TOPIC:

Hey guys ,

Went out to shop last night and cranked the drum & bass and got cracking with the tabs and bracket removal , looks like I have the Midas touch with all the braze dust laying around ... Wishing it was real !! I was originally planning to use a Shorai battery in the tail but had no luck with them on the racebike ... I just sourced a Harley battery which has the heavy duty cranking amps but is a lower profile and will help reduce the size of the battery box . I plan to weld an extension to the front of the box and run the igniter ,fuse block and reg/rect and make it all look pretty with inboard mounts to maintain the clean frame lines . Time to put the kids to bed and get a grip out there tonight !

So I was looking at the various tanks on the bike , i have the stock Mk 2 and a CSR tank , I like the boxy lines of the stock tank but its way too wide and high at the top of the tunnel and looks daft .I cut a bunch of the tunnel out of the CSR tank which looked better but limits the range due to the wide double frame rails and also is too wide at the neck . I dont have a Rickman tank ,which would work but its fibreglass and I'm not so keen on the bulge at the back so I made this buck from 2" foam and a hot glue gun . I shaped it with a 60 grit pad on a palm sander , I should have used 3M spray mount to glue it up as there are ugly seams at the knee cutouts ,no biggie ! I'm going to shape the back end in a bit more ,smooth it up by hand and then give it to Denis who will make the tank in aluminium .. I have blue dust in places I didn't realize I had places ! I've ordered the Rickman tail and glass inner fender from Airtech ,should be here in a couple of weeks .Got the rest of the old brackets cleaned off the frame , I need to pull it all apart and remove the centre stand lugs next . Still looking for a deal on a front end , skinted myself out though buying a new bike ! There's a Monster in the stable !

I was admiring this tank from this Harley cafe and using it for inspiration !

Rickman tank

I was thinking that the tank was a bit Kim Kardasian .... wide in the rear end ! Opinions please on whether to slim the back of it to the black lines?

" Crickets " ... I cant believe you guys don't have opinions !!! Lol

I went for it anyway ... I think its better , rounded the front section some more today and sculpted the back , its more like the racing tank . took the Duke up the road this afternoon for the maiden voyage ,Love it ....the thing is a Torque monster . Spins up the tyre easy with all the road salt and sand and snot! Spring is just around the corner .

Its hard to tell what that looks like in real life. photos just don't do it justice. I personally quite liked the MKII tank and tail on there. You hardly ever see any MKIIs and none on a Rickman. Since your having a tank custom made why not have them replicate the MKII tank, but modified to fit your frame better?

I do think your tank looks better with the rear slimmed down though. I like the profile looking towards the front a lot, but I think since the tank sits on top of the frame at the rear and then moves below the frame at the front it looks a bit strange. Perhaps if you kept the panel where the knee dent is above the frame rail, then transitioned quickly at the towards the front that might look a bit better, and also show off more of the frame. I also personally like it when the front of the tank matches the angle of the steering head, but to each their own. here is a triton that has the knee dent transition I was talking about.

Thanks for your input Doc ,
its a work in progress for sure ... I cut out the indents to clear the top triple on full lock and that ruined the look at the front for me , I had experimented in pen with following the slope of the fork but it messed up the teardrop and location of the filler ,but I agree that the overall look would be lifted with more material taken out in front of the knee cut outs ... Back to shop ... More pics as it progresses

my complaint with rickmans is that the tank always seems to look like a loaf bread.
so while i appreciate your re-imagination of it, it still seems a lil bloated.
maybe a lil less curve and more edge maybe .

this one is not bad,

but still not 100% captivating.

sorry to be of no more help.

leon

p.s. i would love to own a monster.bigger is better but i would settle for the lil one.

So I studied the shapes of a bunch of tanks online and went out and reshaped the front and sides , the forks now clear , took Doc 's advice and shaved the bottom up to clear the motor a little more . I'm happier now with the shape overall ... Nowhere near as clunky . What do you guys think ? I appreciate your input

In hindsight i would not use this foam again , my friend buys 2 part polyurethane and forms up fibreglass moulds with it ...its easier to shape ...this stuff shows all the imperfections and is hard to sand .

That does look a lot better......(if it were my tank) I would scallop that bottom edge even more so it became as angular as the tail unit. Unfortunately I am not as good as Doc in adding those red lines to illustrate what I mean. Cool project

I've grown to love the stock MKII bodywork, but if you're going for the Rickman / cafe look, this latest version is looking really nice. It's come a long way since you posted the first picture.

By the way, don't toss that MKII tank...they are getting rare and expensive. Just let me know if you're ever going to get rid of it.

mixstup wrote: So I studied the shapes of a bunch of tanks online and went out and reshaped the front and sides , the forks now clear , took Doc 's advice and shaved the bottom up to clear the motor a little more . I'm happier now with the shape overall ... Nowhere near as clunky . What do you guys think ? I appreciate your input

In hindsight i would not use this foam again , my friend buys 2 part polyurethane and forms up fibreglass moulds with it ...its easier to shape ...this stuff shows all the imperfections and is hard to sand .

Yeah the foam to use for this type of thing is that green florists foam. sands like butter.

The front looks loads better, the hard edge is helping alot. I still think the knee dent could be taken up a bit more, that transition still seems a bit awkward to me. What tail piece did you order from airtech?