Winter project

[Dookbob]

i have just aquired my this year,s winter project, a badlly neglected 2001 M600. I didn,t realise till I got it home that it has a plastic tank. I still have last years project which is the same model and apart from a couple of days difference they were both first registered in Sept. 2001. Last years bike has a steel tank. I wonder has one of them got the wrong tank on it, or is this not surprising. I can live with the plastic tank, but I am undecided wether or not to treat the inside with something to protect it from the Ethanol problem. If I decide to treat it, is the same stuff that is available for treating steel tanks OK for plastic ones, or is there a specific product available that anyone could recommend ?

[Dookbob]

this years` project pic

http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp257/dookbob/imagejpg1-3.jpg (http://s417.photobucket.com/user/dookbob/media/imagejpg1-3.jpg.html)

[Flip]

I believe quite a lot of the classic bike owners with fibreglass and composite tanks are using Caswell Tank Sealer-

http://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/news/22231/Ethanol_-_Part_Two:_The_Remedies

When I bought my old racer a few years ago it had a composite tank that had supposedly been sealed by something (it looked like it had inside) but in my naivety over Ethanol in petrol at the time I left fuel in it (Shell Optimax) for two or three months and it began to make the tank bubble in places so I got an alloy one made instead- no problems now except for the rubber carb intake stub needs replacing once a season.

[steeevvvooo]

I have an M600 dark tank in the classifieds that might be an option for you?

[Dookbob]

Cheers for the heads up up on your steel tank Steeevvvooo, but I think I will go down the sealant route.

Does anyone know for sure about something that I read somewhere recently, to the effect that the higher octane petrol sold in the UK does not contain any Ethanol, and that it is only used in the lower grade 95 octane stuff.

[Flip]

Shell Optimax definitely has is in although a lot of people still use it for their old race bikes.

As far as I am aware pretty much all the companies lower grades contain it but I know for sure that BP's version of Super Unleaded is (at the moment) Ethanol free.