I went for a night ride tonight and when I was out, I came to a stop and noticed the head pipe was glowing orange from the heat. The whole head pipe wasn't glowing, but mainly around where it comes out of the head. I had just finished going thru some sand and I was in first gear with the revs up but not bouncing off the rev limiter or anything, so I thought that was probably the cause. I got back out onto the road and drove a couple miles, stoped to see if the pipe was still glowing...it wasn't, but as I sat there and let the bike idle I could slowly see the pipe start to heat up and begin to glow.

The bike works like normal, not acting up, same power, but this is the first time I run the bike at night so it was the first time I noticed it. Now I know the bike runs lean from the factory, but I didn't think to the point where it would make the head pipe glow like this.
My bike is barely 3 weeks old and is bone stock with only 780 KM on it. I'm at sea level in Saint John, NB, Canada.

Anyone else's bike do this?

 

You are running lean big time.

 

That's what I thought, but I don't know how. The bike is all stock and I haven't touched it.

I'll have to check the plug tomorrow and see how it looks.

 

What you are seeing is the result of the Air Injection System (a.k.a. smog valve, air valve, etc.). This simple-minded little nod to the EPA allows the exhaust stroke to draw fresh air into the head right after the exhaust valve and mix it with the escaping exhaust gas to burn up a few extra hydrocarbons. This greatly increases head pipe temps and is the first thing I ditch from any bike that has it.

On cruisers, this system causes the lovely chrome pipes to blue very fast. On the KLX, it's just a nuisance.

 

I have had a few bikes and atvs and have worked on some and they all glow in the dark when stock even ones with out smog valve. The factory runs all the engines on the lean side and they just glow. No need to worry its normal.

 

Dont think mine does but I haven't looked

 

Holy crap that's cookin to get the headpipe to glow! I checked the headpipe/muffler mounting flange with an IR temp gun and that was a high of 450 when I had the smog crap still in, I haven't checked it since though. Also for the same reason as BMWHD said, the increase in exhaust temperature can lead you into thinking you have a lean condition due to backfiring when decelerating if and when you decide to rejet and get a new pipe. I messed with the air screw until it would rarely pop on decel and then checked the plug and I'm running quite rich, the plug was all black. But with the smog stuff gone I can screw it back in a bit and maybe open up the airbox a bit more.

BTW I think pics would be a good addition to this thread, I never noticed mine glowing when stock. Talk about hot roddin on a bike.

 

Thanks guys! My parts just came in to do all the carb mods, and hopefully my Muzzy shows up this week too, I will be removing the smog system at this time as well. I’ll see after the mods if the head pipe still glows.

 

The exhaust on an engine is hot! There is no getting around that.

Back when I was running my Pro car, if you opened the hood after a run down the track the entire exhaust was glowing red.

When you are making power, you are also making heat. The hottest spot on the exhaust is right where it leaves the head and the first bend is always the hottest.

It is normal!

 

Hi, this is my first post. My WR Yamaha has a Titanium header. It glows red hot in the dark. Its fun to look at. This is normal due to the thin Titanium metal. It looks like the KLX has a Titanium Header but I'm not shure. If it is, it will glow red. I went out and ran the KLX in the dark from a cold start with the choke on and it glowed in about two minutes.