The question is how fast it'll become as rusty as before...

Aluminium foil + slightly salty water (can use diluted vinegar, I'd run out and was only trying it after all my other attempts exceeded my patience). It dissolves the iron oxide, so does a great job of cleaning the surfaces. Did my housemates entire Suzuki Intruder in about 30 minutes, was very orange, but now looks super clean.

This video was noticeably a step forward in content production. Keep it up, been here since 20K and I'm loving it :)

I am glad you recovered from your accident

very nice result :) last year i went similar lengths, but i also spraypainted them with black heat paint and then covered them with this fiberglass tape to avoid chipping from road debris.. also.. gloves ... buy a pair or two of those thicker mechanics gloves its night and day working with them .... especially when you use to bang your knuckles and fingers on everything

What's up with todays STAINLESS steel? it's not supposed to stain, even my 6 month old Leo Vince slip on has discolouration, I've seen chrome parts do better.

I polished my headers on my 09 and got them looking brand new with a good shine, took me two days with painkillers because of the arm workout! I used a blow torch to colour them around the welds, the Akropovic headers are also stainless so no deep blues like with Titanium but came out pretty good. I used sand paper and water, starting at 600 grit, 800, 1200 and finished off with polishing using a scotch pad then a microfiber. Took many hours and so far a year later they still holding up with no rust and no maintenance on the headers, I've just left them. 2018 MT-09 Akro full Titanium system, put 10 000km on since the polish. Cheers from Boksburg. There are no short cuts for this type of result.

Well you are back! So glad for the new video! Since we do not have Harpic where i live i had to experiment with all the other known substances. On my old virago 750 i jad to be careful not to damage the chrome. So the best result was achieved with Autosol. No steel wool on the shiny parts,please! Just the ones before it. Result was amazing. Work with your hands and wrap around a piece of cotton towel. It needs a little temperature to do the job. Btw i learned a lot for this from another very respected person on the utube. It is good checking the Dellboy's advise. Ride safe mate!

I've used harpic before and had to really scrub to get the pipes looking nice. Stopped using when I found out it corrodes steel. I don't know if you can get it in your neck of the woods but Dr Downpipe is incredible. Quick spray, leave for five mins, quick scrub with a scouring pad, rinse and microfibre. Takes me half an hour at most and the toughest part of the job is scrubbing the tip of the slip on. Also it doesn't leave your bike smelling like a toilet.

First time viewer - the algorithm obviously didn't like me/you before. Your content is great. So enjoyed the life I live to!

Have exactly the same exhaust and scorpion end can. I always use the dark red/ purple scotch brite pad and cut them int strips. Loop around the pipes and pull back and forth. Takes no more than 20mins with the pipes still on the bike. The10x cleaner definitely works and I’ve had no issues 6 years on but I do wash them well afterwards as the results are almost instant. I also regularly spray ACF 50 over the whole bike with the exception of the brakes and have no corrosion on anything after 21000 miles.

BEST motorcycle channel 🔥

One is missing! This made me laugh :) btw, good to see you back on the bike!!

Another awesome video, makes me want to clean mine.

Kitchen towel and autosol works well as kitchen towel is surprisingly abrasive, once you get it to a decent finish then carry on with cloth and polish to really shine.

I have already used Harpic Power Plus 10 on the headers of a Tracer 900 and a XSR 900, and it was almost effortless to get the headers cleaned and looking like new. After the Harpic treatment i've polished the headers with some paint polish, just to give them some shine. Worked for me.

Love your work boet!

Very nice! I've been using autosol for yeeeears and I absolutely love it. My method now it's Harpic + Autosol and the thing last.

I used the metal polish you had in the cupboard (Maguieres) and that worked out just great. Everything looks like new. But it’s real elbow work.

I stopped caring about the shinyness of my headers. To me it actually looks cooler and makes me know that you are actually using the bike in the rain. Real bikers ride in the rain

Nice video. A few tricks : remove any jewelry and wrist watch before starting and wear rubber boots rather than brand new lacing convers. As for stainless steel it is NOT corrosion free. Titanium is much better! It's a good idea to dismantle the exhaust before cleaning it but please, stop this Arpic cleaning trick. You should never use hydrochloric acide for cleaning stainless steel because it will destroy the dirty layer but also the chromium oxide AND chromium particules in the metal leaving a shiny but weaker metal surface. The way to go is Nitric acide which destroy the dirt and IRON oxyde, and any feritic particules in the base metal, leaving a clean and even more resistant metal surface. It could be a little dull if you use a too strong concentrate or leave it too long...but any decent stainless polish paste will get it as bright as new. Last, NEVER use silicon spray in the vicinity of a lambda probe or catalytic exhaust... Silicon can ruin the catalyst at incredible low concentration : it's almost magic (black magic)

Scotchbrite with wd40 allways does the trick for me!

