Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Triumph bulletin board Fuel tanks from India?

A Ebay seller in India has repop Triumph Fuel tanks for sale-- anybody bought one? anything good to say? A inexpensive repop tank could be a good option for a rider if they fit and the finish holds up. They just listed a Aubergine/White 1967 T120 style.

Stick to the known good sellers but do not expect perfection and best to get them in the raw steel so the paintwork does not suffer from the inevitable repairs and adjustments

Royal Choppers and Pummy8081 both get good reviews.

I noticed they are reproducing the 63-65 Bonnie/tr6 tanks now ( it's about time) Been thinking about this since either ethanol or sea foam reacted with the redcoat on my tr6. Hard to find those with the screw holes for the kneegrip brackets and the rear rubber mount loop

Even from sellers with decent feedback, it still seems to be a crap shoot. 2 locals here bought Indian tanks from a “reputable” seller and got good results for the money. I bought one from the same seller and it wasn’t that great. It has a filler piece goobered on at the back. The seller said it was supposed to be that way and that piece is shown in the photos. Ok…. if it’s supposed to be there, then why didn’t it come with a matching one goobered on the other side. The front mounts are way too far apart and need to be cut and re-welded. Quite different from the other two, so it appears the seller got it from a different source. Shipping takes more than a month, so no opportunity to leave feedback. In other words I don’t think you can always trust their feedback scores.
It’s painted inside with the same primer they used on the outside which will need to be removed prior to welding. It needs a thin layer of fairing compound to smooth out the metalwork, but that not a showstopper.

Anyway…. you may or may not get something that is worth the money. Personally I would try avoiding them unless it’s a last resort, but no doubt others have had success.


Then there is this… it was for sale on Craigslist. I’m guessing it’s an Indian tank…. Probably looked ok when new. The seller mentioned the rust, but didn’t mention the funny line across the top of the tank.

AD26C80D-EC49-49AC-AB10-2AB2FE67EA25 by First Last, on Flickr

9E765557-9E83-4D76-B7C8-BDD8342A4537 by First Last, on Flickr

Indian made tanks can be very good or very bad. There seems to be a lot of crossover on Ebay between sellers - many use the same photos, and the tanks I bought were from US.VIDHI on Ebay, but arrived in Royal Choppers packaging (and both were stamped 'Shahid' underneath) I found the sellers very peasant to deal with and the postage was amazingly quick (less than 3 weeks for specially made tanks). They also put a value of $50 on the customs label, so I didn't have to pay any import taxes. The tanks were good, but I did have to get some welding done to make one of them fit (alloy tanks)

I’ve got two, one a T140 tank, and one a metal replacement for my 68 Spitfire tank, both from Royal Choppers. Quality and fit fine on both, paint looks ok too. Just what I needed for two everyday rider tanks.

Problems? The flip up cap on the Spitfire tank was cheap and broke, I put another on it off an A65 tank I had sitting around, problem solved.

The cap on the T140 tank filler was slightly larger than stock and needed some massaging with pliers so the cap it came with would go on. Now it’s fine but a stock cap is still too small to fit.

Bottom line, I’ll not hesitate to buy another one from Royal Choppers. They aren’t perfect, or show quality, but they don’t leak, look good especially for a daily rider, and each cost circa $350, 1/2 or 1/3 what a paint job alone would cost on a good OEM tank if you can find one, and unlike the originals I had, they didn’t have rust or fiberglass issues that would take days or $$ to fix. .

I’ve never had the problems others talk about with leaks, mislocated mounts, etc—I’m just lucky I guess.

I just hope they have the correct placed badge holes for the Harmonica badges and not the later badges. I took a later Tr6 4 gal tank and had the badge, knee grip rubber and rack holes added plus some dents sorted out and the tank cap insert soldered for £100 about 6 years ago..

I've been to India on short-term mission work eight times from '93 to '17, and twice on business. Wonderful folks, but an entirely different culture than USA (or what I have experienced in Europe). Tiny shops lit with one small bulb and someone in there working at 1 am, fruit vendors with wooden carts, an Abbacus for math, talking on a cell phone. Huge factories springing up on roads that shouldn't be used by tiny villages. Royal Enfield had serious QC issues until recently. I suspect they hired Japanese or Koreans to come in and correct that, as recent reports are much better.

