LARGER FUEL TANK FOR FE450/550/650

Well taffy could be right on the intrest for a biger tank?

but there is a race at horn rapids ohv park,

all sand & lots of woop's,elevation 250 feet above sea level,

race is 6 times around a 10mi. course,impossible without a pit stop.

that's with a berg or ktm, a 3.2 gallon tank sure sounds good here!

As of December 1st:

"We are still considering this project but nothing has been started as of yet..

Chris
Clarke Mfg co."

It's looking like a late Jan, earley Feb start date for that project. That means you should see a tank in your hands by early April from Clarke. Just in time for the Spring thawout!

Listen to Taffy, who worked on his tank with a heat gun to expand it and then tells us it's not necessary to install a large gas tank.

Desert tanks are a good thing to have, especially when you ride in the desert, with a well-jetted carb or not (twice the mileage? :roll: ).

Put me down for one of these tanks. I'll be glad to be able to leave the staging area at 7am and be back at 5pm after a very long ride.

chevymirco said:

sorry i am new here. may be i am in the wrong topic.i need a fuel tank to race the tuareg-rallye in march. this means 150-200km minimum reach. therefore i need at least an 14 liter tank inkluding the aux i already have under the seat with 2 liters

Click to expand...

What bike do you intend to ride this rally with?

Britt said:

Just in time for the Spring thawout!

Click to expand...

What's a thawout??? :lol:

You forget Taffy, over here we don't live on a little island where one tank could take us shore to shore. It sounds like you already need a revisit to the USA. I don't think your crazy idea of a Husaberg ride every two years is beneficial for you right now. :twisted:

For riders who enters the rally raids there was tanks availeble, sorry to say there arent any stock ithems left. Big blue with intergrated radiator shrouds filled with fuel, 20 ltr. fits 1999-
Also on the market rear tanks 2x8ltr, i use a second hand set that i bought from Thomas Gustavsson at Husaberg- over 10 years ago, he had them in rally Tunis and i used the in Sahara desert on my 600cc from 1995.
This is old KTM stuff, check with KTM dealer for the 620cc Rally Raid Replica, they are purple, Acerbis offered them in White.

MCSPORT in Sweden had 2 proffessional riders in their team, Alan Perez and Andrew Coaker. They used larger tanks for the Rallies, bolt on 2pc tank, in aluminium. Custom made for the team, replaces the OEM tank.
Check with Olle Ohlsson, Team manager for MCsport if still offers them.

www.mcsport.se
+46-8-59430770 Olle Ohlsson, ( former Dakar rider)

Good Luck
Thomas
www.enginehardware.se

this is a quote from a thread i did when racing over the bank holiday weekend last year (2004):

i completely forgot the fuel situation because i'd made a mental note that i would probably be back within 2 hours knackered. well it is 8 weeks since i last rode it! - so came in and there was about 1 pint of fuel left - so some good luck!

this is a quote from just three weeks ago at the john banks (Taff's racing season):

anyway 60 + 52 + over 60 again for the last lap adds up to 3-hours of racing on my new slimmed down 7.5 litre tank! as the owners doc says 3+ hours are available from the standard tank with a keihin FCR and the jetting sorted

now i rode like a tart this past race but i think that you get the message.

regards

Taffy

thank you all for so much informations. I will check with the side tanks and check the forum for the jetting of my new 450.

Hey chevy,

I don't know if this will help you or not, but, Acerbis sells a couple of different bolt on fuel tanks that would definitely fill the 3 litre gap that you currently have. My friends kid used to use the number plate tank on his KX80 a few years back so that he could ride the distances the big boys did and it worked great. The only draw back is that you have to ditch your light if you have one on your bike. The rear tank looks kinda dorky, but, you'd be able to keep your headlight. Only problem with that one is that it could make getting on and off in a tight/quick situation a bit difficult. Not to mention that it could give you a rather nasty shot in the back side. But, it's still cool that Acerbis offers these up as I could see where that turtle tank on the back would be great for some adventure touring in the wide open spaces out here in the west.

If Husaberg doesn't step up to the plate in the next couple of months and get clarke going on the bigger tank, I'm definitely going to be getting one of those acerbis tanks, probably the number plate tank as the places where I would be using it require me to get on and off my bike quickly sometimes, and it's super easy to put it on or take it off.

The place where I have in mind to use such a tank is in the high sierra's (8400' msl, with a density altitude of about 12,500') where the miles covered are not great, but the hours are high. Typically we'll be gone 5hours + on a ride and I'll still have some fuel left but not much. The longest rides in this area are about 50, but, you're going to be out 7 hours +, it's all first, second, and sometimes third stuff. Lot's of fun.

I do agree with Taffy that with proper jetting and engine set up you can definitely increase your mileage. But, just to give an exampe of the differences in useage in various terrain. In the desert, trail riding at a brisk pace without too much technical stuff I can easily get 70+ miles on my stock tank. Throw in some technical sections with a lot of sand and that number drops to 60, this all at 3400' msl. Now this past summer I was riding in the mountains of south central utah, starting out at 6400' msl, and riding up to about 8500 to 9000'. It was mostly jeep roads hard pack, I was riding easy, enjoying the scenery and making a point to short shift and roll on easy. I went 78.8 miles on 1.5 gallons ! But, throw in an agressive race pace and those numbers go out the window.

Hope this helps,

There are more tank makers in the world than the more popular ones 8O :idea: .
As the large ones are dragging their feet, a smaller company who have made tanks for the XR 650, RFS KTM, DR 400 and WR Yamahas have been made aware of the lack of tanks for the Bergs. And the market potential.
This company originally built a big tank for the XR 650, and when they decided to build the KTM, Suzuki and Yamaha tanks they went from drawing board to full production in 6 weeks. For all 3 tanks.

Its amazing what a small bunch of enthusiasts can accomplish when they want to.

I eagerly await their response to see if they view it as a worthwile venture :wink: .

Now, there is another possibility, and I know it sounds a bit stupid but it does work as I used it when I rode two strokes:

Simply carry 2 or 3 litres of gasoline in bottles in your backpack.

Get rid of the extra weight in your backpage by dropping the content in the tank as soon as you have used that volume.

Keep one bottle as reserve.

If BMG called Clarke and made an order for 100 tanks, I bet they would get on it pretty fast.

They (BMG) could sell them through their Hard Parts Dept.

Is the market that big, though?

I have a roto molding company that will make a mold and built tanks start up cost for the mold and initial run for 100 tanks will be $20,000.00 Who wants in. I need 100 people to pre pay so sign up.
db

DB I do not know if you are sarcastic but you summed up the problem...

Just wait until Spring. They will happen. With Clarke, they just have to complete their current projects before they can start a new one. If they were to start on it right now, it still wouldn't be done until that time because of limited manpower. Even if they went and hired another person to do the work, would you want the new guy in training to design your new tank, I wouldn't. I'm happy to wait a couple of months to get a quality product at a reasonable price.

Zero sarcasim lets get those deposits sent in

db

Hey DB

Count me in! Let me know how much and when, I am all up for it!

If we keep sitting around and waiting for Clarke we will all be riding wheel chairs. I have read threads that go way back on this issue and still here we are.... waiting as usual! Do they make wheel chairs with 6 speeds and knobbies? :lol:

Don