Best thing to do would be to take them to get ceramic coated (professionally). I have long tube headers on my Charger and had them coated from Kooks. After 3 years and multiple track passes, they look brand new still. Look into it. Companies like jet-hot coating, etc.

I would have finished off with ACF50 spray. I've used this stuff for years. Also, I recommend a canvas bike cover: you can put it on when the motor's hot, and it's better because the bike can "breathe" under canvas. Good video, nice job.

A definite improvement! Those rubber gloves looked a bit weedy - get yourself some Venom Steel black rubber gloves. They're expensive but really tough and each pair will probably do ten header cleaning sessions. Solvol actually do their own exhaust tarnish remover (not the metal polish). It's called Solvol Autosol Bluing Remover. If you compare the Product Safety Data Sheets of the Solvol with the Harpic 10x, the Solvol is between 10% - 25% hydrogen chloride (pH 0.3) while the Harpic is 9% (pH 1.5 - 1.7), so the Solvol is more acidic (it also contains ingredients to protect the metal after cleaning, which, of course, the Harpic won't have). I use also finish off with Solvol metal polish but find Scotch Brite pads work better than steel wool. A final polish with a buffing wheel in a drill brings them up like new. Stubborn deposits can be tackled with a brass wheel in a drill but avoid a regular steel wire wheel as tiny parts of the bristles can break off and embed themselves into the headers where they will subsequently rust. Be aware that the headers will start to turn bronze again after about 500 miles, but after the first cleaning, it's a quick job to re-shine them and you shouldn't need to remove the pipes to do it.

mine too, wow, was just wondering on the techniques on how to prevent it.

Dude, love your content. I see you have been injured lately and off the bike. I am currently in the same position. Two injured knees. Been off the bike for a week now and mental health is going down hill fast. How did you deal with it?

Great work 🔥 Love the MT09, i waaas just wondering where can i get that mirrors of yours? Or if anyone know help.... ?

For SS use citric acid, cheap and safe to use. Best to use it when hot, 170*F. So you can use it after a ride. This will Passivate the SS. Just water rinse after and good to go.

Harpic 10x and a scotch brite pad is my go to. Paint it on with a paint brush and scrub the rest away

As a guy riding a V4, I won't be doing this. But thanks for another great video. Glad to see you're backin the saddle to the extent where you can take several rides per day! :) /Robert

Cleen Green works like a bomb. Used it on my cars tailpipes with that same scouring pad. Give it a try

Yup! AutoSol is the best from the start! Just requires a lot of elbow grease initially, then a monthly maintenance session! My pipes looked fantastic for a while but became a tedious job every month... Sooooooooooooooo... I found some REALLY good Rustoleum Super Duper High Heat 2000+C flat black and ended up painting the headers with that! Needless to say, they really looked fantastic and lasted forever! A year after doing that I purchased my Akrapovic system and the old pipes still looked fantastic! So that's the next thing... And if you do spray them, just take you time and apply a few good coats and let it dry between! Quick and simple. 😁👍👌

Yoshimura stain magic. Rub it on, rub it off. My matte brown pipes looked brand new afterwards.

little cb300r owner here.. have had it in storage since the first snow and the headers are still clean, will absolutely give some of these a shot when necessary tho.

Ketchup and lemon juice also works amazing! Both contain acid, and working is in with a pad(or aluminum foil) and then cleaning with baking soda amazing result for me all the time

From my experience autosol with the maroon coloured 3m scotchbrite pad is the best way for cleaning exhausts it works amazing!

The harpic limescale remover works great. I did the same on my dirt bike. It will strip back dissolved minerals that have baked onto the metal. As far as rust is concerned try Iron fallout remover which dissolves rust into a purple colour so that you can see it is working. Its predominantly used in Car Detailing all over paint finishes so is perfectly safe to apply on other areas of your bike. Always do tests first before committing to liberal application of any product.

Funny coming home and seeing this video when I just cleaned my own exhaust with harpic.

10:19 I'm pretty sure your girlfriend won't be happy because you're indirectly saying she has dandruff! 😂

I am thinking about doing this but I plan on using a high temp spray paint at the end

The best way is to use scotch brites to clean the headers and some metal polish to complete the finish. It's simple, cheap and makes the headers look brand new again.

autosol bluing remover works like a miracle if you need a good product next time you do it. I had to clean my akrapovic once on a yamaha yzf-r125. It did wonders, looking brand new after that stuff.

You can use k2 paste, it's very strong and we use it as an industrial metal guno remover

Autosol with a paper towel ot microfiber and scrub with medium to high preassure until the paste comes out black, the wipe off with a clean microfiber. Also a cloth wheel on a angle grinder or a buffer will work wonders!! On the darker spots a wetsand from 1200 - 2500 and then the step above is going to make them look brand new! But for 90min job thats pretty good👍🏻

Dr.Downpipe, i can get it from my local dealer and it is brilliant,, spray, leave for couple mins and the rust literally drips off, then wire wool, polish, happy days

what a pain... they rot from inside anyway, but I admire your effort!

