Interceptor fuel tank alternatives?

Anyone have experience trying a different gas tank on an Interceptor? I have an 84 VFR 500 and the gas tank is pretty shot. Covered in dents and the gas cap won’t go in correctly. My goal with the bike is to strip it as naked as I can and go for a kind of vintage cafe racer/brat something like that.

I was thinking about buying a more universal tank and trying to make it work on this bike. Most all of the tanks are made to mount in more of the cruiser style bikes, so I was wondering if anyone here has put any other kind of tank on one of these bikes and if so what kinds of tanks would take the least fabrication/alteration to make work on the bike. Thanks!

 

Welcome King.....I haven't seen such a modification but there are plenty of VERY knowledgeable people here.......

 

Apparently my 84 has a tank from an 86 as is. Here’s a picture of the bike.

 

I see you've received some feedback already over on VFRD. There is nothing out there that is going to bolt on except for a VF500F tank. The biggest obstacle is how the bottom of fuel tanks are contoured to match the airbox lid.

As stated already, the 84-85 tanks have different petcocks than the 86, so keep that in mind when looking for one, as they are not interchangeable.

Good luck.

 

I’m not terrified of having to do a little work to make a tank work.

One thought (maybe controversial) was to swap out the stock airbox for pod filters to go with the cafe aesthetic a bit and to free up some space under the tank.

Without the airbox there I would think it would be possible to make SOMETHING fit. Maybe a tank that is slightly shorter front to back could be adapted via some kind of linkage plate? I don’t have a ton of experience with bikes.

 

I don't know about others here on the site but I would stick to the stock airbox. I have had nothing but issues with pods on all my bikes. The issue is the CV carbs from what I understand. The only bike I have that works great with pods is my modified CBX but those carbs were heavily worked over by a couple of CBX experts before I purchased it from the PO.

 

Recommend removing the tank and air box and take a look at your pod idea.

Sell this and buy a "cafe" bike. Way better options out there to convert into the look you're after.

Good luck.

 

Yeah I recognize that there are many better bikes for cafe racers. I just want a few nods to a cafe styling on the bike. Thanks for the insight

 

Another thought I have is getting an airbox off a magna an trying to work with a magna tank. Anybody have any ideas on airbox compatibility between a 500 magna and 500 interceptor? They used the same engine and a similar carb setup.

 

After quite a bit of thought on it I think I’m just going to keep my eyes peeled for another VF500 tank. It won’t ruin the style too bad.

 

Sorry cannot offer any suggestions for alternative tanks.

However rather than just look for a petrol tank - if you need other bits you may be better off looking for a parts bike.

At the moment there are a couple of VF500s for sale on Gumtree in the UK one in great condition for £750 and a second well battered specimen for £250 in Belfast.

Transport costs from Europe would make either stupidly expensive but there must be breakers yards in the states or people selling non running bikes for little money on the likes Craigslist.

In Europe many breakers yards (dismantlers) have linked IT systems, so you just tell them precisely what part you want and they can check for the part or bike in seconds - is there something similar operating over in the States?

You may need the part numbers, so go onto the CMSNL.com website enter the year and model specs to find the relevant fiches and somewhere in the fuel section you should be able to identify the Honda part numbers for the tank on your bike.

Good luck

 

There is a good parts bike two hours from here for $250. As far as I can tell it just needs cleaned out and tuned up he be a runner. Well, also needs some wiring work done too. Hoping it’s still around once I can more justifiably afford to purchase it.