E series Fuel Tanks

[Chuck78]

I'm quite surprised that neither IMS nor Clarke Mfg offer an E-Series tank, for being a 6-year model run '89-'94.

I presume IMS & / or Clarke once did offer an E-Series KDX200 tank? If so, perhaps there might be a slight chance that they still have the molds to produce them if we're lucky !

[Chuck78]

I'm quite surprised that neither IMS nor Clarke Mfg offer an E-Series tank, for being a 6-year model run '89-'94.

I presume IMS & / or Clarke once did offer an E-Series KDX200 tank? If so, perhaps there might be a slight chance that they still have the molds to produce them if we're lucky !

[SpruceItUp]

I got a response from IMS about a standard size OEM green tank. Here's the response:

"Hello ***,

Unfortunately the cost of the mold is so expensive and can take 5-6 months to make so that's why we don't do custom fuel tanks. Also we have discontinued the green color plastic as we don't sell enough of that color and the plastic would go bad by the time we would go through it all. "

I might ask about just doing another color like black or something,
but it seems they don't have the molds for the E series if I understand correctly.
I asked about how many they would have to manufacture to make it reasonable for them, but they didn't answer that question. I might email them back, is there anything you all would like me to include?

[SpruceItUp]

On another note, it might be worth emailing Clarke tanks. Their catalog includes bikes from the same timeframe (kx250,125,500) but not the E series KDX, just the air cooled KDX's and the H series bikes.

[Julien D]

The only solution I know of is to run a KX500 seat and tank combo. That gets you some aftermarket options. Nothing very attractive, though.

[Chuck78]

OLM makes tanks for the E-Series, FYI. I believe just in translucent and black, however.

They are in Argentina, and the website is in Spanish, so you must use your web browser's translate option. Currency is not in US Dollars either, this must be converted from Argentine currency to your currency.
Today, 280,296.00 Argentine Pesos = $262.00 USD. That's likely to begin falling against US favor due to the current direction of the economy/markets, so buy one now... 9 translucent in stock! There's a YouTube review of this tank linked on KDX Rider somewhere.

http://olmtanks.com/product/kawasaki-kdx-200/

Are these black & translucent OLM tanks from Argentina going to be out of the question?
You might want to check with Gilimoto in Brazil as well. Gilimoto make purple H-Series tanks as well as making plastic tanks for the 1977-1984 Suzuki PE 175/250/400 2-strokes, which to my knowledge is the only source for those, with a lot of happy users. I have a new purple Gilimoto tank.
I can't speak for OLM.

OLM unfortunately does not offer green at all, but they do offer tanks in the stock size.


Major bummer that IMS is no longer going to offer green tanks, and that they don't have a mold still for the E-Series if they ever did, and aren't willing to go through the expensive process of making one.

Does anyone know if IMS ever did make one for the E-Series? Just curious about that, they perhaps destroyed the molds because they didn't sell enough of those tanks? Or they just never made one to begin with.

The KX500 tank and shrouds plus seat option maybe the only good one, but I believe you have to run the KX500 seat for this, so finding a seat pan might be the biggest difficulty.

You can get oversized tanks for the KX500 including a desert tank that has built-in shrouds and holds extra fuel in the shroud area. The only issues with that come down to the graphics. Fuel tanks with vinyl decals applied over them usually end up with the decals bubbling due to the off-gassing of the gasoline penetrating through the plastic and releasing vapors.

Some of the Suzuki PE graphics that adorn the side of the tanks come as replacements with perforations through the vinyl help off-gassing to avoid bubbling if you were to run the KX500 tank shrouds combo.

Lastly, you would have to get custom KDX graphics made for going either route unless the smaller KDX graphics suit you, full coverage graphics will require custom order if you wanted to say KDX on the KX500 shrouds.