I just want to start off by saying that my friends suck. That's because they always point out one of two things:One, my bike is dirty. Yes, I am aware that my bike gets dirty. In fact, it has had more oil changes than baths in recent months. But I ride the hell out of my bike and have been caught in the rain quite a bit recently. So why bother washing it when it is just going to turn into a muddy mess the first time I roll it out of my driveway?
Secondly, the pipe on my bike has seen better days. I don't know what the previous owner did to the Thunderheader he installed on the bike, but every time I get the bike hot, a little more of the cheap black paint he sprayed it with peels off, and the poor header gets uglier.
Well, after taking copious amounts of crap from my friends, I have decided to wrap my two-into-one pipe with Inferno Shield Exhaust Insulating Wrap. Not only will the new black wrap cover the peeling paint problem on my pipes, but there are performance benefits as well. Holding the heat in the exhaust helps to increase horsepower, reduce temperatures for the rider, and resists water, fungus, and petroleum products. The non-flammable wrap withstands 1200F continuous, 2000F peak temperatures, fastens with the supplied Inferno-ties, and is made in the U.S.A. We used one 50-foot roll of the 2-inch wide Inferno Shield for our 2-into-1 exhaust and had several feet left over.
And as you'll see, even someone with limited mechanical skill using the most basic of hand tools can perform this job in the comfort of their own garage.
You can tell a couple things...
You can tell a couple things by looking at this pipe, that it has gotten hot and that the bike gets ridden-a lot.
The first thing we did was...
The first thing we did was drop the wrap in a couple inches of warm water that we put in this bucket. The reason we used warm water? It was chilly outside and we were going to be handling the wrap with bare hands.
The first thing we did was...
The first thing we did was drop the wrap in a couple inches of warm water that we put in this bucket. The reason we used warm water? It was chilly outside and we were going to be handling the wrap with bare hands.
Then we removed the two nuts...
Then we removed the two nuts that hold the lower mounting bracket in place.and with a stout wiggle the pipes came right off.
And by the time we were ready...
And by the time we were ready for the wrap, it had been soaking for about 20 minutes.
We just kept wrapping the...
We just kept wrapping the front pipe, pushing the wrap between the front and rear pipes and pulling it tight before pushing it between the pipes again.
We just kept wrapping the...
We just kept wrapping the front pipe, pushing the wrap between the front and rear pipes and pulling it tight before pushing it between the pipes again.
We laid the pipe on our workbench...
We laid the pipe on our workbench and ensured that the mounting flanges were slid all the way to the top. This is just to ensure that we didn't get halfway done and have to unwrap everything to slide the flanges up where they belong.
As soon as we ran out of length...
As soon as we ran out of length on the piece we had cut for the front pipe, we folded the cut end under on the backside of the pipe and installed the Inferno Tie (it works like a zip tie, but it is made of metal).
Then we installed the Inferno...
Then we installed the Inferno tie at the top of the pipe.
We started wrapping the rear...
We started wrapping the rear pipe. So far so good!
Where the front and rear pipe...
Where the front and rear pipe come together is where things started getting tricky. We continued feeding the wrap in between the front and rear pipes until the pipes were straight and parallel.
Where the pipes finally straightened...
Where the pipes finally straightened out, we went from wrapping the pipes individually to wrapping them together. You can easily see how the front pipe is being double-wrapped at this point.
Then we installed the Inferno...
Then we installed the Inferno Tie that was supplied with the kit.
After the pipe is reinstalled,...
After the pipe is reinstalled, the bike is fired up and allowed to get hot to burn off all of the water that had soaked into the wrap and "set" the wrap on the Thunderheader.