Riding at night the other day I noticed the exhaust pipe on my bike was glowing red when cruising down the trail. Checked my dads Honda Rubicon and found the same thing.
Believe this is caused by the backpressure created with the stock muffler.
Does this happen on bikes with aftermarket mufflers? Exhaust should flow much easier.

 

This is normal, the headers on my old truck with a 390 4 barrel. The thin metal lets the heat show through better than cast iron manifolds do so you don't see it on cars. I had a older Honda 750 with 4 into 1 pipes and running hard at night in the country(no light) you knew you didn't want to touch them. You will not see it during daylight hours.

 

I just put an aftermarket pipe on my quad and glows too, I called the manufactuer and they say its normal!

 

Do you have any symtoms of lean running? Bog or hesitation? Is the air box lid on? Has the air filter been replaced, with a high flow filter? You could try raising the needle, to get it richer, or bigger main jet.
If it runs good, and you have no lean running symptoms, then its just normal.

 

Everything is running good. No problems.
I'm aware this is normal, I just wanted to know if you reduced the backpressure in the pipe (putting on an aftermarket muffler) the red pipe would go away.

 

Probaly not, I've seen open headers run cherry red and they didn't have enough back pressure to blow a nat's nose. It's as much of a factor of the gases coming out of the combustion chamber being very, very hot and the head pipe is very thin and transfers that heat better than the very thick cylinder head.

 

Nobady with an aftermarket muffler try this? I'm curious to know what you found out.

 

I've installed a Black Magic full system on a 03 500 Auto, and it glowed as well. Then I installed a jet kit and it still glowed. Totally normal.

 

ARCTIC375, What do you think of the Black Magic exhaust system? I heard it made a lot more power but was a lot louder. The noise is the number one reason I'm holding off buying.

 

Old Crow, The Black Magic full system really wakes up the 500's. We put an exhaust on a few weeks ago, along with a jet kit and K&N filter, the results were impressive from idle to WOT the machine was real responsive. And you are correct this system is loud. Is it worth it? I say yes, but I don't mind noisy exhaust. On a side note when removing your old exhaust and installing the Black Magic, have patience, it is not a five minute job.