Having had bikes for 30 years i can tell you what works for me and many others. Use Easy off Oven cleaner, cold oven version. Spray it on and let it sit for 30 minutes and the crud will just wipe off.

Caution: It will strip paint and clear coat, so make sure you do not hit any of those areas. The pipes should be cold too.

I have done same as above followed up with a oooo steel wool and flitz polish compound. flitz coumpound can be found at better car finish counters,allways has worked for me.

i had an idiot touch the pipes on my bike with a glove on his hand and it melted parts of the glove to it (yes the idiot was me i was leaning over to retreive some stuff and put my hand on a hot exhaust pipe) any ways i went to a car detailer here in corbin and asked them, the guy i talked to gave me a cloth used to polish stainless steel, it worked but be very gentle i dont know if chrome is tuffer than stainless but i did not want to find out

Chrome is very hard stuff... problem is, it's usually very thin, and applied over other soft metals, to adhere well to whatever is being plated.

So, you do have to be careful.

When i use easy off over cleaner, i only ever touch the pipes with a microfiber cloth. I have had scratched chrome before and there is NOTHING you can do to fix that.

Good luck and let us know how it went.

Dragoon

Ok, I hate seeing a thread where the OP never posts his results so here is my follow up:

Nickel trick helped get the bulk of leftover crud off after the oven cleaner. It also kind of spread the crud thinner across the surface. The 0000 steal wool did the bulk of the work. This stuff I keep around called Neverdull seemed to penetrate, while the steel wool would strip it off. The steal wool did dull the chrome a bit. Now, the top of the heat sheilds were a little yellow from letting it idle while I took AFR readings so I broke out this magic stuff I found called Blue-Job. This stuff is awesome! I've been using it for awhile and it will take any heat discoloration off of your pipes in short fashion. After useing that and then letting the pipes heat up the dulling from the 0000 seemed to disapear. Another thing I have noticed is that after using the Blue-Job stuff, water sheets off of your pipes and does not bead.

I have always heard aluminum foil but never tried it. I know not helping but just throwing it out there.

I have always had good luck with "Neverdull" if your patient and keep working it and let it penetrate, it usually works well.

like

The stuff I use for chrome is never dull, comes in silver can looks like gauze with metal flake in it works great brings chrome back to life