Exhaust Header burns/safety

fonz

New Member
#1
Is there a good way to cover an exhaust header to prevent serious burns? I've been semi-lucky, but I can imagine someone flipping a mini and have the weight of the mini with its hot exhaust burning the hell out of someone. Hopefully not a kid. I've seen chrome covers for lawn mower mufflers that look really nice and stay about 1/4 inch away from the exhaust itself.
Any ideas? exhaust wrap? etc? I'd really like to find some fix to this very serious problem. My thanks to all who reply.
 
#3
I've ran into the exact problem. The header gets so hot that brushing your forearm against it if you loose a chain or something or touch a bare leg in shorts will cause 2nd or 3rd degree burns. Had it happen to me and my daughter. My solution was to make heat shields for all our minis. The shields still get hot, but not blistering hot if you barely touch them giving you a split second to pull away before getting a serious burn. You can make one for mufflers as well that will deflect heat so your leg doesn't get hot while riding. They work good.

I used some galvanized sheet metal like you make furnace or dryer ducts out of. Cut to size and shape you want with some tin snips. If you have a crimping tool you can add crimps to make it more ridged and help dissipate heat. Then to attach it, use some plumbing pipe brackets, like the copper type used to attach a water pipe to a wall (you can get them in different sizes - 1/2" 3/4" etc). Use some long screws with washers and nuts.

Here are the three different ones that I made for our minis:
 
#5
boy you aint kidding! I burnt the hell out of my leg twice last week. Finally said thats enough and put a shield on that bike. But exhaust wrap works good. I use stove rope because its cheaper . like 7 buks for a 6ft roll just enough to do a mini pipe. Or a shiled works great too. just weld a couple nuts to the pipe and use short screws. Heres a stainless one i made from an old pool ladder :thumbsup:
 
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