Just figures

Get my bike on the road after the crash. Freshly re-painted exhaust pipes. Road garbage (solid metal book sized piece of whatever) run over, small wheelie (small turd let fly), bounces up into pipes and dents two of them but good. It has not significantly impaired exhaust flow, it' just ugly to see. Does not seem to affect performance at all.

Is it better to repair, ignore, or replace. Opinion, I know.

I am initially seeing some steep prices for the headers on the Kerker sites. 400 dollars or so.

What should I expect to spend on new 4 to 1 headers, New/used, Ebay/Craig's list? Is around 100 - 150 bucks unreasonable to expect?

100-150 sound about right for used kerker headers on ebay.
Or $50 on some bad ass looking black header wrap!

I just popped a lung out my nose!!!:woohoo: "small wheelie (small turd let fly)"! was not ready for that....I guess you wern't either!!!!:woohoo: :woohoo: :blink:

I forgot to mention that I was on the free-way at the time. I thought for sure that the front tire was going to go flat on me quickly for damage. It was night-time, and I didn't see exactly what it was that I hit. But it knocked the front wheel up, a little over, and jarred the handle grips in my grasp pretty good. I am usually more vigilant than that.

Pipe wrap huh? I think that I remember seeing some pics here on that. It goes around the pipe like 3 inch wide black tape, right?

What are the benefits of pipe wrap?
Is it like covering light damage on the front of your car by getting a car-bra?
Is it to protect the rider from burns?
Is it purely a cosmetic thing?
Heat containment or insulation?

I am going to google search it to see if I can come up with some answers, but I trust the opinion here on the site more.

Cheers.

Found this;

Exhaust Insulating Wrap is an innovative way to create more horsepower and reduce temperatures under the hood. Wrapping headers with Exhaust Insulating Wrap maintains hotter exhaust gases that exit the system faster through decreased density. This produces increased exhaust scavenging, as well as lower intake temperatures.


I guess it makes sense. And it would cover those dings pretty well. I'm gonna ponder this for a while.

Got the pipes within the first 50 miles of re-painting them. This is not the first time that fixing has been messed up same day. I had a VW bug catch fire (float bowl brass fitting came out spraying engine with gas 'til it ignited) the day I had it painted. 68 Malibu, new 50's and aluminum wheels, went skiing and the cold must have loosened the lugs. I lost a wheel while driving in the snow.(The car handled the snow great. But new wheels? I was seventeen and,... you know). Karma maybe? I must have been a real sh*t in a past life.

Check scumbag's bike , he put header tape on his.

The benefits? Well, I think it gives the bike sort of a cool, old school look.
It does keep the heat off. Also there is 'supposed to be a slight HP improvement, but I'm not sure alot of people would attest to that.

Biquetoast had wrap on his twin that looked good. I'm having trouble finding that thread at the moment.


Some people like it, some people don't.

Wait. Would this possibly affect the engine performance?

When I lost my exhaust baffle one day, the engine ran worse. Needed to be re-jetted.

Do you think that the exhaust wrap would necessitate re-jetting for lowering the exhaust back pressure?

I don't think so, but having no experience in the matter.....

no