Investigation: Are Indian tanks any good?

New fuel tanks made abroad

– the answer to our ageing, rotting ones?

A pile of junk or the deal of the century? We do our best to find out if ‘new’ fuel tanks offered on the internet are any good...

Words and photography by Matt Hull

How much? I was looking for a

decent, second-hand fuel tank for my BMW R100 a few years back. Not an uncommon bike and regularly being decimated by some grinder-wielding, sockless moron who thinks it’s easy to ‘build a café racer’, so there should be plenty of good, used tanks. With damaging E10 petrol and our bikes getting older, it is going to be an issue more of us will face. But I kept seeing prices ranging from £200 to £400 – for 30 to 40-year-old fuel tanks. Have they been sniffing the contents? BMW ones may last longer than most as the factory sealed them from new (a red oxide-style finish inside), but they can still suffer from pin holes if they have been left with fuel in. Plus, the standard red sealer is particularly obstinate to remove, sometimes needing to be sandblasted, which you have to if putting in a new sealer. So, a second-hand tank could end up costing about £500 to repair, even before painting. Then, while losing myself in the world of eBay for Norton ES2 parts one evening, I saw a number of ‘brand new’ tanks available. Some were painted, some bare, and others were even chromed. Details of which of the many variants of the Norton single they fitted were scarce, but the price? About £250 to £300, or less than £180 for bare steel. With free delivery.

Curiosity won over, and I then looked for BMW tanks. I found similar tanks at similar prices, all said to be new. Some were even aluminium. I found BSA tanks, popular Triumph tanks, and even tanks for less common bikes. There were more than 40 different sellers, but one thing was constant – all came from India.

Supply and demand

With many a genuine old tank needing much work and becoming an expensive element of a restoration or even keeping an old bike on the road, this needed looking into – it’s simply supply and demand. There are a few UK makers of fuel tanks, mostly small companies, so don’t have large adverts everywhere. One is Ian, at ETTO Motorcycles, one of the best creators of new aluminium fuel tanks and one-offs, like large models for TT race teams or off-road racers. Ian can build any tank for any bike, any way you wish – but he needs an original to copy and even sacrifice, preferably the bike itself to use as a jig, time to make a buck or former, then the skill to make something that will fit as an original, with all those reverse and compound curves and complicated shapes underneath. And it must not leak and must be as the customer wishes – or at least the same as the original. It takes time and communication, and it takes an enormous amount of skill. And that costs money... a lot of money. If a tank takes two or three weeks to build from scratch, how much do you feel an experienced, skilled fabricator should be paid for 80 or 120 hours of work? Plus materials? Thousands of pounds of equipment? Mass production can make the process cheaper, of course, but that then brings us back to countries with cheaper labour. Like India. I spoke to several parts suppliers in the UK about whether they had thought about stocking foreign tanks or finding a supplier in this country. None were happy with being able to get a supplier that would provide consistent quality for a price they felt customers would pay. To them, it was a risk to their reputation.

We then spoke to friends, old bike club members and bike forums online around the world. All knew of the supply from India, and many had been tempted. The findings and opinion varied massively – some had success with a nicely made

product; others were less happy yet realistic about how much they had paid. But more had issues with the customer service, and others were delivered a pile of scrap, with many somewhere in between.

Max Von Tyszka, whose Moto Guzzi Le Mans Mk.II featured in this very magazine back in 2020, bought a BSA Hornet import that came with a period-specific glass fibre tank. Rather than ruin it, Max ordered a chromed Hornet tank from India. It arrived in a few weeks and cost £180. Although it was advertised as coming with appropriate taps, these weren’t in the box so two had to be sourced. Max says: “I’d say it’s not perfect copy for shape, but darn close.” His research, he adds, has shown what many others have said: “I’ve heard of people who bought three – one good, one bad, and one so-so.”

Our investigation reveals there doesn’t seem to be any stand-out suppliers, good or bad, and frustratingly, there seems no pattern at all to making a safer purchase – it’s pot luck. Though I must admit to being somewhat amused by those, especially in the USA, who were outraged by poor service and poorer quality product when many wouldn’t get out of bed for the price paid for a fuel tank. It seems naïve. This is becoming a more important part of our world and we wanted to see for ourselves. So Classic Bike Guide decided to bite the bullet and buy our own fuel tank from abroad.

How did we do it?

After scouring the internet, I could only find a few shops offering new fuel tanks. These were mainly abroad and suspiciously used the same photos as I’d found on eBay, so eBay it was. The adverts all look the same, with just the paintwork or finish differing. All come from India (it’s a big place) and most are photographed with a white background.

Just how do you choose? I chose an aluminium tank as they are harder to produce and, anyway, it would be different. This narrowed down the choice, as all offered free delivery (more on which soon). In the end, I picked a tank for £300.06. The seller had 10,000-plus sales, 94.7% positive feedback, the photos were clear, and the account had sold many tanks. And the tank came with a Monza-style fuel cap, which I love (sorry). I even looked the seller up on Google maps to a rather nicelooking suburb of East Delhi.

I waited a day or so until payday to order, yet within 24 hours, a message from

WHAT’S BEST, A REBUILT ORIGINAL OR A COPY FROM ABROAD?

