Disclaimer: These bottles are NOT intended for fuel storage. If you choose to do stupid **** like I often do, then you are on your own. This is just me sharing my own experience.

Okay, so I am a cheapskate. If I can do something myself and save money, I'm all over it. I'd rather spend four hours fabricating a license plate mount than spend $30 buying one made by some 14 year old kid in a SE Asia sweat shop.



But that's a different story. Back to the subject at hand.

Because of the (embarrassingly) small tank on my bike, I decided to get a couple fuel bottles to strap on the old girl. I started looking for something and realized that to buy a 1 liter bottle it was going to set me back like $30 each with shipping. Unless I wanted to spend $100 for two of them (including carriers) I wasn't going to get them. But that got me to thinking, how about alternatives.

I found these stainless steel water bottles online for about $6 a piece INCLUDING shipping. (Yes, they are made in China but I imagine they are almost totally made by machines with little "slave" labor) I ordered two of them for less than $13 and got them in about three days. AFTER I had already ridden off to the outer banks. :P




I filled one with gas and threw it out into the sun in the backyard to test how well it would hold up. While I was working out in the yard, I'd walk past it and kick it across the yard to give it a little stress.

It didn't holdup.

The gas didn't leak, and the bottle took the pressure of expanding fuel in (almost) 100° heat and banging around. However, the gasket on the lid was not fuel resistant and swelled up. When I opened the bottle later in the day, the gasket was obviously shot.

Also the lid is not gas resistant either. The threads that had contact with the fuel were beginning to soften and dissolve.

Experiment over. $13 down the drain. Or so I thought.

Out of curiosity (and because the threads on the lids looked familiar) I tried putting a 3/4" PVC plumbing fitting in the bottle top. The threads are the same. That gave me a little inspiration.

PVC is resistant to gas, so I stopped by Lowe's on the way home from work. I bought a couple 3/4" threaded plugs, and a couple 3/4" thread/slip adapters. I had a selection of O-rings from the autoparts store laying around, and I usually have PVC glue as well.

I put together a couple caps when I got home.



Once more I filled the bottle, stuck it in the sun, kicked it around and......success. Everything looks good after a couple days.



Total cost for each bottle: $7.50 +/-

Fugly lid, but overall, not bad. I can always paint the lid, or cover it with something.

Now I'm going to fabricate a couple holsters to mount it on the swing arm. Because I'm too cheap to buy them.

Might not be for everyone, but if you want to save a few bucks, these will do the trick.

 

awesome!

 

I used one of those when I was riding around the upper peninsula in Michigan. It did the job!!!!

I used a plastic bag, and screwed the cap down with that acting as a seal. Then threw one in my backpack.

 

That project is the bomb.

 

Thx man! I like trying to figure out DIY stuff.

I have more time than money.

 

Literally! Boom! No, really, way to go. Ingenuity, I like it.
Here is my fuel bottle. Serves two purposes at once. lol

 

That would make a great fuel bottle if I could figure out how to get gas INTO it!

 

I'm thinking about it. Let us know if you think of anything.

 

It is big. Probably a couple of liters.

 

You want to keep the complete extinguisher look?