Butane/Propane & Saddle Bags

[karasek]

Knary had mentioned using the red canisters/cylindar fuel bottles. I've carried those around with white gas and plan on buying some bigger ones to carry a little emergency fuel. If you look on those canisters, you are only suppose to fill them to a particular level, this is to allow for the expansion of the gas inside. So if you use those, make sure not to top them off, and you should be OK, just check and replace the O-rings as Knary says. Carrying them on the outside of the bike is a good idea, just make sure they cannot leak onto anything hot like the exhaust.

[YB in IN]

Originally posted by BradfordBenn
Just camp next to some one that has a stove

Or find a local diner, and save the packing space!

[LORAZEPAM]

Whatever happened to campfire cooking? Guess you couldn't have one at charleston, but I camp way more than just rallies.

[rapz]

I contacted REI and asked them about carrying the butane cannisters in our saddle bags and they said that none of the vibrations/shaking will cause the cannister to explode as long as we keep the temps below 120 degrees. So they are safe to carry on trips.

[DesertRider]

Originally posted by rapz
I contacted REI and asked them about carrying the butane cannisters in our saddle bags and they said that none of the vibrations/shaking will cause the cannister to explode as long as we keep the temps below 120 degrees. So they are safe to carry on trips.

That does not make me feel warm and fuzzy. Here in the Arizona desert it's sometimes 120 degrees in the shade. Packed inside a black-plastic saddlebag sitting in the sun for a few hours, how hot is it inside? I can tell you it's way, WAY above 120 degrees in there, so much so that I don't store my helmet in there because I don't want to damage the plastic.

I *can* tell you that, government safety approvals or not, I have seen spray cans explode inside a car here in Phoenix. One case that occurred where I work was a can of insect repellent that had been left in a car in the sun and it exploded, leaving a terrible chemical stench inside the car as well as embedding itself deep into the seat material. What I worry about is the same thing happening inside the saddlebags, but instead of bug repellent it spewing hot fuel all over the bag, leaking out of the bag, all while the engine is running and the hot pipe is a few inches away. Perhaps in some parts of the country it never gets very hot and that is not a concern, but there are lots of hot places in the U.S., and many people who don't live there still travel through them on bikes.

The comparison with white gas is a bit off the mark, I think. There is no such thing as 100% safe fuel, but the difference with white gas is that it is not under pressure. In that sense it's just like the fuel tank on a bike -- it contains lots of liquid gasoline, but it is not under pressure and will not burst from being overheated by the sun. (Gasoline will expand, which your fuel tank accomodates with an overflow tube, and fuel bottles accomodate by having a fill line that allows room for expansion.)