From a bit of googling it seems nobody has ever bothered an attempt at a full carbon tank for the 1100/796. Does anybody know of such a thing? Or am I gonna have to make one up myself?
I would wonder why anyone would make one. It would be more delicate than steel or alloy and when you fill it full of fuel there would be hardly any weight saving.
I'd have to disagree with that boss. Far lighter than steel or even loomnum, and a fair bit lighter than the blow-molded plastic lump too. Thats... kind of the entire point. As for being "delicate"... not really. Carbon strand has a higher tensile strength than steel, though it does have the downside of being somewhat more brittle. Well, the carbon itself isn't, rather the resin it's suspended in is. But it's still far more flexible than you might think, and even so I'd say this bike is quite well suited for it given that the tank is rather well protected sitting inboard of the frame as it does. The weight savings when full of fuel would be the same as the weight savings without fuel...
My biggest concern would be the electrical conductivity of the carbon fibre since quite a few electrical components are mounted to it (via the rubber straps), obviously if the resin is nice and new it's unlikely to be a problem but once the surface gets slightly worn it might be quite scary if an electrical connector becomes loose. I found out about the conductivity the hard way when I was changing over indicators, I accidentally rested one of my indicator leads on my carbon tail piece (which I was leaning on) whilst testing the polarity of the indicators, it gave me a minor shock and the contact area was glowing red . Although I believe the ignition coils mount directly to the EVR carbon airbox, so it probably doesn't matter anyway. Plus it'll look sexy
Yeah, it often doesnt occur to people that carbon fiber is still carbon... the material commonly used for battery electrodes. Still, most connectors are designed specifically so as not to short if disconnected, by way of the male pins being recessed in the connector housing. For peace of mind I might be inclined to use a rubber sheet of some sort near the battery and main fuse area. On a similar note, having carbon fiber in contact with aluminum will induce galvanic corrosion on the aluminum if no precautions are taken. It is extremely conductive stuff, electrically anyway.
