Trans America Trail - 2008

Review – IMS 4.9 gallon (US) gas tank.

• Bought this on eBay before the trip and hoped it would fit! Most of the accessories for the port-96 DR650 will fit but I was still a bit worried. Turned out of though. Simple fitting; take off old tank, remove plastic ‘gap fillers’ from the frame, but on IMS.
• The colour and ‘644’ are non-standard; the previous owner added these and painted the tank black regretaably. But functionally it was fine. Buying from new I would go for the clear or natural colour as you can see the level of the gas. I would then mark the level of each gallon using a permanent marker or scoring the tank slightly. It’s a real good idea to know how many gallons you have left on the trail.
• The fuel petcock that came with the tank looked cheap but worked fine. I sealed it properly using a petrol resistant gasket maker before I put any gas in the tank and had no problems. I left BOTH the standard o-ring and the standard gasket in place. There’s a lot of talk of problems with the petcock on ADVrider but I had no problems.
• It doesn’t feel akward at all, the fit and ergos are good. However I hadn’t ridden the bike with the stocker so I’m guessing here.