I was up at Americade this weekend stuck in traffic and weather was about 75 degrees.
I was about 45 minutes in this traffic before getting on highway to come home. While upshifting, the bike would backfire and a slight tapping noise could be heard coming from the front cylinder. I thought the overheating might have caused the valve to be damaged. The noise got progressively louder while riding (65-70mph).I stopped at a rest area to inspect both sparkplugs,and they both were in normal condition. When leaving therest area, the bike continued to backfire up through the gears as it did earier. When I arrived home,about an hour later,I shut the bike off,and let it sit for about 30mins. I then had my wife look at the front cylinder while I restarted the bike. She said she saw some smoke come from the front exhaust pipe. I inspected the pipe and found it had split right under the plange where it mounts to the head. The bike is a '98 superglide with Sampson cannons. Could the excessive heat caused this to happen? Also,could the valve be burned because of lack of backpressure? The pipes have only 17k mis. Thanks for any advice.

 

Sampson pipes arent of the best quality, so ive heard...

 

Hard to tell about your valve without putting some eyes on it.... but an hour's worth may not have hurt it too bad, depending on the shape it was in just before all this happened.

 

I had a set of Sampson true darks on my 07 SG and the rear pipe split. I will post a pic later. When I took the pipes off they use the thinest pipe I have ever seen and the welds were poor. I would never use their pipes again. Called them and they told me that they had never heard of that happening before and you are the second person that has told me their pipe split.

 

I removed the pipes last night. I inspected the valve through the port and it was a light brown color. The rear valve was ok,just some carbon on it. Are these valves stainless steel,and are they coated? I plan on getting V&H Bigshots as soon as possible. should I get new vaves,or do you think they're ok?

 

IMO it would be impossible to estimate the condition of your valves over an internet connection. All i can say is put on the new pipes,if the rest ain't broke don't fix it.If you have poor compression loss of power or smoke coming out that would be a clue there.