want to put and old school Triumph tank on my 79 XS650

[Jae79]

i found a old school Triumph tank that i think would look tits on my bike, i have added some pics of a triumph to show how i would like my tank to look on my XS650, does any one know if i buy one of these old skool tanks how easy/hard it is to hook them up on a hardtail, or will all tanks fit as long as there not oil and frame tanks, any help or suggestions would work, Thank s JAe
please go thru my pics to see what i am talking about

 

[Tomterrific]

JAE79, Maybe I'm old and been around Triumphs too long but it is a blasphmous act to put a Triumph tank on an XS. The Triumph tank is an iconic shape and it looks great but screams Triumph and nothing else. My favorite smaller tank for the XS is the Special tank. It looks great and fits great. What could be better? Most alternate tanks look either stupid or bad compared to the tank that came with the bike,

Just my opinion but it's the only one that counts.

Tom

 

[Jae79]

well thats great Tom, but evidently me and you are going for 2 different looks here, you like small tanks thats great, maybe it looks good on YOUR bike, but me on the other hand would like that old school look with the parcel rack, and the only thing that it will scream is that my bike kicks ass. thanks for your input and not helping me in any way

"a blasphmous act "
get over it man. other people have other ideas!!

 

[hooktool]

You need to put the pics in your post, rather than asking people to search for them. I would like to see it, but I don't want to look for it.

Its your bike, use the tank you want.

John

 

[curtis]

Jae79-

I just did exactly what you are looking to do. I have a '74 Triumph Trident tank. Here's a couple things to watch out for:

-Most triumph tanks that I have seen have a straight tunnel. This will work with the frame on an XS650, but does get tight around the top motor mounts. A good welder could modify the tunnel to get you some more clearance, but it would take some work.

-To clear the engine mounts you need to set the tank a bit higher than the old stock Yamaha tank was. To get this to work, I had to fill in the back of the tunnel and make a new bracket to hook up the rear of the tank.

-For the front bracket I welded a flat bracket just under where the ignition coils sit. Triumph tanks mount on underneat the tank at the front, not up top like other tanks

-Standard bungs on a triumph tank are in the waaaaaaay wrong place as far as I could tell. They are at the very back of the motor. i had to weld them shut then put in new bungs located close to where the std yamaha bungs would be.

-Budget yourself a few hours of head scratchin in the garage to get it all worked out. I probably spent 5 hrs just getting the brackets in the right place.

If you do get a triumph tank, I'd be glad to post pictures of how I did my brackets so you can see.

Below are pics of my bike with this done. Overall, I'm very happy and like the triumph type tank. It's much more sculpted than Yamaha ones. if you like it, then go for it. It's your bike, build it how you want too and don't let anyone tell you different!

 

[Jae79]

Right Curtis, i think i found the tank in flordia, i might need your pics soon, to get an idea on how you did it, and when i get in from Iraq i am all over it next week!!!, let me see if i can post up some pics of what i have and what i want, and where i got the vision from, suckers arent cheap, but i think it will look cool
.

 

[Jae79]

here is the one i think i will use, tell me what ya guys think

 

[Jae79]

I like the way your tank looks on the bike, i just want that fat tank and parcel rack look , want it to sit even and low, i am tired of the coffin tank, sittin up at that angle, was going to do a day of the dead spyder web theme, but im over it, i want somthin simple gator seat, and fat,

 

[curtis]

Jae-

The tank you have looks great and I think will be very nice on your bike, with a bit of elbow grease. Remember that everything has to be rubber mounted so that the vibs from the motor don't crack the welds on the tank.

Look at this website for further inspiration, these guys blow me away with their attention to detail:

http://www.falconmotorcycles.com/

I think you're after the same kinda stripped down racer feel. Are you going to keep the high-rise bars? If so, mounting your tank will be a bit easier. I have clip-ons and it was tough to get them to not hit the tank. I'll still have to adjust my turning/fork stops.

Gotta work the day job now, but I can probably pull my thank off this weekend and show you my brackets. Yours will be different as you've got a custom hardtail, but the theory will work.

Other nice thing is the tank you've got has the bungs pointing down. *if you're lucky* you won't have to move them. All depends on where things end up sitting.

 

[Jae79]

Right on curtis i appreciate the tips, so you think this tank will look amd do fine, well i think i will order it now, and see what i have to work with, when i start the initaial set
THanks

 

[curtis]

Jae-

Yeah, it will *probably* work. Just be ready to do some mods to your frame at least. I also closed off the back of the tunnel on mine so things would work right. Not a big deal for a good welder/body man.

If you like how mine sits, you should be in good shape. Where are you ordering it from? Would be nice if you can return it if it just won't work. Best thing to be able to do is set it on your frame and see where things line up, then think it through from there.

-C

 

[curtis]

Other thing you could do before your order is ask for some measurements of the tunnel, you've got a lot of rise/space on your frame between the motor at the handle bars, not sure if that will make the tank sit at too much of an angle or not...

 

[Jae79]

well i have found 2 so far and debating on witch one to go with, one is from smmotor.com on ebay, and the other is from a private seller witch would you choose,

 

[Jae79]

or the othe r pics i had posted, let me know what ya think bro,

 

[Patches]

If you aren't going to run those badges and fill the holes, let me know I have a OIF tank that needs some.

 

[curtis]

That's a tough one.

The gold version has more open area in the tunnel which would help with space/clearance if you run into issues.

I wonder if overall size and tunnel angle are the same? I'm not a triumph guy so it would be hard to say

 

[Jae79]

Nah its 7 1/2 deep in the front and 2 1/2 in the rear, 2 1/2 across i should have plenty of room toplay with i am getting it now. its all OG too,
and too patches sorry bro i am keeping the badges, i have seen shit loads thou on ebay check it out!!!

 

[Jae79]

hey man how do i know what petcocks to buy, what did you use

 

[Jae79]

hey man how do i know what petcocks to buy, what did you use

 

[curtis]

Just get standard triumph petcocks. Any will work so long as you have the right thread. I'd probably wait on the petcocks until you get things on the bike and situated the way you want. That way, if you have to move the bungs on the tank you can get whatever bungs & petcocks fit/work best.

Here's the ones that I got. but you'll need to check that the thread type is right for your tank. .

I really like these petcocks as they are economical and seem well built. (We'll see how they hold up after a few seasons)

I found my bungs on ebay.