Oil tank from India, good idea?

[SixFingerJack]

Hi Chaps,
I'm needing an oil tank for my '48 rigid, after discovering that the one that came with the bike is wrong in many ways.
The most significant being that it's off some other bike, maybe another BSA, maybe a C12, but most definitely not this bike.
My question is, are the repro oil tanks from India any good?
Has any of you bought one, was it acceptable quality?
The prices on ebay are quite reasonable, and looking at the pictures, they LOOK ok, so is it worth a punt?
Cheers for any input.

[scotty]

No oil tank experience but the petrol tank I got from India was fine

No leaks to report after +9yrs
S

[Greybeard]

I had to buy another oil tank for my '55 Plunger because the original tank had a small leak from somewhere. I still have the old tank. If the oil tank you need is the same as my machine and you can deal with a slight leak, you can have this one FOC. I'm in the UK Midlands.

[Rex]

Think I'd rather have a BSA one with a slight leak but guaranteed to fit than take a chance on an Indian one that may be neither leak-proof or fit. My experiences with Taiwan/Chinese/Indian pattern parts isn't good..

[duTch]

 I think rigid tanks *may* be a bit fatter fore/aft than Plunger tanks by about 1"....I may be wrong though

[BSA_54A10]

Rhubarb Rhubarb makes excellent tanks, as does his brother Muhammad Muhammad while his brother Aarav Aarav is a bit dubious on Mondays where as Vivaan Vivaan is usually good except for Fridays cause he slacks off to go racing. Reyansh has been know to do good work but only if it is prepaid while I would not put one of Sai's tanks on my worst enemies bikes.
the brothers Ayaan & Madhavaditya do excellent work but take forever while  Raahithya is really quick but his look like he makes them with his eyes closed.
I have always liked Chetan's work but he retails through Akshay & Bodhi but they put too much mark up on his work so the value is not good.
Nakul usually has the cheapest ones, he gets them from the identical twins Karan & Karthik who do good work but they buy their steel from Jagan so some times they are made from can scrap sourced from Sabhya's Lental soup cannery so they can be quite thin.

[Joolstacho]

Oh... What are we to make of that? 

[muskrat]

Oh... What are we to make of that? 

Pay your $, take your chances.
India is not my favourite source of parts.
Luv it Trev.
Cheers

[bsa-bill]

Oh... What are we to make of that?

What I make of it is a forum member providing good information for the rest of us, just what this forum is all about.
The names are not known to me but I'm sure with a bit of effort I could find out more or I could just ask (here)

[BSA_54A10]

Oh... What are we to make of that? 

India, Australia, England, America, China, Hong Kong, Russia, Etc etc etc.
It is all the same.
PEOPLE who reside there make things.
Some are good and some are junk and the country of origin has nothing to do with the quality of the products that come out of it.
They are made by PEOPLE not a race.
No one asks "are Pommie pistons any good" or "will Yankee tanks fit" yet we seem happy to consider there is only one quality standard coming out of the country that as of last year was the biggest producer of motorcycles in the world just because they have darker skin & look a little different.

Hero alone made over 7,000,000 motorcycles last year and total motorcycle sales both local & export ( excludes motor scooters ) for last year was over 20,000,000.
And you want to know if they can make an oil tank.

[bikerbob]

I can speak from experience of petrol tanks made in India, I have bought 2 for my A65. The first one was quite badly made and was covered inside with very thick flaking rust and the pear shaped tank badges would not fit, I had ordered through a UK dealer so was able to obtain a complete refund. The second one was much better but still needed some work to get it to fit properly, the tank fitted OK on the bike but the petrol cap did not fit it was a screw on cap, some minor filing got it to fit the center fixing hole was slightly out of alignment and the fitting would not go in but with some work I got it to fit but had to realign the chrome strips, the holes for the knee pad brackets were wrong so had to modify the existing brackets, finally the petrol tap bosses were in the wrong place so had to make up new fuel lines. These jobs were not major problems but would have been so much easier to fix at the manufacturing stage before it was chromed and painted, I did email the supplier and made them aware of these issues explaing that if the manufacturer had the tank fittings to hand when they made the tanks then none of these problems would occur but I never recieved a reply. One final thing the tank was bought painted and it is a very good paint  job but sadly they did not blank off the petrol filler hole so I ended up with quite a lot of paint inside the tank which took a bit of time to remove with paint stripper and numerous rinses.

[Rex]

Hero alone made over 7,000,000 motorcycles last year and total motorcycle sales both local & export ( excludes motor scooters ) for last year was over 20,000,000.
And you want to know if they can make an oil tank.

Industrial output has nothing to do with back street shade tree mechanics knocking tinware out for Westerners with a liking for obsolete machinery though. I don't see any connection with "darker skin colour"?

[SixFingerJack]

Well, that got out of hand pretty quickly, I only wanted an opinion or two.......
Anyway, Greybeard, thanks for the kind offer, your oil tank looks like it may well fit. Would you be willing to post it to me at my cost?

[coater87]

 I have seen and ordered tin ware from over that way.

 They can knock tin, and thats for sure. Its getting them to knock it in the right directions that throws them off.

 I think if someone could hire about 4 of these guys, supply them with a correct shape to go by, the correct taps and caps to use and good material to start with- you have an exact reproduction.

 Then of course, I gladly pay more with less worry for a tank that is correctly shaped and does not leak. They can keep their paint and chrome, I live in the US and will have my own chrome done.

 Fenders, etc. etc. Its like the workers do not have a decent pattern to follow or they are using bucks that are from different brand motorcycle- close to the same but not quite the same.

 Lee

 

[trevinoz]

Jack, as Dutch said, the rigid tank is different to the plunger tank.
The plunger tank should fit, though.