WTB Clarke/IMS for GG EC300 08'

[wiking]

Originally Posted by Dingo

Best thing for me to do is get you the Part # off my IMS.

I will post it as soon as I can.

Hi Dingo
Did you get the part number? I am still looking for a larger tank. Jeff Kaylor from Hall's Cycles wrote the following to me today:
"Neither the Clarke nor the IMS fit the 2008 models. You can make them work, but you must modify some items like the seat".

How much modification did you make to fit your IMS to your 2007?

Brgds, Jakob

[RONALD BRUNDIGE]

We Have Older Tanks On All Of Our 07 And Now 09 Bikes. I Did No Mods. To Make Them Work It Takes A Good Smack From The Back Of The Seat To Make It Bolt Down But Zero Mods Needed. The Only Problem Is You See The Top Of The Rad Shroud Bolt. We Just Run A Strip Of Black Duct Tape Down The Side It Covers The Bolt Hole And Looks Mint. Hope This Helps. PS THAT IS THE CLARKE TANK ANYWAYS NOT SURE ON THE IMS

[wiking]

Originally Posted by RONALD BRUNDIGE

We Have Older Tanks On All Of Our 07 And Now 09 Bikes. I Did No Mods. To Make Them Work It Takes A Good Smack From The Back Of The Seat To Make It Bolt Down But Zero Mods Needed. The Only Problem Is You See The Top Of The Rad Shroud Bolt. We Just Run A Strip Of Black Duct Tape Down The Side It Covers The Bolt Hole And Looks Mint. Hope This Helps. PS THAT IS THE CLARKE TANK ANYWAYS NOT SURE ON THE IMS

Thanks Ronald. Could you post a picture of how it looks and especially the "problem" with the top rad shroud bolt. If you can not post it, please send it to my email kibsgaardjakob@gmail.com if possible.

Thanks in advance. Jakob

[Berkyboy]

----please note I will clean up this post later to make it easier to understand---


Mark and I just spent an evening researching the fitment of both the IMS and Clarke tanks on 07 and newer GasGas 2-strokes. Whle both tanks can be made to work neither tank is a perfect fit. The problem with both tanks is where the back of the tank mates with the seat base.

The IMS tank, can be made to work but the height and width of the tank, where it meets up with the seatbase, is to tall and wide and won't allow the seats bases's mounting foot to "lock" under the "lateral bar" of the frame located just in front of the air box.

Any attempt to use the IMS tank compromises the seatbases mounting foot as it was designed to work, which was to hold onto the frame, as the foot can only hold onto the tank because the height and width of the back of the tank forces the seat to ride about 1 and 1/2 inches to high.

The Clarke tank takes the least amount of modifications to work properly and only takes the use of a heat gun. This modification allows the seat bases mounting foot to work as designed.

The heat gun is used to modify the width of the seat base where it matches up to the width of the back of the Clarke tank. The height of the back of the Clarke tank is OK only the width is about 1 inch to wide.

Some of you have made the Clarke tank work by forcing it on with brute force. While this works it compromises how easy it is to put the seat back on each time you remove the seat to clean your air filter. The following modification makes it easier to remount the seat when cleaning the airfilter.

To do this modification you need to locate where the seat base is to narrow where it meets the back of the tank. We recommend taking the seat cover and seat foam off of the seat base as it is easier to locate the two points that need to be reshaped.

After locating these two points we used the heat gun to soften these points that when we put the seat base on the bike it "bulged" to conform to the proper shape. All we had to do was let the seat base cool for about 5 minutes. Once the seat base cooled we reassembeld the seat.

We made a call to Clarke about the modification they need to make to the back of the their tank and they are working on modifying their tank to match better with the seatbase.

[Skidad]

Steve......what about the new 2 stroke IMS tank you guys have in your possession at the moment? How is the fitment looking on that? I would prefer to wait for a tank that's designed to fit the 07-09 bikes if that's gonna happen this year. Can or will you post a picture of the new IMS tank for us please?

