Should your header pipe glow in the dark?

Punters

As the days are getting shorter in the land of Oz, there's a fair bit more night riding happening. As I walked out to my idling bike the other night (06 Dakar) the header pipe was glowing cherrie red, it looked cool but I had never noticed this before. Going back to my shool days this should equate to around 750 degrees celsius (or 1380 in the old scale). I understand that the exhaust gases are far hotter but believed the majority of the heat would be lost in a safer way, primarily through the exhaust gas and cooling in the engine block.

Is this normal - a symtom of an over muffled bike or is this the beginning of a problem? :huh

Thanks

Forgot

And no the high temp light wasn't on.

Stock? Probably lean from the factory which would cause it to get hot. Better not to let it idle. Gear up first, then start the bike and ride easy until it's warm.

Your bike is probably jetted pretty lean from the factory to pass emision standards. Does it have air injection into the exhaust? If it does, that will cause an allready lean exhaust to run even hotter.
I wouldn't want to see one of my bikes running exhaust temps that high.

It's not too unusual ,especially if it's thin walled ti. My DR has done it, my Hayabusa will do it.. GSXRs do it... don't automatically freak.

I've had that happen. I'm pretty sure its normal, because I've seen it on multiple bikes and there was nothing wrong with any of the bikes.

Many bikes will do it and many owners never correct it. It is lean. A restrictive muffler will add tons of heat making it worse.

I've read about this over on KLR650.net forums and seems normal. Especially for the 08's because of some sort of air injection into the exhaust in order to meet emissions.

Question: what the hell were you doing away from your bike while it was idling? It wouldn`t be the first time that someone got pre occupied with something else and forgot that the bike was running.

BMW don`t recommend enging warm ups. Start engine, get oil circulating, ride slowly away until a couple of bars show on the temp gauge.

Much cheaper, much quicker, and much safer for our precious ozone layer.

F650 dont have temp guage. Your 1100gs will.

Have a look under the bonnet of your car at night.:eek1

No need to panic, but as stated, warm up while riding, not sitting.

My Dakar done it, talked to a dealer and he said it was normal if sitting still idling. You wouldn't notice it if you were riding it.

When you are riding your header is copping a nice blast of cold air to keep the temps down. When you stop it will just get hotter as it gets closer to the exhaust gas temp. due to no air movement to cool it down. I wouldn't panic about it -or leave it idling for extanded periods either

Mines got a red light on the dash next to the indicator-indicator? Its a red lamp, well I thought it was an over temp gauge. I'm of to check the manual.

On warming up, I have always been a zealot when it comes to liquid cooled engines. The general rule was half a cigartte before embarking on ones journey.

Not really, a restrictive muffler only allows so much flow thru it, if its glowing already with stock type restrictive muffler adding an aftermarket that flows more will only make it more lean, ie more flow going out lets more go in and the fuel never changes so you have more air with the same amount of fuel AKA lean. You may be lean from factory but i have seen some do that like others said. I would check to see if you are lean and fix that and not let idle for too long, atleast dont walk away too long LOL

Thankyou for all the responses, there seems to be a consensus toward the bike running lean. I'll take the opportunity to ask another dumb question:

I assume mixture is adjusted through the ECU via a laptop or similar, is there any way a home mechanic can 'reliably' modify it?

Thanks

No, not really. You can buy a piggyback ecu for a few hundred dollars, but why do it when there is nothing actually wrong with the bike? Yes, FI is usually tuned lean (especially at low throttle) but that's why the efficiency is so good. Gasoline is expensive coolant.

I'll vouch for the GSXR bit, I could light a ciggarette off mine after a stint in heavy traffic or flogging the crap out of it at lower speeds.

Are you sure it's not a feature specific to Aussie-spec bikes, may act as a deterrent to Kangaroos, more chance of seeing you.

I thought you guys didn't ride much at night because of 'roos or are they not an issue where you are?

Hit one yesterday while cruising along at about 80-90km/h.

It jumped into the side of me, I won though, the pannier got him

Using the bike for commuting insures you dont get a choice in winter (for the Southerners anyway) and its a given when living on dirt roads that the wildlife is waiting for you. The ABS gets a work out even on the dirt (yes it does work on all surfaces).

Maybe I should keep the temp up so when I bag something I can cook it. The Swamp Wallaby is the current offender in the local area, haven't tasted one yet.