This was the pic I was working off of. With the bike against a white background I was able to print out a few pics and start doodling. What I came up with was an idea to run three separate tanks. Round tubes running sideways rather than front to rear.
In the search for parts I heard a lot of "why don't you just..." or "wouldn't it be easier to..."
I would stop them right there. I don't want it to look like everything else. My goals were to have something unusual, functional and at least the same capacity of the stock 3.2 gallon tank.
I needed a main backbone to support the tanks. My usual approach to something like this is to make a cardboard template.
This is the design I started with. This plan would have had three tanks with a total capacity of 4.4 gallons. I was happy about the volume but it looked so bad that even I couldn't stand to look at it. That's sayin a lot. My new plan will be just two tanks for a capacity of 3.5 gallons.
As long as I was gonna have to cut this thing out with the plasma cutter I figured I might as well personalize it a bit more. Instead of just ending the bracket at the front I thought it would be interesting to stretch it forward a bit to cover some ugly wiring and modules and junk. You can see I added an outline of the rat from my stickers which I will paint later.
Here is the inside of one half of the bracket cut out of a plate of steel. The round black piece is the rubber mount from the bike frame. I've cut a small strap and bent it so it will fit around the mount. It's welded to the plate and this is how the front of the tanks will attach to the bike.
The two plates welded together and temporarily bolted down. The rear brackets bolt down with the original bushings in the factory location. I have no doubt this will be plenty sturdy for my new tanks. That's all for now. Next time we'll take a look at the tanks and maybe some plumbing.
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