Carbon Fibre Falco Tanks

[D-Rider]

This is the final call on the main forum to join those of us who are "in" on the first batch of tanks.

Of course, if you don't join in now, you will almost certainly be able to buy in the future .... but indications are that it will cost you more.

The first batch that will enable the mould to be made and the whole project off the ground will come in at £800 per tank (unless the final mould costs are the hugest of surprises).
There have been some unexpected issues (eg internal drains/breathers in the tank) that have added cost and Richard's margins on this first batch are very thin .... but he wants to hold that price for those committing to the first batch. There will be some compensating cost-efficiencies in making these as a small production run.

Indications are that future tanks will come in at about £950 to £1,000 - so if you want one at £800 and can stump up a £400 deposit, then let me know now and I'll give you access to the sub forum where we are finalising things.
In a couple of days or so, we'll be closing the doors on the first batch.

[morepower]

This is the final call on the main forum to join those of us who are "in" on the first batch of tanks.

Of course, if you don't join in now, you will almost certainly be able to buy in the future .... but indications are that it will cost you more.

The first batch that will enable the mould to be made and the whole project off the ground will come in at £800 per tank (unless the final mould costs are the hugest of surprises).
There have been some unexpected issues (eg internal drains/breathers in the tank) that have added cost and Richard's margins on this first batch are very thin .... but he wants to hold that price for those committing to the first batch. There will be some compensating cost-efficiencies in making these as a small production run.

Indications are that future tanks will come in at about £950 to £1,000 - so if you want one at £800 and can stump up a £400 deposit, then let me know now and I'll give you access to the sub forum where we are finalising things.
In a couple of days or so, we'll be closing the doors on the first batch.

Andy is correct. I am keeping the price at the agreed price for the forum. I have not had a Falco tank in my hands so have had to use my experience from the RS250 tanks and some guestimates. Having had the photos from Nigel there 17 inserts and a pivot tube which need to be made for me and then inserted into the tank as well as having locations and inserts in the mould to allow me to put those into the tank in the correct locations. The RS250 has 9 in total. The breather was missed out of the RS250 tank too as it is one of those bikes which will either only ever see a race track (USA only had the Cup race series version and in Italy there is a 2 stroke race series which I have been supplying a team with tanks) or short summer rides. So I know there has to be two inserts made and machined up to my design as there is no off the shelf solution and the pipe work internally has to be flexible to allow me to attach the pipes just before bonding up the base. I could miss out the drain pipes and breather pipe but think it is a shortcut that is not worth taking with this bike. Personally on most bikes the only omission I would be happy to do is the breather pipe as some run the breather pipe in the way of water from the tyres and I have seen a tank with about 3 litres of water sucked up through that pipe when just breathing through the filler cap is less likely to cause a problem. This is another reason I prefer to add a Mocal breather if possible.

So if anyone is thinking about a tank but wants to wait or needs to save up I have to say the best option is to save up the deposit and ask to be lower down the queue to give you time to save up . If there are 8 or 9 tanks and you are 8 or 9 in the queue then it would be about 3 months before the tank is made. At 10 days per tank as an average timescale you can work out how long you have to save up. Making them as a production run is OK as I can just get the roll of carbon templated up and cut to use the material in the most efficient way. But once you start to do them as a one off order here and there you end up with quite a lot of offcut material that cannot be used for other things and the time it takes get longer. So for every 250 grams of offcut material costs about £70 and that might not be used in anything else as once it has thawed from the freezer it cannot be put back and has to be used straight away. Having a batch of tanks means I will almost always have the next tank to use up those offcuts.

I am going to see the mould maker on Friday/Saturday for him to give a full quote on making the mould. So unless there are any real shocks the only real issues are mine when making the tanks. So as a batch I am happy to keep the quoted price at £800 each. But once I make the first one or two I will have a better idea of what future orders would be and I am guessing the price would be about £950 to £1000.

So if you want one I would suggest you have a good think and save £150 to £200.

Here is a screen I have done for Nooj and these will be retailed at about £100 to £120 each... Which when you look at how much is in a fuel tank and the fittings shows the tank is actually a bargain.....lol

[D-Rider]

Just a quick update for the wider forum.

The mould for the tank is now made and is being cured.
All indications are that the first carbon tank should be under way next week.

It has been a long slow day...... The mould has had its first 12 hours in the oven to post cure the resin. This allows all of the styrene in the resin to cook out of the mould. It needs another 12 hours before I can even look at doing anything else now. Then the release agents have to be applied and cured onto the surface. After using wipe on chemical release agents for a couple of years I have gone to one which needs to have a little heat to help it cure as I have found the material I now use can be quite harsh on release agents in a new mould. Once sealed the normal release I use is fine to put on top of the sealer and gives a good clean finish after a couple of parts have been made (it leaves a little release agent residue as Nooj can testify to seeing on some of his screens). More updates over the next couple of days... Sadly it will not look any different or be an exciting read for a while..... But next week the first one will be in the process of being made.








The tank base mould..

[falcomunky]

So amazing watching the progress of these mate.
Just wish I had the money! lol

[D-Rider]

The first one is now out of the mould.
The top and bottom have been dropped together but not fitted and bonded.

Next job is to do a trial fit on a Falco ..... then for finishing and lacquering .....

They look to be easily under 1.5Kg (standard shell is 4.8Kg) and although weight saving was not the real aim, it's all good.
It'll be interesting to see how the capacity changes too - Rich expects about 4 litres more.

They've been a lot more work than Rich expected and he reckons that future builds will have to be something like £1,200 to £1,500 per tank so those of us that committed to the first batch to get things under way got a bargain.


Here are some pics of the first good one out of the mould:

[DavShill]

Lovely !!!

[D-Rider]

Some better pics from Rich:

[wayno]

Ooooooh love them!!!!

[GregD-UK]

Hi all,

How many litres in these pieces of art?

[fatboy]

Good god they look fine !
I need to rob a bank or two,how good would a c.f. tank and fairing look ?!

[Dalemac]

A CF tank, white/red fairings and white/gold bellypan with gold wheels would look mint i think!

[D-Rider]

Hi all,

How many litres in these pieces of art?

.... as I said a few posts back .....

The first one is now out of the mould.
The top and bottom have been dropped together but not fitted and bonded.

Next job is to do a trial fit on a Falco ..... then for finishing and lacquering .....

They look to be easily under 1.5Kg (standard shell is 4.8Kg) and although weight saving was not the real aim, it's all good.
It'll be interesting to see how the capacity changes too - Rich expects about 4 litres more.

They've been a lot more work than Rich expected and he reckons that future builds will have to be something like £1,200 to £1,500 per tank so those of us that committed to the first batch to get things under way got a bargain.

So, as yet we don't know (we don't yet have a tank wit top and bottom bonded together) but we're expecting about 4 litres increase,

[GregD-UK]

Hi all,

So, 24 litres then

[Viking]

Well, that's decided it. I'm going to replace all my bodywork with CF pieces.

Can't have mismatched bodywork now...

[Firestarter]

I'm assuming the extra capacity is spread across the whole tank, i.e. we won't get an extra 4 litres (tbc) in reserve, but will likely get a bit extra in reserve and the rest across the rest of the tank?