I work as a motorcycle detailer for a motorcycle dealership. I use aluminum rim cleaner to get the orange/brown oxidstion off. You need to clean it of almost instantly because of how abrasive it is. Then I use steel wool and something like chrome polish. When im still not satisfied, I use an electric drill with a small polishing bit and go ham on that thing.

This is where having a fully faired bike comes into its own.. My exhaust is also stainless steel meaning it will not corrode away to nothing even if it does become dull over time. Anyway, its hidden behind the fairing so I dont care too much, as long as it does the job! The muffler cleans up very well with just an application of shampoo (Not head and shoulders!) and rinse off. Autosol is good at removing rust but is too coarse to get that showroom shine if thats what you're after and will leave micro scratches on your bright chrome surfaces and on stainless steel. Mothers alloy polish is a better bet for a really bright finish but All metal polishes will require some effort to get a good result and there's no way around that!

Black Harpic and Autosol is used ALOT when working with headers/exhausts. Where i'm from every moped mechanic is using that.

Autosol and my old electric tooth brush worked incredibly well. But you need to recharge. So i started using a dremmel with a nylon brush attachment. Also great

Puffing machine with metal polish is the best combo. The stainless steel doesn't have a protective finish like on chrome pipe, so on a puffing machine it wouldn't hurt the pipe and bring the shine 10x faster.

I straight up grind it with 800 grit, then 1000 and then green compound.... Then autosol. It was shiny, but after 2 months of 10k rpm... It's golden again

Steel wool and WD40. Brilliant

I use Harpic black when the headers are really bad .. rinse off with plenty of water the I use Autosol for a very long time.. takes 45 min or so.. then I use WD40 as a last step (Akrapovic recommends this step) .. bike are 5 + years and the headers look pretty good. It is a job that needs to be done every third time I wash my bike

easy grit sandpaper with brake cleaner so its a wet oily sanding process (constant wipe downs with 99% alcohol then same oil but with #000 steel wool. Took hours but it got my titanium headers back into tip top shape. I haven't installed it back on yet but I may even go over it with a buffer for extra shine but then again I may powder coat them black.

I think it has a lot to do with the quality of the stainless steel. I've had scorpion pipes before and they got really tarnished, more than the oe ones.

try to use sand paper (1000 grit) sir. it also works well.

On the side not, I've noticed that my hair tends to fall and I get more dandruff with Head&Shoulders. It always needed a few weeks of reclimating my head to a different shampoo to get the dandruff back to 0. Currently I'm maining Schwarzkopf Schauma with the coconut scent, can recommend.

Love this ❤

I’m your big fan i use to watch your video from year ago ❤️from 🇳🇵

Best to keep any silicone containing products away from the O2 sensor and the bung. Regarding polishing and oxidation removal, any stainless steel polish with oxalic acid will work fast and leave a passive layer. Do not use with steel wool as it embeds iron superficially into the stainless steel. Use a 3M scotch brite pad.

You should try a polishing wheel for your rotary. Although from my experience in the past with Dremel sized polishing wheels it’s unusable on plastics because the small size allows it to creat hotspots VERY fast, although I had like no experience with that size of a wheel and to be honest it was probably some cheap Chinese bi-plastic.

try using break disc cleaner, some of them, not all, can clean rust

Do you have Pledge metal polish available in ur country? Because here in philippines that is the product that we use for cleaning exhaust pipe.

Dr Downpipe. Spray on, give it a few minutes and then a quick scrub. Rinse and ride. Excellent product and is safe on the rest of the bike.

INSTEAD of doing all that work for no reason,let me impart to You,a GREAT WAY to protect your bike's headers! A few years ago,my all "chrome" headers started looking nasty,so I cleaned them really well,and got all the rust off of them,but THEN,I took it to a local company near me,and had them Ceramic Powder-coated black (the color of my bike) and since then,all I do now,is use a "spray-polish" that I use on the paint of my bike,and that polish cleans off any roadgrime from the headers and keeps them looking brand new! : >)

Definitely start with autosol bluing removal and then autosol metal polish but you should have longer cloth to make a loop around the pipe 😁 This takes just 15min to have it do without removing the exhaust. Yep, you have to repeat it every month 😭

Windex neutralizes acid because it contains ammonia. So use Windex glass cleaner or ammonia, probably should dilute pure ammonia but im not 100% sure about that...

Just use the autosol antiblue for stainless or Chrome. Takes whey less time and works way faster to get you,re exhaust looking like new. Because it has a high amount of hydrogloric acid in it.

