Original stickers

Hey guys. Gonna start out by saying love this place!

But I do have a question to pick the collective brain for.

I noticed several small bubbles under the sticker on my tank, unfortunately can't get pics of it right now. After looking a little closer to,it I swear the stickers are on top of the paint. Not under the clear coat, like a certain somebody said.

Anyone here know for sure if they are under the clearcoat or on top? Think I might get some of the 3M black stickers and replace the one messing up. And if it doesn't match color/sheen wise, I'll do them all.

I was probably that certain somebody. I had bubbles appear on the left side of my tank stripes about a year after I got the bike or maybe less time. I ordered new stripes from the factory. Took a couple of weeks to get them. I peeled the originals off and you could see that they appear to be under the clear coat. If you don’t remove them slowly and carefully the some of the clear coat will come off with the stripes. I would recommend using your warranty, if you have one, to get the tank replaced and then coat the new one with caswell tank expoxy. If not under warranty, I would take the tank off and coat it just the same. My situation got worse and then the right side started bubbling. The ethanol in the gas was making the nylon of the tank expand. If you don’t want to do all of that, you might try stabil. It’s supposed to keep the gas from breaking down and I think some people have has success with that.
If you can get non ethanol gas that will keep this from happening. I now use non ethanol gas most all of the time as I moved to coastal Georgia almost 3 years ago.

Oh, and the new stickers seemed to match closely enough although not under the clear coat. Give the entire tank and new stripe a couple of good waxings.

JohnA wrote:

I was probably that certain somebody. I had bubbles appear on the left side of my tank stripes about a year after I got the bike or maybe less time. I ordered new stripes from the factory. Took a couple of weeks to get them.

WAIT.......You CAN order just the stickers. Oh Hell yeah!!!!!! Wouldn't happen to know the part number, would ya????

This just kinda made my day.

You can look them up in the parts catalog that you can find on the site. But i would be glad to help you. Which side do you need and do you need both pieces, the long stripe and the corner piece?
I’m out having lunch but will be back in a couple of hours and can send the numbers then.

You can find them easily on the AF1racing catalog. They come with a template to help in application.
If not haven’t had the chance to apply them yet. Imagine heat is needed. May try to dry out tank, coat with Caswell and then apply. They’ll likely bubble again if you don’t line the tank

Tanks are nearly $2k....nearly have value of the bike FFS

The left side stickers are# 887962 and 887960
I have one of each of you need those and it’s going to take a long time.
I don’t have any for the right side. You can plug those numbers into the AF1 parts website and they will come up. If you need to email someone there contact [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Ed’s the owner I believe but has always helped me.

The better choice for dealing with the ethanol in the gas is is Startron. It makes the treated fuel less likely to absorb the water in the first place and the water that does get absorbed is affected by some enzyme to make it less of a problem. And it is compatible with Seafoam so you can put both in the gas tank when you set the bike up for the inter.

I'm not a sales rep for Startron; I learned about it here on the Ghetto.

Odder,

My tank stripes did bubble again after first replacement so I knew I had to do something else. I actually found a used tank from a wrecked bike and lined it and replaced it. It probably took my other tank about 6 months to go back to its original shape. I didn’t need heat to replace the stripes but I lived in a warm climate so that probably helped. It wouldn’t be good to try if it’s 32 degrees F.

Thx John, confirms they'll just bubble again. 6 months, yikes. I've been watching for a spare tank to come up...

For the price of a new tank, this would be the extreme option [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


FWIW The long black stripe decals right and left.
STICKER - 887961 - $3.54
STICKER - 887962 - $3.54

Odder,
You might be able to RE-stripe and it will be OK if you can get off ethanol gas.
You might even try to lay the new stripes over the old so you don’t damage the clear coat. I think I did that for a while. In all, I think I ordered 3 sets of stripes working through this issue.

Oh, and I used to poke holes in the bubbles and get it to lay back down