There's been a lot of posts about the new Clarke tanks, and some people have been asking for pics of the black tank mounted up. I just got my black tank on Friday, and Saturday morning I put it on and took some pics.



After taking the stock tank off, draining the fuel, and swapping the petcock to the new tank, I laid them out side-by-side so that you can see the differences. Before putting the new tank on, CLEAN IT OUT! Mine was full of little plastic shavings. I rinsed it out with some gas, then blew it out with compressed air.




In my case, I have a TM34 pumper carb, and the new tank is just big enough to squeeze the wiring harness against the top of the carb. I simply slid the harness all the way to the right, and that solved the problem.




The tank is mounted and the shrouds are on. The new tank is higher above the shrouds than the stocker. The front of the tank is also a shade wider than the stock tank, spreading the shrouds out just a little bit more. It's hardly noticeable though.




All finished up. Not only is the new tank taller, but it is also thicker where the seat meets it, causing a slight gap between the seat and the radiator shrouds. For the extra riding distance it provides, I can put up with a little bit of a gap.

The hose coming from the gas cap doesn't come with the tank. Iused some 1/4" vacuum hose and ran it down behind the headlight. There's a ball in the vent of the gas cap that will seal it off if the bike is laid down, but the hose will keep dirt and mud out of the vent. It's also handy becausethe gas cap will hang and notfall on the ground when filling up.

 

Looks good,,,, i think i like the black better than the natural! Good write up.

 

Well it does look better, I just wish they could have hit the 3.5 or 3.7 gal mark. But I guess there's only so much room in there. Nice job on the install,it really does look like it came that way. [sm=smiley20.gif]

 

If you buy it from just gas tanks, they give you a vent tube with purchase. Also $9 for shipping and $174 for the tank. At least there is no gap between the tank and the number plate. Iam still going to get the natural see through tank, then Iam going to cut the lip off the shrouds and then I will have a view of the fuel level in that gap. I should get the tank on wednesday, I will post pics when done the install.

 

Bought mine from www.JustGasTanks.comand it was shipped via UPS Ground last Friday. (I'm having it sent to my buddy in Connecticut to avoid the UPS Canada brokerage fee rip-off. I won'tsee the tank it till mid-July when I go visit him.)

JustGasTanks seems like a pretty good operation to deal with, although they were a little hard to get on the phone. E-mail response was good, and they do call back quickly if you leave a message.

Mike

 

I really like the black. Can't see thru it, I guess, but aesthetically I just like it more than the natural color. Really good stuff.

 

Looks good, I want to see a kawi green tank installed next

 

I can see getting the natural one if it was for a bike without an odometer, but if you reset your trip meter every time you should always know how much gas you have.

 

That is a good point deej.
One thing though is that my bike (just over 1k miles) is getting better fuel economy with every tank, my last tank was 119.6 miles on the odo before having to switch to reserve, the tank before was 115.3, the tank before 113.3
My question is; at how many miles does the bike's fuel economy max out?

 

I am consistently getting 60 mpg. As far as how many miles before hitting reserve, that's all relative to where you stopped filling towards the top, I'm sure for every 1/4 inch either way it will add or deduct a couple of miles. So I'm not sure unless you get it to the exact level each time, and that's not likely. I usually leave almost a half inch from the top of the tank, not the top of the filler hole for expansion. Now as far as mpg, that too is relative to jetting, exhaust and air in, to a certain degree. Oh and of course how fast you want to go. I bet if we really took it easy, not going past 4000 rpm's we could get 80 mpg. But where is the fun in that. 8500 to 9 grand is the sweet spot for sure.