I skip the toilet cleaner and oven cleaner and use something called Blue Magic mag wheel polish. and I use it with steel wool. Blue magic acts like your toilet cleaner chemically cutting the oxidation and the steel wool cuts right through (just like the video). I use one piece of steel wool because it scratches less as you go leaving a polished surface. It seems to work a little faster than the Autosol and it is one step instead of 3. But it doesn't rain much where I live, so I might not have as much rust/dirt buildup to start with even though it looks similar before and after. Also I rarely get up near the flange because it hurts my knuckles and you cant really see that far up there so I cant vouch for that area but anything from the first bend down will work in one step. Spend a little more time and effort and they look almost chrome plated when you are done (and will get rid of those black spots the Autosol left behind). it touches up with half the effort too since the dirt has less to stick too since they are so smooth.

i used dr downpipe cleaner, took a bit of elbow grease but god is the end result good

Oven cleaner needs way more time to work. I used it once to get rid of burnt in material from a microfiber towel. Leaving the cleaner on for 1h did almost nothing but then I left it over night and the result was perfect. All the burnt in resedue came of with one wipe and without a trace. Can highly recommend it!

Autosol Blueing Remover is amazinggg at doing this job. Next time.

Harpic is a go to for almost everyone... not for me. Regardless of what people say about cleaning them like 'new', it doesn't. Yes, it gets them clean but nowhere near as mirror shiney as they should be and the acid WILL damage the chromium in the steel. This also causes issues as some say that they have Ti downpipes, no you don't... downpipes are stainless steel. Damage to the chromium will lead to your exhaust tarnishing and rusting far quick in future and each time you use the Harpic you will make the situation worse and the rust will come back quicker and quicker. A good cleaner is Dr Downpipes and then Autosol for the polish up. That will get the best shine possible and won't damage the metalwork. Once clean, soak the full exhaust with ACF/XCP let it sit for at least 30 mins, wipes any pools of excess and then run the bike up to temp until it stops smoking like the inside of a Jamaican taxi. My exhaust (Akra) while dulled, is rust free and I clean it roughly once every 2 or 3 years! Again, my bike lives outside on the street under a cover on the moist streets of London.

You guys clean your manifolds?

Sounds like a lot of steps, some of which might be superfluous. @Techman83 in the comments describes an aluminium foil + diluted vinegar or slightly salty water method which looks as interesting as it's fast and cheap. But the high temperature silicon spray finish will surely be worth a try!

I recommend seasoning it like your stainless steel steak pans. If meat and salt doesn't stick on seasoned pans how much more you headers. BTW, it might also be technically called "oil bluing". It will end up with a blue Titanium like blue finish.

Funny cos I did this to my mt09 today, I used 1 fine scotchbrite pad (grey) with wd40

Just buy a buffer or even a buffer drill attachment. The drill attachment lets you get into all the creases. Just have to watch the rpms of the drill.

I´ve also used Harpic power max 10 and lots of rags and elbow grease. Clean it off very good with a degreaser and use some metal polish to make it complete shiny again. Let it all rest for 24h because if it's not complete dry it will burn in again.

Why not just blue them like a rifle barrel? You have a few options. I actually thought about going a plum on my headers. You can black nitrate them so you have black rust instead of red rust. Personally I like the blued look on headers.

Autosol is the best with a polish machine. By hand it's hard work

Last step use some Duraglite !

I'd normally swear by Autosol, plus a drill-mop. But fairings mean "out of sight, out of mind" 😀

I can assure you, Autosol is definately the way to go but for headers you need to also use a Dremmel or other small head fast polishing tool.

Would like to see how a metal buff would work

To maintain the pipes, use a bluing remover.

I recently found out that autosol has a chemical that’s called bluing remover and that works awesome. Just brush it on ant wipe it away when its dry

Mine are just painted lol so yeah not super flashy but at least one thing less to worry about

Great video. Very informative and you had me laughing out loud with your girlfriend’s shampoo.

Tried x 10 harpic 20 minutes, then autosol elbow grease. Then, as if by magic brand new. 👍

I use wire brush attached to a drill and it works perfectly.

I've been riding my cb500f in all sorts of weather except snow-salt for the past 5 years and my headers are only tinted bronze, I don't have this rust issue. Maybe it's because i initially sprayed them with wd40 and rode the bike burning in the stuff, i dunno

Steel wool with Belgom polish

I just wire wheel everything off with a flat wire wheel hooked to my air ratchet. Do this once every couple years and use high heat silver to repaint them to look new. My headers never look busted.

nice vid

The joys of a naked bike

you could use WD40 after every ride it will get rid of the road grime and keep the headers shiny you can do it when they are hot but it'll create a lot of smoke its up to you honestly you could let it sit or wipe it of its also a good protection layer against water if you let it sit on there it will help with cleaning it the next time

Anyone got some tips if your flanges are bent ??