I would personally repair a dented or rusted tank first.

This has come up before. i have had a few tanks from india and they have all been good. Not exactly as original but they do the job. I recommend getting raw steel one, you can see what you are getting and generally cheaper.
https://www.britbike.com/forums/ubb...a/Search/true/re-indian-tanks#Post680867

That's a supreme understatement!!! Over the past several years, this site has had countless threads asking about tanks from India, and they all get posted as if it's never.....ever, been asked before

I honestly had no idea until I stumbled across this YouTube video last month;



Pretty amazing really, their "mass production" techniques. I suppose this has been posted before too. Oh well...-BA

I wish I had a link to that India shop fellow doing the Pin Striping. It’s incredible how fast, and perfect the results are, all done twirling the tank in the air, and mugging the camera. Anyone stil have that video?
Anyhow, the Emgo Triumph tank I have on my TR6C is a good solid tank, BUT: the center trim piece needs to also be replaced, as the OEM may not fit. The tank is ever-so-slightly larger, and on a solid bars fork, there is only an RCH of space fork to tank in full turn. I am told no issue with the rubber mount bars. I’d do it again.

Like this one?

here another one

I've been searching for the "search" button--can't find it-- I'm a premium member-- when I find it I will try to use it, but this question I asked got me some good advice so thanks to all! Maybe someday I will learn how to post a picture.

Bob when you're signed in......look under your name in the top right corner of your screen (?). There's a little magnifying glass icon......that's one way to find the search option.

well.......since i got a few bucks back from Uncle Sambo tax refund and after a few beers to loosen my brain and wallet just 'splurged' on a Royal Choppers tank for my 68 A65 did some 'make offer' haggling and got it for $200 with free shipping i will write report when it gets here......

Alnus!! Thank You for finding that fun video! I don’t know if I’m the only one, but that is quite entertaining and fun to see! Sending it on also.

Hey Bob,…….. should be set up for you, so if this process doesn’t show on your screen, you may have to ask Morgan to check the system? 1)See the use full editor at the bottom of the window? 2)It should give you a larger window with the Attachments option available….. Then tap the attachments, and select the place you want to get the photo from,…. In my case it’s usually photo Library on the device I’m using at the time. You select a photo and tap use, doing that for each photo, the limit is 5. You will only see they are attached when you go back to the post and finish. You will see: Attachment Manager (Total Files: 5), as an example here. I think there is still a requirement that the photo NOT be apple PNG, so a JPEG photo is what you want. (While doing this post, as I saved iPad screen shots in PNG, I had to convert them to JPEG) Hope you get it working, is worth the fuss at first.

out of curiosity i contacted Royal Choppers and the guy told me their tanks are hand striped as well.

I have used epoxy on the rust pin holes at the bottom where the fuel lines hook up. Seems to be the #1 spot for rust to start as this is the lowest part of the tank where moisture sits.

I thought about putting the liner inside but have heard that's another can of worms when it starts to break down. My next thought would be cutting the tank in half long ways and repairing (weld)/cleaning from the inside. Has anyone here split tank in half and done this?

I wish I could find that video that was circulating years ago about the India motorcycle tank industry.

Absolutely nothing like the RE videos. The tanks were being made outside in what looked like alleyways. Single guy with some hand tools and a well worn wooden block. When I was having a 1967 B44R tank copied the guy I was communicating with was only the “broker”……he had several others actually making the tanks.

I had good results and that tank is still in service.

I couldn’t have been the only one left on here that saw the video…..I’m 99.9% sure it was posted to this site?

PS...About adding a picture on this site. Does one have to be a "paying member" to have the attachment file option? If so, how does that help others? 30 year old technology here still as if the www.com is only 5 years old. I don't understand. So we are limited to help others easily here if not willing to pay for a membership? One would think with all the free social media videos, filters, dog faces and infant faces speaking this group of learning from each other could have something more modern. It's a shame.

I think it's called monetising

So for the server, the maintenance, the bandwidth etc for this site ... Who do YOU think should pay for it all?

Lannis