Forum

[Revband]

Jeff, I congratulate you, you are a man who is never wrong, however I would like to point out that when riding trials and in slow sections I have seen many an exhaust pipe glowing red hot, I have never yet seen exhaust wrap glowing in this way. Now you can come back and baffle everyone with you gobbledygook science.

[PeteF]

Anyway, whether it increases performance or not, Nigelphoto is talking about "an old 350 Bullet"
I think I can confirm that any increase in performance from wrapping the exhaust would be undetectable.
It occurs to me that the wrap would just catch the road dirt and be difficult to clean.

[nigelphoto]

Some very interesting replies, as usual on here and many thanks to one and all for taking the trouble. I never for one moment thought that wrapping the exhaust was for the purposes of making anything go faster. I sold a much faster m'cycle to buy my 500 Classic and that's also why I'm thinking of a custom job on an old 35. Since I am fast approaching 70 (not telling you from which direction!) and my eyesight is not nearly as sharp as it used to be and nor are my reactions, I am happy to slow down a little nowadays. I merely pondered on why anyone might want to do it, thats all. In actual fact I did check out Papasmurf's link and found out that the sales patter on exhaust wrap came from a company called Textile Technologies, previously Cheshire Ribbon Company - so for 'exhaust wrap' read 'pink ribbons' - says it all, really.

[Adrian]

Exhaust wrap has been seized upon by the "Artisan" bobber/cafe racer building set as another box to tick. I'd spend the money on something else. A.

[Revband]

I should by now know when to go away, but no fool like an old fool. The wrap we used in olden days was asbestos and did protect against burns, the only reason for using it.

[papasmurf]

Personally if I could afford it I would fit a copper exhaust system.

[Mark M]

Papa's got a brand new bag! no, a good point there. I saw an "Old Skool" chop of a Model J at Kempton Park autojumble a while back and it had several copper plated parts as well as a copper exhaust and it looked quite good. It was let down by a naff coffin tank and various other 70s era styling disasters but the copper/chrome/polished alloy look was quite pleasing overall.

REgards, Mark

[Bullet Whisperer]

I am fairly sure copper for exhaust pipes has been illegal for much longer than I have been around, due to poison gasses being emitted from them. I don't know what these gasses might be, maybe someone else could throw some light on this?

[ric]

Modern Ceramic coating means we are no longer reliant on using something akin to small bore fire hose.

[Adam]

I too understand that it is illegal to use copper components in vehicle exhausts and I further understand the reason to be that a reaction between the hot gas and the copper takes place and carbon monoxide, that well known tasteless, colourless, odourless killer, is formed. Only hearsay, please don’t shoot the messenger. Adam