The best I can say is give it time. As the pipe continues to go through heat/cool cycles, the color will gradually blend and cover those spotted areas. Put another 2000-3000km on it, especially with some long(er) highway blasts, and the color should look a lot more even.

How close to the exhaust port on the cylinder is it? If it's right up against the engine, it might be the exhaust gasket, which is probably either mild steel or steel+copper. Heat plus moisture might be causing a surface reaction on that. The slimy texture, however, concerns me. If it were an older bike, I'd be concerned that the water jacket on the bike had cracked, and was leaking coolant, but on a bike that new you shouldn't be seeing anything like that. I'd keep an eye on it for another week or two, and see if it comes back. Check the area daily to see what kind of things you see. Also, smell it, and see if you get a particular odor from it, either coolant or oil, or mud, or whatever.

hmm. will do that after some time now.. not riding much in rains.

thanks for the advice

Have seen same on my bike, only exhaust pipe near engine have this orange/brown powder ,even i thought its just mud .

@hunkofgals thats not entirely true ,
from wiki Stainless steel does not corrode, rust or stain with water as ordinary steel does, but despite the name it is not fully stain-proof, most notably under low oxygen, high salinity, or poor circulation environments

KTM dealership

guys am frm calicut @ kerala.

me with my uncle is planning to put up a KTM dealership at calicut.So i've got some procedural doubts, if someone here can sort it out do help me.

• Whome shall we contact?
• I know that its got tieup with bajaj, So local dealers can only proceed??
• How much shud it cost if so??
• Is it only available thru the probiking showrooms??

Went to the parking and checked the exhaust. No, it's not slimy. There is this rust coloured but odourless fine powder which does not seem to be rust though. It might have gotten slimy after I washed the bike that day.

It's spread upto around 6 inches from the exhaust port on the cylinder. reason to worry?

You'll have to become part of the Bajaj network, is my guess. Start here for the application:

Bajaj

Here's a FAQ

Bajaj

And here's the contact page:

www.bajajauto.com/dealerContact.asp

According to the FAQ, you're going to have to be able to prove the following financial resources to Bajaj:

1. Other than land and building, dealer will be required to invest as per the following details :
   1. Interior (showroom & workshop equipments) – Rs. 25 Lacs to Rs.30 Lacs
   2. Vehicle stock – Equivalent to one month’s sale
   3. Spare parts – Rs.15 Lacs to Rs.20 Lacs
   
   
2. Working capital from bank or own funds:
   1. Indicated monthly sale potential X Rs.45,000. For example, if the indicated monthly sale potential is 200 vehicles per month, then the working capital required will be 200 X Rs.45,000 = Rs.90 Lacs + Spare Parts
   
   

So you have to buy your own land, and build the dealership building yourself. You'll have to know ahead of time approximately how many bikes you expect to sell each month, and you'll have to be able to buy that many bikes from the factory as initial stock. In addition, as described above, you'll need 50 Lacs for the showroom fittings (Bajaj will tell you how to do the interior of the showroom per their corporate standards) and spares, and a bank account with probably another 40 Lac or so depending on your expected sales volume including spares. That's close to 1 Crore in liquid cash plus land/building and a month's supply of bikes. And, even though they don't mention it, you're probably going to want to open a service bay too, because you'll want to be able to provide service on the bikes you sell, so expect at least another 10 Lac outlay for the service bay equipment (tools, lift). All this doesn't even go into salaries for your personnel (sales reps, administrative workers, accountant, manager, service manager, service tech(s) ).



The first thing you need to do is get going on market research. You need to know how many bikes you're going to be able to sell. Since you want to sell Dukes, you will have to prove that you're going to be high-volume enough to warrant them letting you open a dealership for their most expensive flagship bikes from a green-field start. At a guess, that means you probably need to prove (i.e. hard research data) that you're going to sell at least 20-30 Dukes EVERY MONTH (since you have no pre-existing customer base who might trade up). This is probably why only ProBike dealers were made Duke distributors; they're the only ones serving markets big enough that there would be some likely Duke customers in their customer base.

I don't think there's cause to worry, based on your description. As noted, even "stainless" steel can oxidize under certain conditions, especially when it's in contact with a different metal (as the exhaust is, especially up close to the engine block). My revised guess is that there is *very* minor oxidation occurring on the first few inches of your exhaust due to the extreme heat of the exiting exhaust gases plus the extra moisture in the air due to the monsoon (remember high-school chemistry: heat speeds up any chemical reaction, and water reacts with lots of things). As the pipe matures, the oxidation (and attendant discoloration) will form a patina on the exhaust, and with no exposed raw metal the dust will stop forming.

Also note that there are different grades of stainless steel, and they probably used a less expensive grade for the exhaust since 1) it's the exhaust, not a cosmetic part and 2) this is not a high-end bike for KTM. The lower chromium content means there will be more risk of oxidation, though nothing like a regular mild-steel exhaust would have.

this is what i feel it is.correct me if i am wrong.its on my bike too.when mud is flung from front tyre, it gets on radiator, front part of engine and on 4-d inches of silencer.it gets dried up quickly on silencer.after some time it may have gotten deposited and hardened.now if u pour water on this it will become slimy.

This is definitely a possibility as well. The reason you might see it on just the exhaust is that if the road is slightly wet, the spray from the tire will get all over the front of the bike, but where that water can stay liquid long enough to drip back off everywhere else, on the exhaust it would dry instantly, leaving behind the tiny specks of dust/dirt that were suspended in the water drops. Over time, that dust would build up into the coating you're seeing.

When you get home, let the bike cool, and try washing it off with a regular cloth and some soap. Soak the area with water for a bit first so the coating will soften up (it's been baked on hard on that hot exhaust), and then scrub it with the cloth. If a regular cloth and soap (and lots of water) gets rid of it, then it's just road dust baked on. If you *have* to use a scotchbrite pad or other abrasive to remove it, then it may be metal oxidation. In either case, it's not something to worry about.

It's a combination of both IMO. The powder is very fine and is rust coloured. Doesn't look and smell like mud. Though the heat might have taken the usual smell and texture away. IT could be cleared with an MF cloth as I had mentioned in my previous post, but with some effort. Am not gonna fret too much about it though. Thanks for the explanation Mountain

buying duke shortly ..

hello dukers , i am from bangalore and i am going to buy duke in next two weeks .. i ve been reading this thread and almost everybody have reported gear shifting issues .. i had booked pulsar 200ns but now changed my mind to buy duke .. my fz had downshifting problems wherein the gears would get locked while downshifting due to which i sold it off .. when i took duke for a test ride i felt that the gear shifts were same as r15 .. i found the gear shifts of duke to be perfect with perfect feedback while slotting in the gears ...
is there really a problem ?? please help

Statistically - In my 4 months of riding, I have faced this issue only once. That too after my first service when I was trying to feel the brutish power. It was my fault as I did not pull the gear lever properly.
I am also aware that lots of us have had this issue but I believe it was resolved after first service.

Ktm again giving problems

I bought duke in march and within a week it started showing malfunction light on console but the problem was solved only after keeping the bike at workshop for 4-5 days. Today in evening I decided to go for a ride but engine refused to start. I tried to crank it for 20 mins but engine refused to start. Whats the use of all this electronics when it is becoming a headache.

So you dont know that already a KTM dealership is coming in Calicut ??