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Tank blisters

Started by fraserdog, July 02, 2014, 10:14:38 PM

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fraserdog

I know this has probably been done to death but has it definitely been proved that it's the excess Ethanol in our fuel nowadays that causes tank blisters on Tigers? Does it happen to all colours of Tiger as the reason I ask is that my mate was looking at buying a Tiger and in his search he saw Tigers with blistered tanks and he said the ones he looked at that the blisters had the black tiger stripes (orange,silver,roulette green ones) and the blisters were under the stripes,he wondered if it was something to do with the heat attraction of the black stripes in the heat of sun? Mine is an 02 black bike with silver stripes and touch wood is blister free at the moment (probably talked that up now),has anyone got a black bike with a blistered tank?
1974 Honda CB500/4
1994 Kawasaki Zephyr 1100
2002 "Girly"
1998 Africa Twin RD07a

NortonCharlie

I have 2 01 Roulette green tigers one with blisters one without. The one with blisters had a lot more tanks of fuel run through it.
01 Dew Green 955i Tiger

02 Sprint RS

74 Norton 850 Commando

exchead

no blisters on my orange 05 tank

John Stenhouse

Sorry to rain on your parade but mines black with silver stripes and yes, it has blistered
Black 885i Tiger UK based
Orange 955i Tiger Canadian based
Norton 961S never got it, tired of waiting

Bixxer Bob

Orange 05 no blisters.  Bloody big scratches though  :BangHead
I don't want to achieve immortality through prayer, I want to achieve it through not dying...

Chris Canning

Do you know I've never looked as my tank has been under a bagster tank cover from the day I bought it and when I take the tank off never look to see  :icon_scratch:

pineygroveshop

Quote from: John Stenhouse on July 03, 2014, 12:37:20 AM
Sorry to rain on your parade but mines black with silver stripes and yes, it has blistered

I've got two blisters on one stripe of my 02 Black.
Cheers,
Stephen

motoOzarks

black 06 with multiple blisters on various stripes
Have had:  Girelli Bronco 50, Honda xr70, Yamaha YZ80, Yamaha MX175, Suzuki TS250, Honda XR350, Honda XR500, Honda XL600r, Suzuki DR200, Suzuki GS1100e, Honda Ruckas 49, BMW F650GS
Have:  Yamaha TW200, Suzuki DRZ400s, Triumph Tiger 955i

fraserdog

So my theory of the black bikes is well and truly blown out of the water,why does it happen only under the stripes then? If it is the ethanol vapour leeching through the plastic tank why only the stripes as the paint on the tank can't be porous or the tank would leak,or am I wrong and it happens all over the tank on some bikes?
1974 Honda CB500/4
1994 Kawasaki Zephyr 1100
2002 "Girly"
1998 Africa Twin RD07a

John Stenhouse

It's all over the tank on mine
Black 885i Tiger UK based
Orange 955i Tiger Canadian based
Norton 961S never got it, tired of waiting

Bixxer Bob

Here's one that's completely off the wall;  what if some tanks still contained minute amounts of moisture (not necessarily water, think solvent)  in the plastic when they were initially painted by Triumph and that moisture eventually causes the bubbles.......
I don't want to achieve immortality through prayer, I want to achieve it through not dying...

Mustang

Quote from: fraserdog on July 04, 2014, 08:43:05 AM
So my theory of the black bikes is well and truly blown out of the water,why does it happen only under the stripes then? If it is the ethanol vapour leeching through the plastic tank why only the stripes as the paint on the tank can't be porous or the tank would leak,or am I wrong and it happens all over the tank on some bikes?
I don't think ethanol has anything to do with it

the tanks shrink and grow during temp changes (think sitting in sun) and the decals come unstuck .
I had a TTR 250 yamaha a long time ago ,
plastic tank and bubbled decals
it never had ethanol in it .

Boo

I have recently found blisters on my 06, in blue. Yes it is only on the stripes, it's all to do with them being stick on bits. If you use a pin to prick the blisters then nothing comes out. I think it is more to do with the hot weather than anything sinister!

dftuttle

Mine's an 04 in Silver. Started blistering in the last 6 months.
My theory?
The stripes are vinyl. It doesn't "breath" like the paint does. The tank & the paint are porous & the vinyl is not.
Thus you get blisters.
We either need to deal with lumpy tanks or hand paint our stripes!
I'll just deal.
If common sense was so common, wouldn\'t everyone use it?

Yukon

Quote from: dftuttle on July 05, 2014, 05:07:49 AM
Mine's an 04 in Silver. Started blistering in the last 6 months.
My theory?
The stripes are vinyl. It doesn't "breath" like the paint does. The tank & the paint are porous & the vinyl is not.
Thus you get blisters.
We either need to deal with lumpy tanks or hand paint our stripes!
I'll just deal.

+1, blisters occurred when my tank was about 4 years old.  I would place pin holes in them to reduce them.  If I kept the tank full, they were less prevalent.