- Joined
- Oct 15, 2008
- Messages
- 9,030
- Reaction score
- 2,195
- Location
- Out of Africa
- Bike
- KTM 950 Adventure S
Ja, well, this was a new one to me .....................
I moved over here, the UK, a few years back and brought my trusted steed with me. Unfortunately, I never ride the thing and it just sits in it's house doing nothing.
Nothing besides breaking, that is. It still does that, just like back home, and needs constant fixing.
But the last few time I've had the tanks off, I can't get them back on. Being the bright spark I am, I thought it was the frame shrinking in the cold and figured I'd just do maintenance in the summer.
Twiddling my thumbs, I decided to Google it and found out it's the fuel. The shitty fuel they have here has ethanol in it. Ethanol absorbs water from the air and, in turn, the tanks absorb water from the ethanol. Yep, I kid you not ................ the tanks grow bigger. And they don't fit back on the bike without binding with the side covers. Hell of a job getting the screws back in.
SOooooo, the question is ................ if I remove the fuel when not using the bike for long periods, will the tanks shrink again? Or, If I keep the tanks full, not allowing water vapour in, will it help? Don't even mention the goo in the carbs, that was another nightmare fix, the day before going to Scotland.
But, yeah, can I shrink these tanks?
I moved over here, the UK, a few years back and brought my trusted steed with me. Unfortunately, I never ride the thing and it just sits in it's house doing nothing.
Nothing besides breaking, that is. It still does that, just like back home, and needs constant fixing.
But the last few time I've had the tanks off, I can't get them back on. Being the bright spark I am, I thought it was the frame shrinking in the cold and figured I'd just do maintenance in the summer.
Twiddling my thumbs, I decided to Google it and found out it's the fuel. The shitty fuel they have here has ethanol in it. Ethanol absorbs water from the air and, in turn, the tanks absorb water from the ethanol. Yep, I kid you not ................ the tanks grow bigger. And they don't fit back on the bike without binding with the side covers. Hell of a job getting the screws back in.
SOooooo, the question is ................ if I remove the fuel when not using the bike for long periods, will the tanks shrink again? Or, If I keep the tanks full, not allowing water vapour in, will it help? Don't even mention the goo in the carbs, that was another nightmare fix, the day before going to Scotland.
But, yeah, can I shrink these tanks?
