Bluing on exhaust pipe - concern?

JayR

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First off, awesome beautiful ride today in CT! I love my bike. Yep, love it. I stopped at RampageSkateShop in Bridgeport to take a few pictures in front of there cool murals and noticed the bluing on my pipes. The pipes are original, and I have a patch on the cross pipe because it was all rotted out.

My suspicion is that there is rust and crap inside the pipes - maybe the inner pipes are collapsing and causing a hot spot? What do you all think?
 
I'll vote for rot = hot... discolor is right at the spot where the cross pipe "was".

Sharp bike and pic!
 
Yeah i suppose so too Gary. Thanks for the props, but she's on the road running strong in large part to your help and others here so thanks again. I'll see what i can do with a shop vac to try to suck out the blockage - I'll rig up something!
 
Hi JayR,
I'm with Gary, those mufflers are most likely plugged. Or at least, that one is, does t'other one also show blue? Could your cross-tube patch have partially blocked the leftside muffler to give a half-assed 2 into 1?
If you don't want to chop the mufflers off and replace them with slip-ons right now you could pound a pointy bar all the way up 'em to clear 'em out.
Did that to mine years ago because they were too quiet. The ol' pointy bar trick REALLY works for a decibel increase so most likely it'd also work to free up a blockage.
 
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The bluing seems to be also attacking your tank. With a matching dash of orange.

Maybe another pic without the backround mural?
Hi 2Many,
I guess we can't advise JayR about his muffler's blue patch until he posts some feedback so it's on with the teasing?
OK then, from the front, not sure about the front tire from an earth-mover, perhaps it works?
Love that front end.
Tank is OK and while steel oxidises blue it rusts red so unless that tank's been on fire, it's a paint job.
But the lack of fenders is a fashion statement I don't agree with, as are those mini-signals.
Them things should be big, bright and stuck out so that even a cell-phone yabbling SUV driving soccer mom can see them.
And WTF put the key under your arse, eh?
 
Hey, Fred. What I think I'm seeing is mural reflections. So, wondering who's teasing who...
Hi 2Many,
shouldn't that be "teasing whom?" I dunno neither.
Teasing is like a lot of other activities, if it ain't mutually enjoyable it ain't any fun.
But you reckon JayR actually polished that tank enough that it'd reflect stuff?
Now that's an activity I've never even thought of doing.
Takes all sorts, eh?
 
Well, Fred, we've been bit before. Like exhaustive diagnostics that end up being an empty gas tank.

Helps to wear snake boots around here...
Hi 2Many,
I don't see it that way.
Think of the wonderful feeling you get from reading a "It ran out of gas" post and realizing that even if you are dumb there are folks who are a lot dumber.
The Germans even have a word for it:- I'm not 100% on the spelling though:- Schadenfreude?
 
Fred, Schadenfreunde? Enjoying the misery of others?

Yeah, I suppose many of the posts here would cater to those types.

Careful, that's just a nudge away from sadism...
 
Too funny! Keep the barbs coming I love it.
Yes my bike is a bit different that's for sure the tires are 17x130's front and rear and stable would be a good word to describe the handling. Actually I think it handles very well.

The left side pipe only is blue, the right doesn't show the same pattern. My cross pipe patch is not plugged, but I'll double check. Also there is rust hole on the outside left exhaust pipe. I've been looking for an original replacement set (82) but good rust free/ditch free ones are hard to come by.

And......yes the rank is bare metal now, the blue and orange are reflections from the grafitti That's right.

Here are 2 more pics - a more bucolic setting! Same day, long ride
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After all the time and money you put into that bike, you really should treat it to a new exhaust system. That would be the finishing touch, the "icing on the cake". The stock headpipes are very restrictive. Their I.D. is too small. 1.5" aftermarket headpipes flow much better, but aren't too big. A complete Commando system would look great, sound great, and perk up the performance some.
 
After all the time and money you put into that bike, you really should treat it to a new exhaust system. That would be the finishing touch, the "icing on the cake". The stock headpipes are very restrictive. Their I.D. is too small. 1.5" aftermarket headpipes flow much better, but aren't too big. A complete Commando system would look great, sound great, and perk up the performance some.

Hi 5twins,
you sure about the 1-3/8" bore stock pipes being too small? The jungle drums I've been hearing reckon that they are just about optimum.
Perhaps you can quote some performance numbers? All I got is rumours and opinions.
My bike also has the stock one-piece factory-welded exhaust system (admittedly with it's baffles enhanced with a pointed steel bar and a club hammer) and the holes in the back ends of the mufflers that the exhaust gas comes out of are small enough that you can only just shove your thumb into them so I reckon 1-3/8" will be OK.
But yeah, JayR's stock exhaust looks to be way past it's "best before" date and it's time it retired.
But if JayR can't pony up the cost of a complete new system in these current hard times, he could perhaps afford to hacksaw his mufflers off, buy two of those little exhaust pipe adapters from his local equivalent to Canadian Tire and attach his choice of el-cheapo slip-ons?
 
Hi 5twins and Fredintoon. I've read deeply on the forum regarding pipe size, increasing size vs stock, performance and top end trade offs, and so forth. After investigating cutting off the current pipes and putting new Cones on, then almost buying a set of Omars new exhaust with optimizers, then Scott Engineering, yep and the commandos, and 2 other options i suffered from paralysis by analysis and stuck with the cruddy originals. But you're right, time to finally finish her off with a decent new exhaust. Hmmm - or a pointy rod and hammer!
 
Hi JayR,
the advantage of deploying the pointy bar and BFH on your existing exhaust system is that it's not very expensive.
Note that it ain't quite a zero cost option.
You can opt between paying pocket change for earplugs now and paying a raft of cash for hearing aids later.
 
Looked at a Goldwing last Saturday that had intense bluing in the same area of one muffler as you have. This Goldwing had obviously been running on only two cylinders for quite some time. The two cylinders with the blue muffler were the only cylinders powering this four cylinder bike around due to zero compression in the non-running cylinders, caused by what I suspected to be a broken timing belt and bent valves that were stuck open. According to the owner this bike was in excellent running condition. I don't know what relevance this story has, just wanted to share this story.

Scott

Edit...... My son and I ran away from this deal after making the lowest and most insulting offer that we could think of.
 
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