Anyone have any experience with these tank bras?
http://www.mag-knight.com
Seems like a novel concept and I am looking for something like this. Had a vinyl bra on a car in the 90's but dirt and leaves got underneath and caused more damage than it protected. Seems like this type of bra would eliminate the contaminants. Feedback anyone?
That actually looks pretty cool. Wish I had something like this and put it on when I bought the bike.
I bought a Mag-knight Bra when my 06 6th gen had about 1k miles on it as something to help avoid scratching the black paint on the tank my jacket, etc. It did a very good job of protecting the tank from scratches and debris over 20k miles. I ordered a gloss black one for my 06 "bass boat black" and it was nearly unnoticealbe from more than a couple feet away. Install was a little, uhhhh.... different.....its a kind of thin (maybe 1/32 of an inch), semi flexible, plastic-rubber type compound that is magnetic....before install, you leave it setting in the sun to warm up and get a little more flexible. Then you use a heatgun (not a hair dryer, i'm talikng a real 500+ degree heatgun!) to basically mold it to the bikes tank. Once it cools, it is still somewhat flexible so you can pull the sides up to clean underneith, but due to it being magnetic and always sticking back to the bike perfectly, at no time did it ever seperate from the bike without me physically taking it off. Nor did it ever rip or tear, even with me pulling it off to clean under it many times. I did however get a little too close with the heatgun during the install process and managed to bugger up a little tiny area of it, but it never caused me any problems. My only issue with it was that it was not any easier to grip the tank with your legs with the mag-knight than with the bare paint tank. At least on the Gloss black Mag-knight bra that I had, it was fairly slick. But that was my only complaint. When i sold the bike with just a little over 20k miles 2 years later, the tank underneith the magnight still looked perfect, and so did the Mag-knight bra. Overall, I was very happy with the product, especially for the price you pay (<$100)....but if you are looking to buy one, you may contact them before hand to see if they have a "grippier" version, as that is about the only thing I would suggest to improve it.
I have one ITS EXCELLENT.
Fourth year I have had it.
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I have had one on each of mine - pics in my gallery. The tank on my '99 (purchased new) still looks like the day I bought it. I can't add much to the foregoing. One trick that's not mentioned in the instructions is to install the bra with an empty tank. The fuel acts as a heat sink, drawing the heat out of the bra before it can conform to the tank's shape. Run the tank out of fuel or siphon as close to empty as you can and then park it in the sun for 1/2 hour or so. Lay the bra out in the sun for about 10 minutes and proceed with the installation per the instructions. I also found it helpful to use some blue painters tape around the perimeter to hold it in place while it took its final shape. While the 5th gen went perfectly, I had trouble installing the 6th gen bra and ended up ruining it (cracked) where it turned sharply to go up the center of the tank. I called back and was sent another bra free of charge no questions asked - really great customer service. They're not particularly easy to install well, (I've seen some that did not lay flush against the tank where I ruined mine), but if you get it right they will keep any grit off the tank surface. My only gripe with it is that it does not provide any additional grip, which can be a big benefit to keeping weight off the wrists on a long ride. If you're looking for grip, check out TechSpec - they have 3 different types of material but not as much coverage.
The fuel thing GOOD tip ......
Cogswell/Switchblade .... thanks for the good feedback!