Agree to respect member/traders but the thread was of interest for many and it was not the company as such advertising, as they were approached by a member to see if they could plug a gap in the market. that fact that members were interested in providing their bikes (me included) so the company could evaluate the possibility of producing an alluminium item that as I know is not readily available anymore should be embraced no gagged! Just my views, that’s all. Thanks for the replies!
Many many thanks to @Pepe for bringing this thread to the forum in the first place, as well as @thomp1983 for handing his bike over to Pro Alloy Motorsport for the tailoring adjustments of this fine looking aluminum coolant tank prototype. The satin silver finish would suit most bikes and the welds look the part as well. As this creation was largely a forum led incentive, we would much welcome Pro Alloy Motorsport to reciprocate the good will and provide a generous exclusive member discount code on any orders to follow.
Noted and thanks very much @Ducbird. Talking out loud here, trust that we could also tag Chris by his nickname on this thread for his increased visibility (I know I had in the previous removed thread and he was quite prompt in answering that way; but I no longer have access to thread to recall his nickname).
Hello. I've spoken with Proalloy. The aluminum tank can now be ordered. I already did, and we'll have to wait a few weeks for it to be manufactured. Best regards, Pepe
Hello, Proalloy has contacted me and told me that orders for these tanks are very limited, so the production process may not continue. I think this is an interesting update, and I'm surprised by the low demand. If anyone is interested, you can contact them through their website. Best regards.
I was very interested until they published the price. Previously available alloy and carbon ones were nearer half that so without a forum discount I'm not sure it stacks up.
I'll have to agree with @Gizmo750 on this one: I think that high interest/demand is there but the listing price of 350 quid (and that without shipping) deters many from placing their orders. Even with their current summer promo of -15% (which works out to 290 quid for the tank), it still remains nearly twice the price of the competing (and lighter) carbon EVR coolant tank. Would have expected the manufacturers/producers to take a long view on pricing: list it for less and capitalise on volume sales.
Looking at the amount of (top-quality design &) work required to make them, I can't really see economies of scale other than having the welder able to sit for a few hours doing repetetive work. It'd be a financial risk to invest in a shelf-full of material & labour if the buying public don't appreciate the value. I wouldn't knock it too hard.
As an engineer, and procurement 'bod' who buys small batch quantity fabricated stuff like this for work in the Aviation industry I don't think it's a bad price for what it is, considering as has been said the minimal batch quantities being created by hand. Unfortunately the cost with enough profit to make it worth their while is a completely different thing to what price the market/most customers can justify paying. Yes, you could reduce the price with tooling to pre-stamp and shape sections, do the welds in batches on the same section etc, but the batch quantities would then need to be more than the total number of bikes sold.
Would be a shame if Proalloy simply stopped production (whatever that means in this case) having already completed the design, fit and function work. Hopefully they keep the item listed even if minimal or no stock but with the option of “made to order”.
I bought one of these Pro Alloy tanks and the tank let go on Sunday afternoon. The bike has covered less than 200 miles since it was fitted. It has failed at the sight glass. Which isn’t glass but some sort of clear Perspex. It has seemingly sheared off right where there is an O ring behind the fitment. Must be a weak point. Waiting for Pro Alloy to contact me after the bank holiday weekend to discuss. Anyone else had a failure if they’ve purchased one? The bike has recently had a full coolant system refresh at Baines Racing and all old coolant hoses were replaced with a Samco kit so the system is all good. I replaced the old plastic tank with this as two other OEM plastic replacements lasted less than 30miles.
that's a pity, I feel sure that they will replace or refurbish. I'm not familiar with the sight glass thing, I can't see the shearing, I can see what looks like a drain plug that looks like it's cross-threaded
With the short life of the two OEM plastic tanks and the problem with the Pro Alloy one, could there be a problem with the pressure relief side of the cooling system, and its a high pressure in the tanks that's driving the failures? Looking at the Pro Alloy tank, the perspex sight glass may be the weak point of the design from an high pressure point of view, especially if it's been overtightened resulting in a crack in the fillet between the threaded section and the head. May be worth checking the pressure relief cap works OK, although generally there would be a reason why the cooling system needs to vent in the first place which may also be worth investigating.
Just put an Aluminium plug instead of the sight glass. I still have the original tank on mine. It's now 31 years old. Maybe I'm just lucky but I keep the water level below the minimum line when at ambient. Works for me.
The whole bit to the outside from the O ring had sheered clean off. The rest of it is still in place in the header tank.
