removing petrol tank on BMW G650GS
 

We are about to start preparing our bikes for shipping to Tokyo and my wife has a G650GS single cylinder with the fuel tank under the seat. Can anyone advise on how easy it is to get out as we have to empty it and wash it with white spirits so that it can go by air freight? or can you get away with just emptying it and leaving it insitu?

Simon

Hi Simon,

Removing the tank is far from trivial. I recommend trying to clean it in-situ, although off the top of my head, I cannot recall whether there is sufficient access to the fuel outlet hose. Mine is currently in a container on the seas, so I can't go check it for you. If you get a lucky break you can just unclip the fuel hose and drain it into a bucket.

You could likely obtain excellent and very specific info from the chaingang web site, which has just about everything there is to know about the F650:

The Chain Gang

cheers
Colin
Sydney

This might be a solution that is acceptable - to the airfreight authority - it is a method that used to be used many years ago when transporting empty containers with an explosive risk - I am not sure if it is an accepted method these days. Drain tank, leave to vent for a few hours - then fill the tank with distilled water in place of the fuel - this prevents the explosive risk but adds the weight of the water.

Confirm that draining is necessary
 

We've airfreighted a few times and never had to remove all the gasoline from the bikes. We've just run them to reserve and that's it. You might want to double check with your shipping agent to confirm that it is well and truly necessary.

I just shipped my bike on a boat to Germany and I've never air freighted a bike, but I did investigate 3 companies that do airfreighting and they said the same: no need to drain, it just needs to be on Reserve.

.............shu