A steel or alloy original tank can, most often, be repaired. But this is no ordinary job – you will need to find someone adept at TIG welding, silver soldering or brazing, and someone sympathetic to what you are doing. But keeping the shape while putting in new metal will take time and quite easily reach the cost of a tank from abroad. Then there is the cost of a good coating inside to protect the work. And don’t forget a quality paint job will be needed – budget on £300 to £500 at least. But then you know that the original fits, is correct for the bike, and that everything associated will fit with it.

eBay offered me an offer of £50 off. Too good to be true? On July 18, I clicked ‘buy it now’ and waited.

Can’t even blame Brexit…

The price was £250.85, and delivery was estimated at four weeks, which was realistic if already made. But still, I didn’t expect much, therefore not getting too excited. Then I got an email from eBay saying the tank was being posted and it would be with me in about 10 to 14 days!

You guessed it, nothing. Oh well, I kind of suspected it.

On August 24, I received a phone call from a company based in Slough but registered in the UAE asking for money to deliver my tank and to cover the import tax. After running checks on this company – it’s an enormous worldwide set-up but didn’t want to provide an invoice at first – I asked what the different charges were for. To answer this, I had to be put through to a manager... a manager who sounded distinctly annoyed and asked me why I was asking, so I said I was running a story for a national title on logistics companies ripping customers off. I was told I had to go through to another manager. The next manager was most polite. I asked her why I was being charged for a 25kg parcel when the tank should weigh about 2kg. She insisted it weighed 25kg – until I explained what it was. She kindly said she would get someone to weigh it and ring me back. She did, and surprise – it was only 2kg! Apparently, it was a computer glitch – of course it was. This brought the extra cost down from £81.83 to £65.70 and once paid, it would be delivered from Slough to me in sleepy Norfolk. I battered my poor bank card again. Three days later, and after numerous courier delivery attempts (the excuses were most creative; the drivers seem to forget they are tracked), a box arrived!

And?

ETTO Motorcycles Tab II Classics A FEW UK CONTACTS

ettomotorcycles.co.uk tabclassics.com Tank fabrication Tank fabrication The box would be a perfect size, without the filler cap. So, there was this ‘nipple’ sticking up, perfect for denting the tank! But the cardboard was thick, the tape hardy, and the tank wrapped in a dense material. The suspense as I unwrapped it turned to relief when I saw a tank – that looked like a BMW R100 tank! There were no dents. The finish of the outer was superb for an unpolished alloy tank. The edges looked a little rough, but the petrol tap threads looked all right and in the right place, and when I got the original next to it, there was little difference. Wow.

Underneath looked rough and inside looked terrible. They obviously gas-weld it and don’t TIG weld, as there is a large buildup of slag (excess filler used to weld the sections together). But you don’t look inside! The cap worked, and while the welding underneath looked poor, it also looked solid.

But…

What will it look like on the bike? An R100 tank has two simple connections: a horizontal cup at the front and a bar with holes at the rear. It was immediately obvious that these were inches out – the front cup was 3/4in too high and too far forward, while the rear bracket was nearly 2in out. I couldn’t even rest it on the frame. Bugger. Time for a super-welder: “Steve, can you look at this for me, please?”

The professional’s opinion

Steve’s (expert aluminium welder and Suzuki fanatic) first impression was not what I expected: “Considering it is gas welded, using recycled alloy, and they have to make heaven only knows how many in a day, it’s pressure-tight and looks like it should.” Steve checked for leaks, the fuel tap threads, around the filler neck and the underneath. “There’s a lot of work there – it’s just a shame they obviously don’t have a jig to make sure the fittings are in the right place.” Steve is a busy man but agreed to cut out the brackets, and with my R100 there, use that as a jig. It took several hours and cost a favour plus biscuits, but notionally, three hour’s work, about £120.

WHAT IT COST

Tank, plus shipping to UK: £250.06 Import and UK delivery: £65.70 Rectification: £120.00 Total: £435.76

Was it worth it?

In theory, it should be the answer to your rotten, damaged or missing tank. With a little work, ours should look great and last us well. But it could also be a great way of throwing hundreds of pounds away if you are not as lucky as we were. You are dealing with a company in another country many miles away, which has different expectations, speaks a different language, and may not totally understand our wants. eBay does act as a moderator, and which generally takes the side of the buyer, so look for the guarantee.

The tank we received did not leak. It also did not fit in any way, therefore technically was not fit for purpose. But a return would mean paying for sending a large parcel to India, though eBay did offer the money-back scheme with our seller. So the tank acted as a base, which, with the issues being relatively small, made sense to get altered in this country. But if the shape and size of the tank is wrong, or the collar for the tap or cap wrong, then the cost of rectifying that will easily outweigh the initial purchase.

Then there is finish. We went for bare alloy, and you can also get bare steel, which will need coating – another cost to bear in mind. While the consensus on build is 50/50, any painting we have been told about is poor, with thin paint; however, chrome tanks seem better, though you’d have an issue if anything needed welding.

I’m afraid we cannot give you a definitive answer as to buying tanks from abroad, but our advice has to be no, unless you cannot find an original replacement, as you just don’t know what you’re going to get, and rectification costs could spiral.

A huge shame, as there are many of us out there with bikes in need of new tanks.