Were im at right now it is almost impossible to get away from fuel that doesn't have at least 10% ethanol... it sucks, i wish the government would just put up another wind mill or something and leave the corn on the table.

 

Here I have to buy premium grade fuel to avoid putting ethanol in my old Camry. It's almost impossible to get regular grade unleaded without it.
On an interesting aside, the fire service I'm involved with has a LOT of old pumps, in some cases pre-dating modern unleaded fuel. Since E10 has become the norm we have had a corresponding increase in engine failures thanks to fuel lines and seals turning to a jelly like mess. At the brigade level we had to fight to get our fuel cards (like cedit cards we use at the local petrol (gas) station) changed so we could use non-ethanol fuel ... which means premium (96 octane and above). The power that be didn't like that AT ALL at first since premium fuel is more expensive but the pump failures all but stopped.
We don't use corn to make our ethanol here, it's all from waste materials, but that doesn't change the damage it does to lines and seals.

 

Honestly, I've never had a problem with ethanol fuel in anything I've owned from a weed whacker to a high performance motorcycle. I've ridden my KLX at over 13,000 feet to whatever below sea level in Death Valley with no issues. I kind of think some might be blaming the gas for other problems...bad jetting, etc. And I don't buy and sell vehicles quickly. Last year I sold my '89 GMC fullsize Jimmy with a stroked 383 in it, and I ran ethanol fuel in it for most of its 300,000+ mile life.

 

I have (had) two weed whackers that I used to run on whatever was cheap (plus two-stroke oil of course). In BOTH cases the fuel lines and carb seals dissolved into a sticky mess. One, the Stihl, I was able to clean out and rebuild. The other is ruined and not worth repairing. I've seen first the same thing happen to other people's cars. The fuel lines start to dissolve filling the carb with black slime until is blocks up. If you're lucky the engine will just stop working, if you're SOL the crud will make the engine run lean and burn valves or even hole a piston from detonation.
Some lines aren't affected, others are. It depends on what material was used to make them. Ethanol is an organic solvent and eats different things than petro solvents, so what is normally fine for gas/diesel could well degrade badly when running ethanol or other bio fuels. Of course if you take the time to replace the vulnerable parts then it's all fine, but if you don't, and the parts aren't compatible, then you run a nasty risk.

 

Modern day hoses stand up to e-10 just fine, its using old lines (from 10+ years ago) as well as the e-15 stuff that causes the biggest problems

 

I notice you're from Australia, correct? I wonder if your E10 is different from ours. I'm 61...I've been through so many vehicles, lawn tractors, motorcycles, and all manner of 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines over the years. I've seen no problems with running ethanol additive fuels since they came. Obviously most of my fuel has been from Texas over all the years of ethanol fuels, but I've traveled coast-to-coast on other state's ethanol fuels with similar success. I'm a gearhead. I work on my own stuff and have built and rebuilt engines and carbs of all kinds...except diesel stuff. I installed aftermarket performance FI on a couple of my vehicles. My '89 GMC with that stroker 383 had a metal tank. I had to pull it down to replace a fuel pump after 200,000+ miles. It was clean as a whistle...no rust, no corrosion from ethanol.

I know all the alleged elements of ethanol...especially its higher propensity to absorb and retain water. All my metal gas tanks have never shown any rust or corrosion. Yes, I would rather run pure gasoline at the same price just for the higher energy delivery of pure gasoline, but I gotta say I just haven't had any noticeable issues with ethanol. It can't be pure luck.

 

Your seals could well have already been compatible and the lack of corrosion is likely due to better fuel distribution and storage keeping water out of the system.
I'd guess you're the type that prefers to keep their tanks full rather than sit around half empty for extended periods. That can make a huge difference no matter what fuel you run.
I'm also a gear head, btw. Motor rebuilds, bike gearboxes, brakes, clutches, auto electrics ... almost anything except auto transmissions. I refuse to touch those.
I should have taken pictures of the mess I had in the fuel tank. Everything was clean, but the pickup line was reduced to sticky sludge and the carb was a mess. I was so frustrated it was all I could do to not hurl the thing over the back fence in rage when I found it. I used acetone to clean out the carb and replaced the seals and line on the Stihl, but the other one had some captive plastic in the carb that liquified. It's a spider frame in the shed now.
If I bought a newer vehicle that was rated for the stuff I'd have no problems running it. If my next bike has it listed as ok then I might run it ... but if it's not explicitly noted that it's fine I won't be.

 

Just found this: Can my vehicle operate on Ethanol blend petrol? : FCAI which lists many Kawasakis as fine. Anything not listed as well as Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha are listed as a solid NO for E5 and E10.
Here's the list of compatible Kawasaki models: If your bike isn't in there, correct to model and year, I wouldn't even consider it.

 

I contacted the dealer to discuss the problem. He said that here were a few that work there that have the KX 250S and they have no problem....

I said I'd drain the tank and put in some premium that had no corn squeezings in it and check the plug. He was nice enough but, I did mention this tread and the people that were having problems with this model and he still came off like it isn't so...

If the fuel and the plug isn't the remedy. I get to load the lump into a pick-up and cart it down to them to take a look...

This is beginning to look like the Kawi is going to be more expensive per mile then the Ducati's I've had in the past.