the scaremongers' technical acumen by noting that they do not mention the corrosion history of powersports carburetors, including that some corrode more than others. Career mechanics are intimately familiar with this. That the Big Fours' carbs corroded badly before 1978 and since then hardly at all due to a change in their metal composition. It has almost nothing to do with ethanol. And as is usual with the Internet, one thing has been mistaken for a completely different thing.

• Fourth, the purveyors of ethanol nonsense show their ignorance by overlooking the relationship between ethanol and vehicle maintenance. Inadequate maintenance is endemic in vintage powersports. Why do you think jetting kits and modifications of all kinds are so popular? Because virtually every vintage Honda owner is throwing away a good part of his bike's performance by not maintaining it correctly, while at the same time being attracted to the "silver bullet", the quick fix, for perceived performance loss advocated by aftermarket companies. Poor maintenance is innocuous and dormant until ethanol, through its leaning attribute, brings it to the forefront. See my original article.

• The fifth thing the anti-ethanol prophets leave out is the fact that California had oxygenated gasoline way before the rest of the country and the rubber o-rings in carburetors did not suffer. Honda's original Buna o-rings are lasting more than thirty years on average. How can this be if ethanol is so destructive to rubber carburetor parts? The truth is, rebuild kits are more to blame than is ethanol when these parts deteriorate. And close behind that is unprofessional carburetor rebuild techniques. No high quality rubber carburetor part is affected by ethanol.