Tank blisters

[fraserdog]

I know this has probably been done to death but has it definitely been proved that it's the excess Ethanol in our fuel nowadays that causes tank blisters on Tigers? Does it happen to all colours of Tiger as the reason I ask is that my mate was looking at buying a Tiger and in his search he saw Tigers with blistered tanks and he said the ones he looked at that the blisters had the black tiger stripes (orange,silver,roulette green ones) and the blisters were under the stripes,he wondered if it was something to do with the heat attraction of the black stripes in the heat of sun? Mine is an 02 black bike with silver stripes and touch wood is blister free at the moment (probably talked that up now),has anyone got a black bike with a blistered tank?

[NortonCharlie]

I have 2 01 Roulette green tigers one with blisters one without. The one with blisters had a lot more tanks of fuel run through it.

[exchead]

no blisters on my orange 05 tank

[John Stenhouse]

Sorry to rain on your parade but mines black with silver stripes and yes, it has blistered

[Bixxer Bob]

Orange 05 no blisters.  Bloody big scratches though 

[Chris Canning]

Do you know I've never looked as my tank has been under a bagster tank cover from the day I bought it and when I take the tank off never look to see 

[pineygroveshop]

Sorry to rain on your parade but mines black with silver stripes and yes, it has blistered

I've got two blisters on one stripe of my 02 Black.

[motoOzarks]

black 06 with multiple blisters on various stripes

[fraserdog]

So my theory of the black bikes is well and truly blown out of the water,why does it happen only under the stripes then? If it is the ethanol vapour leeching through the plastic tank why only the stripes as the paint on the tank can't be porous or the tank would leak,or am I wrong and it happens all over the tank on some bikes?

[John Stenhouse]

It's all over the tank on mine

[Bixxer Bob]

Here's one that's completely off the wall;  what if some tanks still contained minute amounts of moisture (not necessarily water, think solvent)  in the plastic when they were initially painted by Triumph and that moisture eventually causes the bubbles.......

[Mustang]

So my theory of the black bikes is well and truly blown out of the water,why does it happen only under the stripes then? If it is the ethanol vapour leeching through the plastic tank why only the stripes as the paint on the tank can't be porous or the tank would leak,or am I wrong and it happens all over the tank on some bikes?

I don't think ethanol has anything to do with it

the tanks shrink and grow during temp changes (think sitting in sun) and the decals come unstuck .
I had a TTR 250 yamaha a long time ago ,
plastic tank and bubbled decals
it never had ethanol in it .

[Boo]

I have recently found blisters on my 06, in blue. Yes it is only on the stripes, it's all to do with them being stick on bits. If you use a pin to prick the blisters then nothing comes out. I think it is more to do with the hot weather than anything sinister!

[dftuttle]

Mine's an 04 in Silver. Started blistering in the last 6 months.
My theory?
The stripes are vinyl. It doesn't "breath" like the paint does. The tank & the paint are porous & the vinyl is not.
Thus you get blisters.
We either need to deal with lumpy tanks or hand paint our stripes!
I'll just deal.

[Yukon]

Mine's an 04 in Silver. Started blistering in the last 6 months.
My theory?
The stripes are vinyl. It doesn't "breath" like the paint does. The tank & the paint are porous & the vinyl is not.
Thus you get blisters.
We either need to deal with lumpy tanks or hand paint our stripes!
I'll just deal.

+1, blisters occurred when my tank was about 4 years old.  I would place pin holes in them to reduce them.  If I kept the tank full, they were less prevalent.