Giving up

[Bubba in TX]

Everything is just about summed up in the thread Dave gave the link to and no point in going over it all again.

I have wrapped scooter pipes for decads. Also headers on some of my cars. I never had a problem. I could see rust happening if you never ride it. Me personally I have never seen a pipe or header crack. I am sure that do... but I have never seen one. Ray probably could shed a lot more light on that topic. I do plan to get mine ceramic coated and re-wrapped.

I ride all my scoots enough that moisture in the wrap on downtime is not a problem. Not to mention the bazillion miles I have done in the rain.

Also I would assume if you paint it with exhaust paint first it would stop the rust. As for the pipe running hotter with the wrap... that's a good thing for exhaust gasses.

[Jammin'John]

Exhaust valve area gets pretty hot.
A wrap might hold heat there.
IF it does hold the heat then that is a bad thing and should be avoided.

JJ

[Jammin'John]

A hot exhaust might make the motor "greener" (less emissions,complete burn).

JJ

[matt7even]

Rode this morning in 28 degree weather. This time of year that engine heat is a blessing =).

[SWVA_08V2k]

I do not know anything about the pipe wrapping and heat issue but wouldn't the fact that the Kaws are water cooled help keep the heads cool and be able to maybe take a little more heat. I know the water is not circulated in the head but the oil is kept cooler because of the bottom half having circulation. Just a thought.

[trebor]

I has a GW, got rid of it for the VV. The GW had a bar-stool seating arrangement (although it can be fixed).

I have a 2010 VV and there is no heat problem (no I did not wrap the pipes). In FL, it stays hot about 8 months out of the year. Only noticable at stop in dead of summer.

I also enjoy the VV so much, I put more miles on it on average than the GW (only miss the peg draggin on the GW, don't go that far on the VV).

[trebor]

Sorry, I have a 2012. My head works faster than these fingers.

[R_W_B]

I have known two different Harley riders (in the past) who told me after a year (or so) of running wrapped pipes they pulled the wrap off and there were small spider looking surface cracks on the header pipes, from heat expansion and contraction. I did not see this, they only told me this. There is a possibility that air cooled Harleys run hotter around the header pipes than water cooled bikes.

I would imagine if you never pulled the wrap off, even if you had spider surface cracks it would not be severe enough to actually leak, so if you like running wraps all the time then I would think it would not be an issue. I do not know for sure that the increased heat of wrapping will in fact cause this pipe deformation. I only know what they told me.

The wrap does in fact hold heat in though, it's the same effect as when you put on a jacket. I remember from my teenage years (I'm an older fart), the old dragstrip cages used to wrap their headers to increase the immediate combustion chamber heat in drag racing. It would self defeat itself in oval racing but in drag racing it give optimum performance off the line. They said it helped suck the exhaust out.

Anyhow that's all I know about it. If you want to run wraps all the time, then I'd go for it. The worst thing could happen is you might have to buy new headers. But as many folks on here that wrap them, I doubt you would ever have any problem.

[Jammin'John]

I wasn't thinking about the pipes crackin' I was wondering about burned up valves & cracked heads...............the EXPENSIVE stuff.
Pipes are cheap & the issue is only cosmetic (how do they look).

I would just NOT have a fairing than all this crap.
Oh wait. I don't have a fairing.

JJ

[R_W_B]

Originally Posted by Jammin'John

I wasn't thinking about the pipes crackin' I was wondering about burned up valves & cracked heads...............the EXPENSIVE stuff.
Pipes are cheap & the issue is only cosmetic (how do they look).
.................

Don't think wrappin pipes will ever hold enough heat in to burn valves. Definitely won't crack heads. Running too lean over a long period of time will burn valves but not wrappin pipes. Haven't ever heard anything like that.