I love two-strokes! I race them, fix them, restore them and promote them. There are always a heard of two-stroke machines in my workshop every month.
One problem when fixing or restoring two-stroke bikes is rusty exhaust pipes They are such a pain to get cleaned up. I’ve tried sanding them which takes too long, requires hours and a ton of elbow grease.
I tried sand blasting them, but few pipes actually fit into my small blasting cabinet. The ones that do fit, look fine if I paint them, but do not have the right look to leave them bare metal.
Rusted Pro Circuit pipe.
Another angle of the rusted pipe.
A friend asked to test some Pipe Gel manufactured by a company called Pro Clean. Since there was a very rusted Pro Circuit factory pipe hanging in the garage, it was easy to do.
The product is water based, but does contain acids, so gloves are recommended. To really test the product the same as in the real world, I followed the directions.
When brushing the Pipe Gel on using a brush, the blue jelly like compound sort of looked and felt like runny jello. I fully coated the pipe leaving the product in a thick coating on the pipe.
Pipe Gel applied to the Pro Circuit pipe… this was taken a while after applying the product.
Next the directions state to leave the gel on until the rust has oxidized or disappeared from the surface. Since I was not sure how long that would be, I set about doing some other tasks in the garage, checking every once in a while to see how well the gel was working.
Whenever you test something for a friend, you’re always worried that you’ll have to tell them that what they have is not very good. To be honest at first I wasn’t so sure that the gel would work.
After almost an hour I looked at the pipe and noticed a big change. To give the product a fair test I didn’t use a scotch brite pad only wiped it off using a rag.
I was blown away with the results! The Pipe Gel worked as advertised. Don’t take my word for it take a look at the photos. As you can see most of the rust was just de-solved off the pipe.
One other aspect to point out.. these pictures show how pipe gel works all by itself. There was nothing else done to this pipe. The procedure was simple and it did a great job removing rust.
The pipe after the product was wiped off.
The front of the pipe.
While Pipe Gel works well on surface rust, if the pipe is pitted, you will still have pit marks in the metal, the product removes rust, nothing else.
This is a great product and is now a product that I keep in my garage.
Ask your local dealer for Pipe Gel. The product is available directly from the distributor web site or from Amazon.
http://www.proclean-racingusa.com/
http://www.amazon.com/shops/proclean-racingusa
Ken’s involvement in the motorcycle industry spans almost 30 years. He has raced motocross the entire time, not counting time off to heal from injuries. He’s won the number 1 plate in the 500cc Expert Class, qualified and raced AMA Pro Nationals and now races the ACRMX Vintage Race Series. You can see him out riding his two-strokes most weekends. He also fixes bikes for friends in his spare time.
