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Im thinking of having the pipes on my 07 1200rt professionally coated.. probably chrome. Im tired on the brown head pipes. I know its add character, yada yada yada.
Anyway, any feedback from someone that's done it? Also, how far back did you go? To or past the CAT?
THanks in advance for your comments..
We have a few bikes with Jet-Hot ceramic coatings. We went with the black on two, I used the unpolished Sterling Silver on one. I did the entire system up to the muffler, including the cat on one bike as I was not ready to remove it with a Y pipe yet.
You can have them chromed by a plater, but they are single wall tubing unlike H-D pipes and will still "blue" in short order.
We have a set that are polished...came on bike so not sure who did it. Does not look chrome, but hi luster aluminum.
here is the silver on our 12S, it has same finish as valve covers.
[IMG]http://henzilla.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/header-pipes/i-sJJhkJQ/0/L/R12S%20farkles%20%282%29-L.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=stokesrl;841895]Im thinking of having the pipes on my 07 1200rt professionally coated.. probably chrome. Im tired on the brown head pipes. I know its add character, yada yada yada.
Anyway, any feedback from someone that's done it? Also, how far back did you go? To or past the CAT?
THanks in advance for your comments..[/QUOTE]
Before you invest a lot of money on chrome plating thin single wall pipes you should investigate carefully what chrome will look like once it gets as hot as single wall pipes do.
All of the really nice chrome pipes the Asian bikes use are double walled pipes that don't get glowing warm like BMW single wall pipes do.
If somebody persuades you single wall chrome pipes will continue to look good, get an enforceable iron clad guarantee.
It's not really chrome - I think more polished aluminum...
Here's where I was looking: [URL="http://nitroplate.com/"]http://nitroplate.com/[/URL]
[QUOTE=stokesrl;842005]It's not really chrome - I think more polished aluminum...
Here's where I was looking: [URL="http://nitroplate.com/"]http://nitroplate.com/[/URL][/QUOTE]
That is a baked on ceramic coating. It appears some finishes have powdered aluminum mixed with the uncured ceramic. It absolutely isn't chrome.
I haven't checked the various different vendors doing ceramic coating. I am vaguely familiar with Jet-Hot like mentioned by Steve (Henzilla). Nitroplate of course says it is superior to their competitors, but I suspect their competitors say the same thing.
As a generalization, baked ceramic coatings work well on exhausts. Do homework, compare costs, check with others who have used them, and have fun.
I was just worried because chrome on single walled pipes can be a big disappointment.
My chrome headers after 1000s of offroading miles and 80000m total, look sweet still and the chrome may be blue'd, just a tad is all and still very pretty compared to the stainless equivilant i've seen out there. The BMW factory chrome guys do good work, just finding a USA chrome guy doing equal. They are out there. I use NeverDull cotton swab on mine, maybe twice a year and it does a swell job keeping the chrome pipes looking really nice and boy have they been in the mud and all else adventure dishes out. Randy:thumb
I still have my R100/7 original headers and mufflers at 388000m, all CHROME factory job since new. They look swell and the same care given for 35years, NeverDull. They are blue, but shiney blue:). Its BMW Character. I would buy the chrome option again on my next BMWs, every time. Randy:thumb
[QUOTE=stokesrl;841895]Im thinking of having the pipes on my 07 1200rt professionally coated.. probably chrome. Im tired on the brown head pipes. I know its add character, yada yada yada.
Anyway, any feedback from someone that's done it? Also, how far back did you go? To or past the CAT?
THanks in advance for your comments..[/QUOTE]
You don't tell us where you live but if you start googling or searching coating companies you might find something close. For instance, I want to have my pipes coated too but I want them to be black. I found a place in Denver North Carolina, [url]www.calicocoatings.com[/url]. I rode over to the shop and they showed me examples of their work which looked top notch to me. They said they could do the job for $125.00 range.
I live in Nashville where this particular coating company is. Specifically, I was interested about general expereinces some of you guys may have had...
BMW uses single wall stainless steel tubing for a number of reasons:
1. Single wall tubing is lighter than double layer chrome plated tubing (like on Harleys).
2. Single wall tubing more effectively transfers heat than does double wall tubing.
3. Stainless steel tubing can easily be polished to produce a classy satin finish.
But, because it is stainless steel tubing, it "heat colors" to a somewhat gold to brown color. To some riders that is just fine (me for one), as I kind of like the goldish hue of the SS headers. Because the hot pipes are right in the splash path fo the front tire, and hot due to the single wall tubing, road spray/grit quickly builds up on the surface and they turn a crappy brown color. On my 94 RS I scrubbed the headers with 3M pads and lots of WD40. WD40 takes off all the tar and stuck on crap and the 3M pad scrubs/polishes the finish. Then after it dries, I polish the headers with Mother's Wadding. I've done this on many bikes I detail for Nicks BMW.
Pretty easy now to keep my headers looking good at 170k miles, even compared to other oilheads with only 20k miles o them. Costs very little too.