Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tanks (2012)

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Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

maybe later in the year I'll offer alloy Roadster tank/sidecover sets, but they wont be cheap probably around $1000 a set. highly polished, same shape. cap? maybe alloy Monza type,
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

No doubt, if the response is great enough, Commando Specialties will manufacture the tanks. If you are in the market for a steel Roadster tank, I suggest you email them, letting them know you are a potential customer. I did.
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

madass140 said:
maybe later in the year I'll offer alloy Roadster tank/sidecover sets, but they wont be cheap probably around $1000 a set. highly polished, same shape. cap? maybe alloy Monza type,
Click to expand...

Since I know squat about what it takes to make an alloy tank and side panels forgive this question. How much labor would it save you if the tank and side covers were suitable for paint rather than show polish? Seems to me there is a real market potential. I think there are probably a number of owners who would like the idea of alloy tanks despite not leaving them bright.

Russ
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

not much difference, to paint a perfectly straight alloy tank to most would be sacrilgious. the idea of having an alloy tank is to show it off, although of course there is the benefit over steel or fiberglass tanks,
I guess if you asked some alloy tank makers that you wanted a tank for painting then I'm sure they would oblige, giving you a nice primed alloy tank ready for the top coat, I wouldnt like to think whats under the primer, I could sell you an alloy beer can with enough bondo it would look like a Roadster tank or whatever your heart desires, Ahhhh the 60's
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

Well Id be interested in a Interstate tank. Agree that
an alloy paint grade might be an attractive compromise to a
steel tank.
If a hand beaten top shelf alloy is, or was, in the 1650 USD zone
I suppose that is what you'd have to compare everything else to.
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

alloy tanks are getting cheaper, there is a market for them , so people are making them , there is competition there , at some stage I wont be selling them , I'm better to put my time in to other products, but its good to see people taking up these skills, I'm sure there are heaps of builders having a go at making their own tanks successfully.
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

I've considered buying an alloy tank and painting it a number of times. I think the number of owners who really want the polished alloy vs paint are a minority. Just my opinion, as I have no proof. At a thousand bucks for new with side covers, it isn't out of the question. At 800 bucks, my guess is you would have a waiting list. Again, just an opinion. You're the artist, you decide. But I wouldn't sell them primered, I would sell them bare with a stamping underneath marking them as "paint only" tins. There isn't an original tank out there that won't end up some fairing from primer or bondo when they get repainted. My roadster tank took a lot of layers of primer to properly fill the rusted sides. There's no telling how much metal is really left there. Just fwiw, Ross Thompson offers his ComAtlas tank at just under a thousand dollars and thats with no side panels. I am considering one of those as I like the idea of a 4 gallon tank.

Russ
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

I would prefer the aircraft style filler cap to a Monza cap. The backbone tunnel on a Roadster tank presents a problem for converting any of the stock style Roadster tanks to the aircraft style.
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

Jim, I have fitted the aircraft style (flush mounted) to my Commando tanks Dunstall type and Cafe racer type tanks, fitting them to Roadster tanks would not be a problem , personally that is my preference also.
everyone has their own idea how something should be.
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

My roadster tank is good orig outside not so good inside. Speaking of
aircraft style caps, reminds me that some tanks have bladders. Wonder
if somebody could run up bladder to seal tanks. Yes, I remember that
they are thick and heavy and can be a pain installing. Still one
wonders why somebody hasnt solved the sealing problem yet.
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

for solid steel tanks only of course, my local electroplater Zinc plates quite a few tanks for one of the major bike importers here who refurbishes bikes and sell them locally, the chrome plating is shit but the zinc plating of the insides of steel tanks is a good idea and maybe another option to putting a sealer in there. I'm keen to give them a tank and see the results. just a thought,
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

madass140 said:
Jim, I have fitted the aircraft style (flush mounted) to my Commando tanks Dunstall type and Cafe racer type tanks, fitting them to Roadster tanks would not be a problem , personally that is my preference also.
everyone has their own idea how something should be.
Click to expand...

The aircraft style caps I've looked at have too long a fill tube.
Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tanks (2012)
This cap would not clear the backbone tunnel in a Waldridge Roadster aluminum tank I have. It measures about 16 mm from the top of the backbone tunnel to the underside of the top of the tank. Maybe a stock steel tank has more clearance. According to Newton's spec the depth is 26 mm. Just exactly which aircraft style cover did you use? How much clearance does it need?
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

Zinc is possibly a little too reactive if there is any moisture in the fuel - you could end up with a white fluffy growth in your tank ?!!

1920s tanks were made in steel with a tin lining - and often seem to survive intact.
Tin plating may have to be quite thick to be any good, however....


madass140 said:
for solid steel tanks only of course, my local electroplater Zinc plates quite a few tanks for one of the major bike importers here who refurbishes bikes and sell them locally, the chrome plating is shit but the zinc plating of the insides of steel tanks is a good idea and maybe another option to putting a sealer in there. I'm keen to give them a tank and see the results. just a thought,
Click to expand...
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

P.S. Is anyone considering doing a smaller version of an Interstate tank, that would fit where a roadster one does - say about 4 gals (imperial) worth ??
Perhaps in alloy....
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

i would like a tank like this in ali (or steel for that matter) for Bike #2 project, care to quote a price Don with an aircraft type filler?
Regards Mike
Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tanks (2012)

Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tanks (2012)
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

I think the tank Brent has looks much better.
 
Re: Commando Specialties is considering making Roadster Tank

BIITEOTB !!!! Where is yours from Brent?
Regards Mike
 
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