Early Gas Caps

[Kevin Grimes]

I was looking at the picture of the Penton prototype and noticed a flip type cap. The first hundred or so production bikes had screw on type caps then back to the flip type.
Anybody have a idea of what was driving these changes.
Kevin

[Paul Danik]

Kevin,

   That is an interesting observation and question that I have pondered as well. My thinking is that "back in the day" funnels and 5 gallon gas cans were used to gas up most off road machines and they had screw on gas caps, and flip up gas caps were mostly used on street machines fueled at a station with a pump and nozzle. The flip up gas cap probably seemed like a duck out of water to the decision making "mud runners" initially, so word was probably sent back to put screw on gas caps on the production machines.

Possibly once they either lost a few gas caps or they leaked and caused some discomfort, the non leaking flip up cap looked like a better option.

We need to remember that they were riding and racing the prototype with the flip up gas cap at the same time they were running the bikes with the screw on caps, so a comparison of the two was probably pretty straight forward.  

Just my thoughts....but we can "ask the experts" at the next meeting and see if anyone who was directly involved with those decisions has any remembrances of this change and why it came about.

Paul

[SouthRider]

Paul - weren't most teams using military style "jerry cans" with steel flexible spouts back then?

I'll bet that the type of caps used had more to do with economics, or what was available than anything else at the very beginning. Good chance it's what KTM had available from their suppliers at the time.

With all of the other myriad decisions about components being more important, and about performance, it's very possible that the gas cap wasn't considered much until after the bikes came into production.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, that we are now qualified to do almost anything, with nothing."

1972 Penton Berkshire 100
1983 Husqvarna 250 XC
2011 Jayco 31.5 RLDS
2009 Chevy 2500 HD Duramax