Ceramic Coating or Painting Exhaust?

[derek533]

Ok, went for a long ride yesterday on my new to me Breva 1100.  The only eye sore to me (my opinion, you may like it), is my exhaust.  My bike is all black with a little bit of chrome on the tank.  The exhaust just doesn't look good IMO and I would like to do something about it. 

I know I can polish the pipes and get all that off, but it will just return the very next ride I'm afraid.  What I'm looking for, is a more permanent solution.  Anyone ever painted their pipes with a high temperature paint or ceramic coated them?  Seems like this would be a good solution if it lasts any length of time. 

My Bike: 

[PeteS]

Ceramic coating is the only way to go. I have painted pipes on my LeMans and have to repaint them at least once a year. More if I ride in the rain as the boiling water takes the paint right off. My only experience is with Jet Hot, one of the first to do ceramic coating and the pipes were still good after 10 years when I sold the bike.

Pete

[Old Jock]

I've used ceramic coatings to good effect, obviously a supplier in UK is of no use to you

I would not even consider paint, but that's just my opinion, as far as exhausts go (for me) there are 3 options

1) Wrapping, least preferred, messy to do and generally not so good. Can look reasonable on older machines

2)Polishing, you can get the pipes polished, prior to doing that I'd get them cermaic coated inside with the best heat resistant coating you can find and probably 2 or more coats. This will reduce the heat transmitted to the pipes themselves, at least increasing the periods between polishing

3) Ceramic coating, my fave, surprisingly durable, I'd get inside and outside done.

I go for a silk or matt black, but there is a bewildering array of colors available. I tried Ceramic Chrome (CermaKrome I think was the trade name) and it looked s**t.

John

[canuck750]

Ceramic coating is the only way to go. I have painted pipes on my LeMans and have to repaint them at least once a year. More if I ride in the rain as the boiling water takes the paint right off. My only experience is with Jet Hot, one of the first to do ceramic coating and the pipes were still good after 10 years when I sold the bike.

Pete

 :1:

[Mark West]

Ditto on the Ceramic coating. I had a set done in silver by Jet Hot and they still looked great 10 years later. You can chip the coating with tools and of course you can still melt stuff on them, but no special maintenance required to keep them looking good.

[PeteS]

Ditto on the Ceramic coating. I had a set done in silver by Jet Hot and they still looked great 10 years later. You can chip the coating with tools and of course you can still melt stuff on them, but no special maintenance required to keep them looking good.

I had mine done in silver too. Back then it was silver or black. I found you could bring back the luster with metal polish, another plus.

Pete

[Nic in Western NYS]

Ceramic coating is the only way to go. I have painted pipes on my LeMans and have to repaint them at least once a year. More if I ride in the rain as the boiling water takes the paint right off. My only experience is with Jet Hot, one of the first to do ceramic coating and the pipes were still good after 10 years when I sold the bike.

Pete

JetHot did a great job on my Lemans V.  Looked sharp. 

[Green1]

You can heat wrap them as well,poor mans solution for now

[Cam3512]

Find a local place that does Cerakoting.  That's what I did to my headers, and you can drop off and pick up.

http://gsdcoatings.com/cmsms/index.php?page=exhaust

[tris]

My B11 is all black too and I've trying to decide if it annoys me. One solution is to claim they match the rocker covers 

As an aside if we got the headers remade in a full fat stainless like 316 or 321 would they not colour up?

[derek533]

My B11 is all black too and I've trying to decide if it annoys me. One solution is to claim they match the rocker covers 

As an aside if we got the headers remade in a full fat stainless like 316 or 321 would they not colour up?

Well, my thinking is that here we have a bike with beautiful, clean flowing lines on it in jet-black with an exhaust that looks really out of place compared with the rest of the bike IMO. 

Wonder what coating the engine covers and exhaust in a cherry red would look like? 

Thanks for the JetHot recommendation guys, turns out, they have two locations in the country one of which is 15 miles from my house!  I'll look into it. 

[fotoguzzi]

where do I find a jet hot coater near me or do I have to ship parts off to them? thinking of doing the extra DR header I have.

[Cam3512]

where do I find a jet hot coater near me or do I have to ship parts off to them? thinking of doing the extra DR header I have.

Read the thread, and search Cerakote exhaust coatings in your area.

[fotoguzzi]

already tried that. no results.

[rodekyll]

For me the big advantage of ceramic coating is that the ceramic holds the heat in the pipe rather than letting it run up my leg.  Huge difference in radiated heat.  For best results do them inside and outside.

[chuck peterson]

I have a caution with a JetHot and iron disk combo...after about six years of brutal conditions, rust from wet rotors has peels off and semi embeds itself in the hot header..excellent color elsewhere for a long time...

OP.. I'd go for a black muffler...black on black with one touch chrome

[rodekyll]

I did about 1200 miles of brown mud one afternoon and my black ceramic pipes have been tan ever since.

[slopokes]

did you mean 12 miles -- 

[rodekyll]

No, I'm pretty sure it was 1200.  Maybe more.  More days, I mean.  On roads like this:




When it wasn't raining it stuck like this:






Here you can see after a good soaking to hammer off the big chunks, that the pipes are already taking on the brown.  They were fresh at the start of the trip.  By the end they looked like the furry part of a whitetail deer.





I don't know why they call it the "Dust to Dawson" run.  Ain't no dust about it unless you pack your own.  I've gently scrubbed the hell out of them and the color isn't going away.

[leafman60]

I've used Jet Hot Coatings with good results in the past. However, I don't think yours looks bad.  Clean them off and be happy. All black would be a LOT of black.

If you want ceramic, Jet Hot has their west facility in Oklahoma!

At one time, the OK facility did a finish that looked better than the east coast facility.  They claimed it had to do with ambient humidity!

http://www.jet-hot.com/contact/

[charlie b]

Well, being as cheap as I am....I used paint on mine.  Flat black bike, flat black paint.  Original headers were in pretty sad shape so I took them off and sanded them a bit with 220 grit.  Just enough to roughen up what was left of the chrome.

After 20k miles it has held up ok.  Not much chipping.  But, the color has gotten lighter near the exhaust port.  Next time I take them off will paint again.

Cleaning?  Well, since I don't clean it very often that hasn't been a big issue.  :)  When I do clean it I just spray the bike with Simple Green and then rinse it.  Not any scrubbing.  So the paint has survived that.

If I had a bike that looked nice to start with I'd use the ceramic coating.

PS to me stainless has a nice look.  Alternative is to paint the bike to match the stainless :)

[Stevex]

Satin black ceramic is the only way to go.

[Nic in Western NYS]

Satin black ceramic is the only way to go.

Perfect!  How has the finish weathered over time?

[Stevex]

Perfect!  How has the finish weathered over time?

I've used ceramic finish on a few bikes over the years and it's exceedingly durable...however I no longer ride in adverse weather conditions (unless caught out), so have no idea what the result would be if it were continually covered in wet road dirt.