Plastic Gas Tanks ??

[Anonymous]

Just wondering why no companies seem to offer plastic gas tanks for street bikes. It would seem like the ultimate solution to all those rusty 20 year old metal gs tanks out there. I had quite a choice of plastic tanks for my dual purpose Honda, so it can't be illegal to sell 'em on road going bikes...or is it? (And believe it or not, plastic tanks look pretty good with some graphics on 'em

[robinjo]

There are a few problems with plastic tanks, some of the molded ones can't be painted because the're porous (does this word make sense to you? I'm Dutch forgive me :roll: ) wich I found out the hard way after painting a dirtbike's gastank and the fiberglass ones are prone to leaking or even dissolving, especially when they get older. Aks "Hanske" about that one ,it's happening on his modified GS1000.

[focus frenzy]

plastic tanks are not leagal on street bikes here in the states, a XL honda will have a steel tank stock, while a XR will have a plastic tank (off road)
same thing aplies to the other all terain bikes, sp=steel/dr=plastic, suzuki, yahmaha, xt=steel/ tt=plastic.
you can have a plastic cover over a steel tank, or a plastic liner.
a plastic tank would be ground away very fast if the bike was layed down on pavement.

[Anonymous]

I figured plastic tanks were not legal for the bike companies to install oem on street bikes, but aftermarket companies like IMS and Acerbis offer them for dual sport bikes, which spend a lot of time on road. They're much tougher than you might think. But they probably would not hold up as well as metal in a pavement grinding scenario.

[Anonymous]

There are a few problems with plastic tanks, some of the molded ones can't be painted because the're porous (does this word make sense to you? I'm Dutch forgive me :roll: ) wich I found out the hard way after painting a dirtbike's gastank and the fiberglass ones are prone to leaking or even dissolving, especially when they get older. Aks "Hanske" about that one ,it's happening on his modified GS1000.

You're right that they're technically "porous", (fumes permeate through, but in a miniscule amount) which is why gasoline stored in a plastic tank will eventually lose it's volatility. That's why you never paint them. You use perforated graphics. I agree with you about fiberglass, it is not what you want for a fuel tank. I was referring to the type of molded plastic tanks used on dirt bikes. They routinely survive 20 foot jumps on motocross bikes, and are anything but fragile.

[AOD]

we saw a Yamaha R1 last weekend that had a carbon fiber gas tank. I'm not sure if Yamaha does this from the factory, or it was aftermarket, but if you looked closely at the tank, you could see the small squares of the composite material in it. very cool i thought.