Polishing

[Wildfire]

Decided to look at polishing the pipes as they have gone that horrible discoloured brown....Read some of the posts on here first then got hold of some Astonish polish.
Here's the dilemma.....Thought i'd do the odd patch by hand before shelling out on the polishing kits etc ready for a nice winters fettling..

Seemed OK then I remembered the bit about magnets not sticking to S/S... Tried a magnet and it sticks to the downpipes right though to the link section - I thought they were S/S although poor grade etc....Do I carry on and risk rust etc after wet / damp rides or spray the downpipes with heat resistant paint...Silver or Black??

[sirch345]

As FSM mentioned here's what I did, if you've not already seen it of course:-
http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB2/viewtopic ... pit+polish

Chris.

[kevg]

i wouldn't bother polishing them at all, as i posted before, i tried mine, and as soon as a switched the engine on they discoloured, i'd paint or ceramic coat them if i was to do mine again.

[stevevtr1]

Great results with the polishing ,shame it don't last Thats why mine are going black over the winter

[bikermike1411]

I think if you sprayed them you'd regret it - imho they'd look worse than honest discoloured ones! I'm going to polish mine soon, but probably only the one from the front pot. It's no so much the heat that makes them go cruddy as hot spots generated at bends or where they get blasted with crud on a ride.

And there are different levels of browning! They go a pleasant goldy colour once you've polished them, which is really easy to keep on top of. A quick wipe with solvol fixes it. It's only when you leave them for ages that they start to look bad.

I suppose one fix might be to buy an SP...at least then they're hidden!

[Pete.L]

Bikermike said

I suppose one fix might be to buy an SP...at least then they're hidden!

Thank God they are. If anything I think they are worse than the Storm for cruddy looking down pipes.

Pete.l

[Wildfire]

OK I might persevere with them...But can anyone tell me why the magnet sticks if they are supposedly S/S or was the 1997/8 an economy model

[bikermike1411]

Yeah, i've only had this storm on the road for what, 4 days? I'm already dreaming. This is a good place to start!

Click...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HONDA-SP1-VTR1000 ... .m14.l1318

Absolutely loving my return to twins...loving it!

[bikermike1411]

Hmmmm.... good spot there Mike! I guess he took them off when he was polishing it..... or maybe not!

Still....ever the optimist! £2k and it IS an SP1!

[Beamish]

Would it matter if it was serviced well? You would tend not to ride a badly running poorly set up bike on the track so surely worth a peek.

[yorkylancs]

They still rust or contaminate,because they are a low grade stainless,probably ferritic.Thats the sort of stuff they make cutlery out of,and sink units.True stainless has over 20% chromium in it,chromium imparts resistance to corrosion.They are just cheap pipes,honda would not want to use an austenitic stainless(none magnetic,therefore less susceptable to corrosion)on cost grounds.So you have "magnetic" pipes due to the ferrite content,less than mild steel,but barely stainless.Give em a good polish and keep the crud off them,and they dont look bad,as long as you keep on top of them.However there is a good link on here somewhere for ceramic coating,it looks trick and is quality.

[kevg]

http://www.camcoat.com/motorsport/exhausts.html

[yorkylancs]

Thats the best way to go,looks top quality,dont cost to much either.

[Wildfire]

Cheers for that guys....I'll probably go down the polishing route as it's the perfect excuse to disappear to the shed over winter
I remember having a ceramic coated Laser pipe on my old CB750F but dont think the budget will stretch there at present.