I thought about buying a new Clarke tank but when I saw it holds 18 litres and my stock tank already holds 13 I thought 200 bucks was a bit much for an extra 5 litres when I can just strap a fuel can on the back if I need to. Then I saw a 20 litre Acerbis tank for sale on Leboncoin.fr for less than half the price of a new Clarke. The seller said it was for a "43F Tenere" but I couldn’t see why Tenere owners would be downsizing… After some quick Internet research I confirmed my suspicions that it’s for a 43F XT, not a Tenere, So I called him and he sent some photos and we discussed the chances of it fitting my 2KF. When he told me he had the 43F seat too and would give me that for 30 Euros I decided to go for it. This is the Acerbis tank with the 43F seat:
And this is it from above with the stock tank:
And this is what it would look like if it still had the decals:
I like the idea of having "Yamaha XT Desert" written on the tank so I’m going to try to find someone who can make up some replica decals.
Sure enough, the tank is intended for a 43F after all - the 43F seat is a more or less flush fit to the back of the tank, though not perfect. However, fitting the 43F seat onto my (2KF) frame is only possible by bodging it, and even then the 43F seat doesn't match up with the 2KF side panels. However, the 2KF seat still fits (and therefore matches up with the side panels just as Mr Yamaha intended) once the Acerbis tank is in place. Here's the bike with everything back on, and also a modified (I had to cut off two of the lugs and will get some more made later) 43F rack instead of the little Yamaha tool bag:
The only downside is that the tank isn't sat on the mounting points underneath, as the grommets the Acerbis came with are smaller than the Yam ones, so I need to find some of those. And the fuel hose is kinked but it doesn't foul the choke, I just need to get a longer hose:
The view from the saddle isn't too shabby actually:
I also tried to find out more on the Internet about my bashplate, without any luck. It was made by a now defunct French company called Motoforms. Then, I spotted this advert in the back of a French adventure motorcycling book I’ve had for years :
Looks like they made all sorts of kit back in the day, and the ad claims their products were used by the factory BMW team, Auriol, Rahier, Loizeau and over half the Paris Dakar entrants. Interestingly, they seem to have made a 3AJ kit for the 1VJ, before Yamaha did!
I'll either advertise the 43F seat on the French XT site (unless anyone here wants it?) or I might try to make a snug fitting seat using it and a 2KF base. We'll see. A question for anyone who can answer - the Acerbis tank has a non-locking vented fuel cap. I've seen pictures where there's a hose poking out of the top. What's the point of that? Why would it need to be vented? The original wasn't. The non-locking fuel cap would be a drawback if you parked the bike in Marrakech while you went off for a lamb sandwich. Is it possible to get a locking one?
Next mod is to fit my footpegs - I've got some of those TW ones mentioned elsewhere on the site. Just need to introduce them to Mr Dremel before they'll fit the XT. Now to see how many kilometres I get out of the full Acerbis... Shame the bastards have just put petrol prices up to a record high...
