I'm not 100% sure if this discoloration is called Bluing or not but if anyone has the time to look at this, I've got a couple of questions concerning this exhaust pipe. First, I'll assume that the top of the pipe is called the header but please correct me if I'm wrong.

So I've been looking through all the old "Tips and Tricks" posts and found one that mentioned Blue Away for taking care of blue header pipes. Is that what is happening here to mine? The reason why I'm asking is because it's not really blue.

And my second question is, assuming I can get some Blue Away and take care of this ugliness, how can I prevent it from happening again? Are the pipes just getting overheated?

Thanks for any help you can give me on this topic.

Anything that gets the pipe hot will cause the blue to appear faster.  Idling while not moving, idling/riding with the choke on, high speed runs in hot weather, etc.

I have not used Blue Away....I have used Blue Job.  It is a white powder that you dampen a small piece of cloth that comes with it, then you dip it in the cloth and rub really hard.  It does remove the discoloration....and the more you rub the more of the yellow/blue goes away.

The color change (yellow/blue) is oxidation of the chrome surface.  The hotter it gets the darker blue the color.  Using the Blue Job you are actually scrubbing off the discolored layer....and making the chrome layer thinner.  It won't hurt anything to polish it once in a while - but do it too often and you will scrub the chrome away.

Justin_o_guy2 said: "Mine made 5,000 miles,"

JOG, that's one of the reasons I was concerned because my 2012 only has 1,100 miles on it. It seemed pretty weird that it would already be showing discoloration (again, with as little as I know about exhaust systems). But I guess being fairly new to me, I'm just trying to get everything as clean as possible.

And Dave, thanks for the advice. I must grudgingly admit that I'm guilty of the occasional, completely pointless REEEEV of the motor at stop lights when there are people in their cages staring at that "odd-looking, single cylinder bike next to us". I'll see if I can get some Blue Job off Amazon and apply it as sparingly as possible. Sounds pretty straight-forward.

I have just over 1000, kms on the s40 and the header is yellowing up a bit, and a small amount of bluing near the flanges. This would have been set up for Australia at sea level (presumably). I have heard that these bikes are often set up on the lean side, but I'm not sure how much faith I can place in that.

With normal riding, not sitting in traffic boiling the engine, does this bronzing tend to indicate a lean condition. Recently got 190kms on a tank of gas, not counting reserve.

@Serowbot,

I agree I quite like the look of the bluing pipes, I was only concerned if it might be an indicator of excess heat and/or overly lean.

Mine's way, way worse (14k miles) than that and I could care less. It's not going to stay new forever. Years ago people said the pipe colors had to be the right ones, and if not it meant doom or at least trouble. AFAIK if it's too lean for your taste, you can change the carb jet to richen the mixture, which will help the motor to run cooler and it's better for it that way. Don't ask me about it though I haven't gotten to that part yet.

A straw color is fairly normal, even if the pipe is never overheated. An almost black pipe means the owner is having a little too much fun!  

Dave wrote on 06/29/16 at 05:12:27:


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Thanks Dave, the Blue Job worked great. After 5-10 minutes of patient scrubbing, the pipes are shiny and brand new looking. I'll try to remember to use it sparingly.

Now if I can do something about this small dent in my gas tank....