Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner Modded pipes, much growly loveliness!

Decided to try my hand at wrapping my pipes. Cut the heat shields off and hacked about 6" off the mufflers, cleaned em up and wrapped them including the headers. Need to replace all the hose clamps are they were cheap garbage. Capped off the mufflers (loudeners?) with bespoke stainless tips secured by four bolts and dome nuts which will be replaced by brass ones eventually.
I love em! They look like cannons!



And a shakey video
YouTube grumbly cannon vid

now that my friend is a great looking ride

Like the tips!

feckin hell,that sounds er,awsome.hate that word,but it just sums up that sound n i thought mine sounded good.top job fella.

What did you start with? Stock pipes? TORs?

DEI sells stainless steel zip ties for their exhaust wrap kit. You might pick up some of those to replace the hose clamps.

EDIT: Ah, it looks like you have those up towards the front.

Thanks for the kind words! I really need to get myself a proper angle grinder because Dremel cut off discs would try the patience of a saint.
I started with totally gutted TORs. I also found I couldn't really get the tension I wanted with the ties. Think big chunky ss hose clamps will go well with the overall look and provide more security.
What's next? Rear fender I reckon, along with refinishing the front forks, yokes and maybe fitting gators. Maybe drop the bars and then paint. What colour? Why satin black of course!

Nice job on the wrap. Sounds great too.

I like it. A lot.

Nice work. A tip is to work with water-soaked wrap. I prefer to use tandem (two) stainless locking zip ties at each end. A hose clamp can be used to temporarily hold the wrap until the zip ties are on the way you want 'em.

I had a setup where I put a rod through the role and suspended it on the workmate so it could spin freely. Then I unwound a fair bit into a bucket of water and left it a few minutes. While wrapping I spooled it out so it all went through the water before going on the pipe. I did the headers a day later so it soaked overnight and was much easier to work with. The nack seems to be the wetter, the better. Ahem...

Color me confused but what did you wrap the pipes with?

Exhaust wrap. DUH.

ticky tape.

Consider yourself the very colour of confusion itself Nemo me old son. Yes, I know it's shocking but I did indeed use exhaust heat wrap. After bit of grubbing about on the Bay of E I scored a 100 foot roll and 16 (useless) stainless ties for a whopping £30 rather than the ludicrous £55 for 50 feet I've seen elsewhere.
Currently I'm making up some perforated heat shields mainly for the look and to hide the join between header and muffler.

As with many things as a late I ask a question and then find the answer myself through some work. If I had been this good in school the first time around I would probably be a phd several times over by now! Thanks for the prompt reply I am looking to mod some scuffed and battered stock pipes and like the look you have acheived so will keep on doing my research.

Just paint the clamps black. I used them also cause the metal zip ties were indeed crap. I also painted the black wrap with high temp black paint. After a few good rains,, they will turn grey.

Finally finished cutting and fitting a pair of perforated shrouds for a bit o decoration, hide the pipe join and lend some protection to the wrap. I reckon they've got the heavy industrial look I was after. Also dropped the bars as much as clearance would allow and the result is a much more comfortable riding position as I needed a bit more stretch.

Is that S/S material?

I like that.

That looking real good Ron, that little tool box fits in rather nicely now that it's been painted.

Cheers Bodger. Came in quite handy last night when the clutch switch decided to act up, stranding me briefly outside Lidl.

Looks good

NICE!

Now would probably be the time to try and sell that exhaust wrap kit I have laying around...

I can supply the same type of kit at £35... (30 Mtrs & s/s ties)
Bit expensive shipping over the pond though..
If you can, use graphite wrap opposed to dyed, the dye doesn't last...

Ron, For ideas the front end is a combination of powder coating and enamel paint, satin black of course...

I really have to paint the fork lowers and yokes as they're all wormed to hell. Might lose the lower shrouds and fit gators but I dunno. Obviously all satin black as if there're any other colours

Those pipes look sharp! Great job. The tool box looks good too.

I've since added another box on the left side to stash my disc lock in as I fitted smaller indies and the tool rool kinda hides them. Plus it wasn't even remotely secure. I'm calling them "pannierettes"

May I suggest that after applying the heat wrap, getting some high temp black silicone paint. It is a bit expensive (about $10 a can), but I've had it on mine (headers only not "loudeners") for about 5 years now with no fading what so ever! You do get a little bit of a (for lack of a better word) cooking smell at a stop but all goes away when you're moving.

Think I probably will paint it eventually. It is fading out a bit now and has gone a silvery white on the headers but I kinda like it to be honest.