Wrapping Your Motorcycle Pipes with Exhaust Insulating Wrap

Looking for an inxpensive and easy way to give your scoot a custom “old school” look? Try wrapping your pipes with exhaust header wrap. Perhaps your pipes are blue or scratched but other than that they function fine – why spend the money on a new set of pipes for the look when wrapping them will give them an awesome look for a fraction of the cost of new pipes.Besides the nice look there is also a chance of increasing your performance a bit. Wrapping the pipes with the insulating wrap keeps the pipes from radiating heat. This keeps the exhaust gases leaving the engine hotter which improves the flow of the gases out of the pipe. Another advantage is that this also keeps the heat that would normally radiate from the pipes off of you.

After installing the exhaust wrap I found that even after a good run down the Interstate I can touch the the wrapped part of the pipe with out burning the tips of my fingers off – yeah it is still hot but try touching a bare exhaust after a 25 mile, 85 mph run and see what happens to your hand, leg, or whatever (don’t try this – trust me it burns and HURTS! – very much bad).

Installing the Wrap

To install the exhaut wrap you will need the wrap, a good pair of sharp sissors, a way to clamp the wrap to the pipes, I used 2 1/2″ stainless steel hose clamps that I picked up at the auto parts store for a couple of bucks, and a second set of hands.

It will take nearly a 50′ roll of 2 inch exhaust wrap to wrap two 2 1/4″ motorcycle pipes, a little more or a little less depending on how much you over-lap, how much of the pipes you wrap, and the diameter of your pipes. I wrapped just over half of my pipes with about a 1/2″ overlap and it took all but about 7′ of the 50′ roll.

I have read and seen a lot of different ways to wrap your pipes. The primary difference in between these processes is how you wet the wrap. I have read that you just want to dampen the wrap with a spray bottle or that you want to soak it for an hour or 2 in a bucket. I did what I consider half way. I dumped the whole roll of wrap in a bucket of room temperature water and rolled it from there. I didn’t let it soak, just dumped it in the bucket and started rolling.

Remove the pipes form the bike and clean them up real good, you do not have to worry about polishing them up, just make sure they are good and clean. Gather all your materials together and drop the whole roll of exhaust wrap in the bucket of water.

Start wrapping at the bottom of the pipe and work towards the motor. Wrap around a few times overlapping each previous wrap about a 1/2″ then install one of the clamps where you started (this is where the second set of hands is helpfull). Once the clamp is installed just continue to warp the pipe as tight as possible overlapping each wrap about 1/2″ until you get to the end of the pipe. Cut the wrap, wrap it nice and tight and install another clamp.

Hang the finished pipe on the garage wall to dry and repeat the process for the other pipe. Once both pipes are wrapped hang them up and let them dry out some, over night should be fine. Then reinstall the pipes.

Once you are finished wrapping and you reinstall the pipes, open the garage door (trust me on this one) and fire up your scoot. Bring it up to operating normal operating temperature. The new wrap is going to smoke like hell and smell even worse. Let it run for a bit then shut her off and let the bike cool down. You will notice the first few times out on the road that the wrap will smoke a bit and it will smell really bad for a right good while. Also anytime the wrap gets wet it will smell.

You may also need to check your carburator jetting after you install the pipes as the wrapped pipes may cause your motor to run a bit leaner. Mine was running a bit rich anyway and it did lean it out a bit – since it was really running a little too rich in the first place I did not need to re-jet. If necessary re-jet then have fun.

Take Care – Ride FREE

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