[Berkyboy]

Skidad -- as I said before we've been working with IMS (and Clarke) on trying to make their existing tank work. My understanding is the IMS design dates back around '03 and their tank has undergone no changes since.

The rear part of the IMS tank, where it should nestle perfect with the seat pan, is about 1 and 1/2 inches to tall and 1 inch to wide. Remeber this design was meant to work with the older seat base from before 2007.

This forces the 2007 and newer seat base mounting foot to ride to high, where it would normally "hold" onto the frame lateral support tubing. The problem is if you use the IMS tank the seat base mounting foot, because it is now 1 and 1/2 inches higher because the seat is riding higher up on the tank, now "grabs" unto the next available surface which is the bottom of the tank. Not the best mounting surface as the only thing holding the tank in place at the back of the tank is a rubber band.

If you look at the picture Dingo posted of his 08 with the IMS tank in the 2nd response in this thread you can see what I'm talking about because when you look at the point right above the shock where the seat base, tank and shroud come together you can see daylight from the other side of the bike as the seatbase is riding about and 1 and 1/2 to high.

IMS sent us a new tank and we went to work on trying to determine how they could make it fit better. We ended up cutting the tank apart so that it would allow the seat pan to fit as it was desgined where the mounting foot would slip under the frame lateral support tubing.

I'll post some pictures later showing this and you'll be suprised at how much tank would have to be removed to allow the proper seatbase mounting. We passed this information onto IMS and they indicated that they would have to have a fairly large tank order before they would make new tanks.

We then went to work on seeing what had to be done with the Clark tank to make it work better. As Ron said the seat only needs a "good smack" to make the seat fit and that is a true statement as that force used to drive the seat base on is forcing the seat base to conform to the Clarke tank which is about 1 inch too wide at the back.

Over time this most likely works fine as the tank most reshapes the plastic of the seat base but I for one don't like to force anything together. By heating the seat base up where it comes in contact with the tank with a heat gun before "smacking" it into place all we are doing is reshaping that part of the seat as when it cools it now conforms perfectly to the tank.

I guess my point is that the IMS tank does work but the mounting foot of the seatbase does not grab the frame any more and either holds onto the bottom of the tank or gets pushed out of the way resulting in the seatbase not having a solid surface to hold onto. If you can live with this than no harm done.

If your going to order a new tank I would suggest going with the Clarke one and reshape the seat base with a heat gun to give a better mounting surface for the seat base foot.

One note the new Clarke FSR tank (for 07 and newer GasGas four-strokes) has the narrower tank at the rear as it was designed to nestle in with the new FSR seat base which is identicle to the EC seat base. We notified Clarke of this and they are already looking into making that adjustment to their EC mold and if all goes well the problem could be remedied in the near future.

Skidad I hope this explanation make sense.

One other note the capacity of the IMS tank has to be greater than the Clark tank when you compare the two tanks side by side. Not sure of the actual capacities (not the claimed ones either.) Maybe some else has measured them.

[Skidad]

Steve thanks for the detailed explanation and taking the time to share it with us. I know you guys are very busy and going allot of different directions.

Personally I would like to see the IMS tank as I thing the Clarke is kind of a fugly design. IMS makes a nice tank.

I really wonder what tanks are in the Gas Gas Hard Parts catalog. Anyway to find that out? Gas Gas Spain IMO should be funding this whole deal and the needed orders to meet the minimum requirements. It's just part of supporting your product. A really well designed and fitting oversized tank is far more important then a bunch of anodized bling.

Now, how can we get that AWD Christini Gas Gas to the NETRA show and awards banquet by Saturday?........

[bens25au]

I prefer the IMS tank also. Pity they dont seem as keen as Clarke to update for us.

[wiking]

Yes - thanks to Steve for a detailed description. You can sign med up for any of the two tanks as soon they have done the molding needed to fit 2007/2008 EC. Please keep us posted in this thread as soon as they are avaible.

[bens25au]

Any news/ updates ?