I took almost all the Tupperware off the bike today... you have to take it all off from the back of the bike forward to the floorboard just to get the floor above the gas tank off to get to the gas tank, which is a bit of a pain.
Anyway, I rode the bike until there were no bars on the fuel gage showing, then rode it for about 10 miles after that, so I could get the tank as empty as possible. It was so close to completely empty that there was only about 3/8" of fuel in the lower rear section of the tank when I opened it. I drained the fuel out with my suction device (essentially a reversible aquarium pump hooked to a large glass jar) that I'd previously used for the brake fluid changeout, storing the fuel in the glass jar of the suction device. Then I got some lint-free rags and went to work making sure the inside of the tank was spotless. My hand would just barely fit in there, so I used a wrench extension to swipe the tank walls and bottom until I could see no more grit under a bright light. I also checked the fuel pump and filter sock, they were both in good condition and clean. There was only a tiny bit of that particulate matter from the bad gas I'd gotten, and I got it all out. Most of it must have run through and either gotten caught in the fuel filter or made it past the filter to go through the engine.
Then, I reversed the suction device and pushed the gasoline out of the glass container back into the tank, filtering it through a doubled-over coffee filter to be sure no particles got back into the tank. Since the suction device had sat for about an hour with the gas in it, most of the gunk in it had settled to the bottom, and that last little bit didn't get pushed back out of the glass jar. There was only a tiny bit of the gunk in the glass jar.
Then I dropped the Fitch Fuel Catalyst F5T modules into the gas tank, buttoned it back up, and rode to Costco to fill up. It's a good thing I live close to Costco... any farther and the bike wouldn't have made it.
So now I get to see if there are any fuel mileage improvements (on top of what the bike seems to be achieving on its own) due to the Fitch Fuel Catalyst. Time will tell, and if it doesn't work, I'll pull them out of the fuel tank.
And the Fitch Fuel Catalyst will have a very high bar to beat... the bike made yet another new fuel mileage high, despite the colder weather (the bike is extremely sensitive to the temperature of the air it breathes, when it's cold out, fuel economy suffers, which is why I'll be fabricating a warm air intake that is heated from the coolant exiting the engine). It reached 75.135 MPG.
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