Rear tank mount

Right - thanks to Papa's ingenious insight (off the customXS650 forum) I realized that it would be a lot easier to use the rear top engine mount for the tank - rather than a new fixing point under the frame (cheers papa!).

So I used some 10mm steel and made up some little lugs to weld under the tank. One of which I tapped out M8.



This pic shows a 5mm tab that I later replaced with 10mm...



So with a lot of difficulty I managed to get a tack in on the lugs while the tank was mounted. Unfortunately the tank seemed to be very thin at this point so it blew holes in the steel almost instantly...



Bearing in mind ive already sealed this tank twice... ach! I had it flaming and everything haha. Also meant that the welding was poor, and with the metal being such a large contrast (10mm thick to approx 1mm?!) made it very difficult, so please excuse the poor show!



I got them on eventually but you can see where I chased holes in the thin steel. Think I'd probably flapped it down to less than 1mm in places...



Next I turned up some spacers on the lathe and welded them onto the existing top engine mounts that I had made...





And that's the tank re-mounted! Showing it fixed on here with some M8 bar with lots of nuts and washers on it, going to pop down the bolt shop later and get a 120mm long M8 bolt for it.









I like how discreet and secure it is. The tank now sits a little higher overall. Which is a good thing, as I could see where things like wires had rubbed the inside of the tunnel and scratched the paint off in places. But now it stands well clear.