Chinese Gas Tanks

I just got spammed by something I found interesting, it might be old news to some as I've seen one of these tanks used on cafe builds. This XY400 tank (XJ400???) looks like it might be close to fitting our bikes.
I wonder if there will be a day when they make a direct copy of the XJ650R?


https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32906722837.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000023.5.5d0c85bbdn1grs

 

Pretty crude.

 

Agree, but if they made a direct fit it might be better than trying to repair a rusty original.
A good gas tank is one of the hardest parts to find restoring an old Japanese bike.
In another 20 years the barn finds will all be swiss cheese.
I've often wondered what it would cost to set up fabrication of old gas tanks.
I assume the originals were done with big stampings, sounds expensive if not impossible to replicate.
I suspect the Chinese stuff has an additional seam up the middle I don't think our tanks had.

 

It looks like a mid seam in the pictures. You are right, better than nothing but would take a lot of prep before painting to get a good look.

 

Big problem with us US folks though is the front and center disclaimer "cannot deliver to the United States". We don't even get to try them!

 

Being so used to getting free or negligible shipping on most items I buy from Ali-X, the shipping costs on a gas tank are annoying, even if the tank is reasonably priced.
There's a particular 17L tank there that takes my fancy, but including shipping it's $200, which means it's cheaper to find a decent tank from a CX500, for example.
Not that I'd fit a CX500 tank to the XJ, but if needs must, and the supply totally dries up. Even now, good solid XJ9 tanks are fetching some stupid prices.

 

and I expect they took a picture of the best one.. Like Tinder...

..so I'm told.