Went riding up at Sycamore Creek east of Phoenix for the 1st time today. Lots of long sand washes to get up some speed. My 2000 DS650 is missing the heat shield on the exhaust pipe. It's almost 90 degrees when we 1st start riding at 5:00am, and the temp keeps climbing. I like to ride wearing shorts, and even though my leg does not touch the exhaust pipe, I started getting a large red welt on my right calf from the heat of the pipes.

Anybody have an idea (commercial product or DIY at home) that will allow me to wear shorts, not toast my leg, and not be so large that it rubs against the exhaust and burns/melts while I'm riding.

A smart guy I was riding with suggested aluminum foil and duct tape it to my leg (ha ha), so that idea was already shot down....

 

spring for the heat shield and save your leg. if not new, then buy used at an atv boneyard, ebay, or CL.......that's what i'd do.
i will not suffer when riding.

 

Welcome to the forum Papa. Like Jaster stated the heat shields pop up on freebay from time to time. Several on here have used high temp exhaust wrap to cover the headers and I've riddden a couple of them and it does make a difference. And it looks good to boot.

 

While since you wear shorts while riding, you probably won't go for this either, but I would start wearing riding boots. You know the type, over the calf with that big swatch of heat protecting leather on the machine side of the boot? You can even get away with the cheaper Thor/Fox/Alpinestar/ etc boots for a little over $100.00...

 

Thanks for the ideas guys. I've had the quad for about two months, and I started looking for a heat shield immediately on evilbay and clist. Some have popped up on evilbay, but came with the exhaust pipe. consequently, they wanted 50-75$ for the package.

Coming from a hot-rodding background, I'm not interested in the heat wrap. It may not be a big deal on a quad that sees a lot less hours running, but the heat wrap traps more heat in the exhaust system and consequently oxidizes (rusts) the pipes quicker. There is also a concern of trapping moisture directly up against the pipe with the wrap and rusting as well. If money were not an object, I would purchase a brand new exhaust system from the head back, and have it ceramic coated inside and out. That would be the good solution to reduce the heat and make the pipes last longer.

I'm not sure I like the idea of boots either, but I have not worn any yet. I might change my mind if I try them on a ride.

I'm considering laying some tracing paper over the shield on the stock muffler (because the DS logo is kinda neat), transfer that to a piece of aluminum sheet stock I have, and cut out the pattern to match the muffler. I have a piece of 4" irrigation tube I can hammer (with a rubber mallet) the aluminum around to put a slight curve into it. It's worth a shot, and would just take my time to build it and a couple of stainless bolts.

Since I don't mind looking hillbilly either, I'm considering just strapping a thick piece of leather to my calf to see if that helps. A friend on mine works at a company that makes vehicle and body armor, so he might be able to get me some scraps of kevlar that they would normally just throw away. I could glue the kevlar to the leather. I might even be able to get some uncured high temp carbon fiber prepreg scraps from him and fab up a guard to bolt to the pipe. You can get that stuff to kick in a toaster oven, but you can't ever make toast in it again!

 

so you don't want a phone number to an atv boneyard that may have the heat shield priced cheap? if you need the number, i can PM it to you. our local boneyard has several hundred quads in stock. shipping costs should be minimal. good luck.

 

I have a stock shield I dont need pm me and I can hook you up for the price of shipping

Brian

 

http://forums.atvconnection.com/can-...red-right.html

This may help

 

Unless my mixture is changing at WOT, (which it can correct?) I think I'm running more on the rich side rather than lean. I changed the plugs last Friday night before the ride. The electrode was mostly grey/ a little black and the threads were mild black. Not wet with gas by any noticable means. I guess that the plug read is not truly scientific, as most of the riding I do is 1/4 to 1/2 throttle with some bursts of WOT. I seldom get to run up against the rev limiter.

What I used to do to read the plugs in my musclecar was run it down the 1/4 mile, immideately shut it off, coast to a stop, let the engine cool a little bit, and pull the plugs and read them. The same theory should apply to a 4 stroke bike I would assume right?

I had a infrared thermometer I was using to check the head temperature while I ride, but I forgot to button my pocket last Saturday and it bounced out! I'll have to get another one.

Thanks for all the friendly help guys.

 

Hey Brian, I'm interested in your offer for the stock shield. Let me know (PM) how much to ship to 85205.

Thanks