Are darkened headers a bad thing?

[Baska]

I'm looking at some Valks for sale and a few of them have headers that are dark (no longer shiny).  I assume this is from excessive heat but I'm not certain.  Does that indicate that the bike was run for a length of time with a lean condition? 

[Timbo1]

I believe it depends on the type of exhaust on the bikes.  My understanding is OEM is double walled header so don't blue as much as say Cobra 6x6 that's single walled.

[98valk]

OEM headers are double wall, so usually no color will be there.

golden color is richness, blue is leaness, if I remember correctly.

darkness is usually corrosion, chrome is gone.

[Baska]

That makes sense, as I'm looking at a pic of one of the bikes and the pipes definitely aren't OEM, so the chrome quality likely isn't up to Honda's spec. 

[sandy]

If you buy one of these Valks, you can have them jet hot coated in one of several colors.

[MarkT]

Since our bikes are getting older and with many miles, I see more pipes with corroded headers - especially from humid and salty states like Florida.  If OEMs have color, it usually means too much heat on the pipes.  Can be from running the bike periodically in the winter instead of winterizing.  You need to set up a fan to cool the pipes if you do that.
Anyhow, I am experimenting with prepping bad chrome OEM pipes for colorizing - coatings other than chrome. For that, removing rust and chrome and providing a "tooth" for the coating to adhere, is the goal.  After I cut them apart for a pipe job, they fit in my media blaster cabinet.  Still testing this out, but this might be in the works, if you want my custom pipes built on your bad chrome OEM ones.  I'm not colorizing, as I'm not set up for that.  They need to be cured right after coloring - Plasti-kote Hot Paint says they need to be cured at 650° for an hour within 8 hours of application - do that by installing & running them.  Then they are good for up to 1500°.  There are other methods as well - ceramic coating, jet hot coating.