Fuel Filter Necessity?

[SpeedRacerOnline]

I've been reading and hearing more and more that a lot of people are not running fuel filters on their motorcycles. At first I thought that was foolish, but then I started listening and thinking about it, and the logic does kind of make sense.

Assuming your fuel tank is clean and in good order, and your petcock is in good working condition with the screens properly in place, what real purpose does the fuel filter serve on a street bike other than another restriction in the fuel supply chain? I've checked with a few of my friends who ride more than I do, and often in worse conditions, and they haven't used fuel filters in years with no problems at all.

I know there's the argument that an actual fuel filter will filter impurities at a finer level than the screens on the petcock. That may or may not be true, though, depending on the quality of filter you buy, and let's be honest: most people are running tiny-little poor-filtering flow-restricting lawnmower filters.

Does it really matter, anyway? The petcock screen filters at a pretty fine level. I would think it's got to be at least pretty close to good enough (if not more) for most of the carb passages, and the fact that many people are running that way seems to support that theory. I can think of one friend in particular who rides both a 2004 Honda Shadow ACE 750, and an early '80's Honda CB750 chopper. I know him well, and his level of mechanical "expertise", as well as his less-than-remarkable maintenance habits. He rides both those bikes about twice as many miles a year as I do on Ruby alone, and in all kinds of conditions, both running on just the petcock screens. Of all the things we've had to help him fix, carbs has never been one (save for tuning them when he first bought the chopper). I've ridden both bikes a few times; they start great and run smooth.

Realistically, fuel out of the pump is not that horribly filthy (depending on your definition of "horribly filthy", of course). If it was, our petcock screens and filters both would be clogging up all the time. I've always run clear fuel filters, and while I've had to change them on the trail bikes, quads, and such, I've never changed one on a street bike because it needed it. I've always changed them when I first got the bike if it had an opaque filter that I couldn't tell if it was dirty or not, but I've never had a clear one become so obviously dirty that it looked like it needed to be changed, or was affecting the way the bike ran.

So... The tank is sealed, and assuming it's in good condition, the fuel won't acquire any new contaminants once it's closed. What contaminants are in it will almost all be filtered out by the petcock screens (obviously that's the case, since I've dumped crud out of my tank before, but I've never had to change a dirty filter). Any contaminants that may be left are almost certainly small enough to easily pass through the entire fuel system without causing any further problems. Either way, they're probably small enough to pass through most of the cheap in-line fuel filters most of us have been buying.

So, is an in-line fuel filter really necessary on a pavement-pounding street bike, or is it just money wasted on an unnecessary fuel flow restriction?

Thoughts?