True that, I burned holes in my jeans prior to wrapping the pipes. I just wanted to mention that even with the wrap, if your jeans rest right against the pipe, it can still brown your jeans a bit. But it does make a huge difference.

I wasn't a fan of the wrap look either and I was hell bent on a deep black look if I had to do it. I bought some nice Black wrap off eBay and when it arrived, I found that it wasn't very black. More of a deep charcoal color. But I wrapped them anyway and figured I'd spray them later. But once the wrap dried and I seen it in the sun, I really liked the look.



Yes they can. I typically remove the heat shields first, when I'm removing pipes. Then put the pipes back on, followed by reinstaling the shields.

Nice wrap job, your ride looks great! Just out of curiosity when you mention the black paint fading, are you referring to the Black Silicone Paint?

I talked with a lot of people about this prior to recently wrapping my pipes because I've heard mention of rot as well. The consensus I got was that if the pipes are kept dry, it isn't an issue. One friend that's been a service tech for HD over the past 10 years, and also has his pipes wrapped, said he has seen this in some bikes that he's serviced. But that it's been on bikes that are left outside in the rain or park in the salt-air humid climate of the coast line. He also suggest that if you do get caught riding in the rain, to just run the bike until the wrap is dry and there should be a problem. I guess time will tell.

 

I went with the titanium and they don't seem to have changed other than not shiny.

 

Hey Rich - what brand wrap you got? You spray it often?

 

My th was wrapped for over 30k miles, but not all at once. It had to be unwrapped, all the cracks welded, rewrapped and painted about every 10k miles.

Wrap really destroys the pipe. I've had the same problems on my Buell and the dyna. The wrap does exactly what it's designed to do and holds the heat in the pipe, and with a thinner metal like the th it gets really brittle and comes apart everywhere, the pipe on my Buell actually exploded. Not to mention holding water in and making it rust. You're basically spending more money just to ruin an expensive pipe. I can't understand how anyone could burn themselves on the pipe. Holding my leg or feet against a pipe has never been part of riding anything for me and if your pipe is that hot your bike is begging to be tuned properly!

 

To answer a couple of questions. On my current set up as shown in the photo, the Thunderheader is wrapped with black DEI wrap and sprayed with black DEI silicone paint. I only have about 1000 miles on this set up so it has not had time to fade at the hot spots. In the past, on another 2-1 pipe, I used black DEI wrap and black VHT or UHT (the one rated for the hottest temps, which ever it is) from Walmart. I probably resprayed the faded hot spots every 4 to 6 months. Very little needed respraying but I thought it looked better with a uniform color. I never bothered to remove the pipes from the bike for resraying, I just stuck a piece of cardboard between the pipe and the bike and sprayed away.

 

I don't recall the brand off hand. But I'll check when I'm at the shop and post the link. I didn't spray mine at all, that's just the color of the wrap. I thought I'd have to spray it, but once it dried and I seen it in the sunlight, I really liked it. So no need to spray.

 

Ya, it looks great. Thanks. I just don't want to buy something I haven't seen before. A buddy of mine wrapped his that same charcoal colour and after a few months it was like a silver-ish white. You get what you pay for I guess.

 

Man, I've been looking all over the web to see if I can find anyone who has a vivid black bike with a black or titanium wrap. I know everyone seems to lean towards the denim black but if anyone has or has pics of a vivid black bike with wrapped pipes PPLLEEAASSEE post them.

Didn't think this would be such a hard decision.

Thanks!

 

I can tell you first hand that a wrapped pipe can still blister your leg. Heat shields for me.

 

My homeboy's vivid black FXD with his new ebay shorty flame throwers wrapped in black. He's a forum member "5inner".