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Rear fuel tanks Rear fuel tanks
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Equipping the Bike - what's the best gear? Anything to do with the bikes equipment, saddlebags, etc. Questions on repairs and maintenance of the bike itself belong in the Brand Specific Tech Forums.
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



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  #1  
Old 30 Jul 2002
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Rear fuel tanks
Apologies for spamming more than one forum, but...

Has anyone had experience of using/fitting rear fuel tanks (ala desert rallye bikes)?

I'm trying to evaluate the advantages of fitting rear tanks against an oversize front tank. Adding 15 litre rear tanks to a bike with a 25 litre main tank would bring the fuel capacity to 40 litres, whereas an oversize front tank can be purchased instead. 40 litres of fuel in 3 seperate chambers may have less influence on the bike's handling than 40 litres sloshing around in one chamber. I'd like people's advice on this.

Thanks in advance.

Iain.


http://www.africanqueens.de/_html/pr.../kpt__601.php3


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Old 31 Jul 2002
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Won't you need the rear space for pannier?

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  #3  
Old 1 Aug 2002
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I would hope that a rack could always be built to accomodate the fitting of rear tanks. I wouldn't have thought that they would put the bike outside any regulations on the maximum width of a bike.

Anyone with experience want to comment?

Iain
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  #4  
Old 1 Aug 2002
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Hi

A friend of mine used reartanks (about 6 and 8 liters on either side) on a KTM 4LC. Using soft luggage (Orlieb bags)there was no need for a rack, just throw them over....
I think over 1000 Euro's is quite a lot of money for 'only' 15 liters. My personal opinion is to use jerrycans for those few times you really need extra fuel (see the HondaTech discussion), and use those 1000 Euro's to fill them :-)
But thats just my opinion.

Peter
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  #5  
Old 1 Aug 2002
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The expense of rear tanks is a debatable point. Paying 1000 euro, for example, for 15 litres of rear tank seems expensive. A 40 litre front tank may cost about the same. 40 is a much bigger number than 15!

However, taking an Africa Twin as an example bike, fitting rear tanks would bring the total fuel capacity of the bike to 40 litres, which is exactly the same as removing the original front tank and fitting a 40 litre front tank. So for roughly the same amount of money you end up with the same total fuel capacity. Not an obvious conclusion.

Whichever way you look at it though, oversize or additional fuel tanks are always going to be more expensive than bungeeing a couple of jerrycans to the bike. The flip side is security, jerrycans can be easily stolen from a bike.

Iain

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Old 3 Mar 2003
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Here's my tank

http://www.morrowmarsh.ca/concours/t...ell-custom.htm

Inexpensive, good quality and can be enlarged or reduced to suit.
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  #7  
Old 9 Mar 2003
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The idea of a rear top-mounted tank is not new... The Touratech-sponsored privateers in the master Rallye, the Optic Tuisie and even the Dakar have been using a setup like this for a while:







The kit costs 950Eu and gives you a fuel capacity of about 40l. You didn't say what bike the plan was for? Have you looked at the Bernd Tesch boxes? They can be ordered with an integral water/fuel cell.

I can easily get 240miles (?? km) out of the 23l on my XT - do you *really* need more than this? And if you have 40/50l of fuel, you will have distance but no time - how will you carry enough water?

Just my opinions...
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Old 9 Mar 2003
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David, Great Tech page you have there... Keep it up .

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Old 8 Apr 2003
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If you are still looking this site may interest you, lots of stuff and extra rear fuel tanks.

https://www.bajadesigns.com/bajadesi....jsp?login=YES
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