What have I got here?

[hools100RS]

Hi everyone. My first post for a few years.......still airhead crazy! I'm in the midst of a dilemma! I purchased a heap of airhead parts earlier in the year and in the cache of bits was a HUGE fuel tank .....38-40 litres capacity (est). http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u37 ... 6fwsw5.jpg It's German, has two petcock spigots and was made in Sept '79. Painted nylon I think, needs a repaint though. It's long and the rear of the tank would envelop the front section of my RS seat if I was to fit it. I'd reckon it'd be a PITA to fit and remove to get access to the under seat storage. I've been told that it is a Hella tank, but nothing has turned up on the web to support this. Whad'ya think it might be? Any ideas out there? Cheers, hools.

[SteveD]

photobucket is a pain in the ar$e. Can't see the tank.

[barryh]

The sooner photobucket goes under the better.

[Rob]

I use Imgur to host my photos these days.
Photobucket may as well be offline for all the good it does these days.

Can't wait to see the tank!

[hools100RS]

Barry, Rob and Steve. G'day! I posted my pics on Imgur as per Robs suggestion.
Mounting points
Next to a 65LS tank for comparison
Made in the Fatherland!!!!



The tank appears sound other than crappy paint. Clean inside, cap and mounting looks a bit wonky and may need attention. I daresay I'll strip it and repaint, though I think I'd need to apply some sort of bonding agent to get paint to stick. It doesn't strike me as particularly attractive, but would look better on bike with seat. Seen one like it?

[SteveD]

Hein Gericke.

[hools100RS]

That's awesome Steve! One question answered! The other is, what do I do with the bloody thing? God...is it ugly!!! There's just no getting around it! From the couple of pics you've sent, I reckon you'd need to be on the juice to find it appealing!!! Googling Heingericke, they appear to be a huge German parts/accessory outfit that have obviously been around for a while! Nice detective work!!!

[Rob]

Check out "Hein Gericke for sale". You may be in for a pleasant surprise.

The joke is on me! I must have been flashing back to the Eighties.

But here is a nice thread on large tanks on Adv: http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/l ... ry.575063/

If you do decide to sell it:
1) don't paint it (duh)
2 advertise on sidecar forums. They need to carry all the fuel they can.

[SteveD]

It might be ugly, but someones mothers child will likely pay you plenty of petrol money for it!

[hools100RS]

Hi Rob and Steve. Thanks for the replies. You know, I might have been a little hasty with the initial 'butt ugly' appraisal, 'cause its hard to visualise how it could look......
With a little further digging, I turned up this......."This tank was on my 1984 BMW R100RS Limited Edition and hence the pearl white paint. The bike has very low mileage and the tank was empty most of its life. It is being sold with gas cap and two BMW petcocks as shown in photos. It has never been damaged and the paint is much nicer than the photos indicate. This Hein Gericke tank was available for /5 /6 and /7 motorcycles. It holds 36 liters. It was designed to fit BMW's with stock seats and fairings without any modifications. It installs easily and sits over the seat. It was manufactured by Hella Light Company in West Germany. It is the only non-metal tank to pass the rigid German Police Code (TUV). It is made of Cyclovac unbreakable plastic". My friends guess that it was a Hella tank, may have been a good one!!

It is pretty boxy, but I'm seeing a few pics that has the tank looking OK......

Hmmmmm!!?