Topic: Wrapped headers

[MAX1MVS]

Forgive my squirrely ignorance, but what are the benefits of wrapping the exhaust headers?

[Greggo]

It's a cosmetic thing.  Some think it 'looks cool', while some don't.  If you live in a damp environment (like Washington) it can trap moisture and rot your pipes - especially if you're a 'short ride' rider. 

[KingCustomCycles.com]

If the pipes are already about shot, you can get a few more miles out of them with repairs and a wrap.  The whole wrap thing is really popular with guys that build their own exhausts and don't have pretty tig welds or a brother in law that owns a chrome plating shop.  :-)  I think the origins of wrapping are the hot rods that wanted to keep the under the hood temperatures down. I like it personally, as you can tell by how many of my customs use it.  Is squirrely ignorance worse than regular ignorance?  I teach and these things interest me........

[MAX1MVS]

It's a cosmetic thing.  Some think it 'looks cool', while some don't.  If you live in a damp environment (like Washington) it can trap moisture and rot your pipes - especially if you're a 'short ride' rider.

Define "short ride".  Most of my riding is a 7.5 mile commute, but I have been known to ride up in them thar hills by Mt. St. Helens

[KingCustomCycles.com]

A short ride to me is one that does not get the engine to operating temperature enough to boil the condensation out of the oil. 

[hondaface75]

It certainly does keep the heat in. I burned the hell out of my arm with bare pipe one time near the head. With the wrap on you could put your hand to it for a bit and not get hurt. So it does its job and is pleasing astheticly for some. I like it. Someone where posted an infrared video of a soch750 and the exhaust pipes just closest to the head were the hottest. Id like to see someone do up another comparison video with a soch750 header wrapped. Might put this to bed

[Greggo]

It's a cosmetic thing.  Some think it 'looks cool', while some don't.  If you live in a damp environment (like Washington) it can trap moisture and rot your pipes - especially if you're a 'short ride' rider.

Define "short ride".  Most of my riding is a 7.5 mile commute, but I have been known to ride up in them thar hills by Mt. St. Helens

A short ride to me is one that does not get the engine to operating temperature enough to boil the condensation out of the oil. 

Bingo!  Depends on ride length (time or distance), and exhaust flow (engine speed over distance would be the determining factor there) to get the oil, and the exhaust pipes hot enough to burn out any moisture.  I've read that consistently using these bikes for short trips can speed up the rotting of the stock pipes over time - not that I've seen scientific evidence to back it...but I buy the theory.  I've got a crummy, rusted, dented 4-1 with a '80's CBR muffler on my 500/4, so I don't really worry about it.  If I had brand new pipes, I wouldn't want to wrap them anyway.  So, IMHO if you've got crummy, ugly pipes like mine, and you like the wrapped look, go for it.  I tried to wrap mine, but didn't like the way it looked on my particular bike.  The right color wrap can look pretty bad ass on some bikes.

[rklystron]

The video you referred to does have the headers wrapped. All the reasons you guys gave are valid reasons for exhaust wrap however, one of the main reasons for the header wrap is to keep the exhaust gas temperatures high in the primary tubes and past the collector. This keeps the velocity of the exhaust gases high and helps in savaging in intake charge to the combustion chamber. The design of the header for a given RPM range is another topic altogether.

[Eddie]

Rklystron hit it on the head !  now I wonder if anyone makes anti-reversion pipes for these bikes....

[KingCustomCycles.com]

Exhaust tuning these old SOHC's reminds me of the Yetti.  Much questioning, never documented, myth.