[A Snake]

Agreed on the hard coating over paint. Mine are flat black powder coated. I did learn the hard way not to use steel wool to clean them with. I actually scuffed off some of the coating. Maybe I just got a bum job. Still beats the heck out of paint of any kind in my book. Hot? you bet! Pipe bites? yup!

Chrome will blue with heat. Stainless is spendy, but scotchbrite brings it right back.

Unless you are worried about 10 horsepower or less, the heat radiation is not much of a factor except to your leg...especially since you are running the exhaust through mufflers. A much bigger factor is the header and muffler design. Even there, unless you're planning to run flat out at Riverside and never drive it on the street, don't worry about it, you'll never know the difference.