Air Filter Cleaning

Had some time today and the weather was decent so I decided to do something "easy" on the bike by inspecting/cleaning the air cleaner element. Disassembly was easy enough and made sense (which always helps). The air cleaner element is a brown/orange from years of aging but since I'm not sure I can even find a NOS replacement, I'll just have to do my best keeping these existing ones maintained. Other than the discoloration, it was in decent shape so I put it back on and moved to the left side.

I quickly realized that on the CL450 scrambler, YOU CAN'T GET TO THE LEFT SIDE AIR CLEANER WITHOUT TAKING OFF THE EXHAUST (HEADERS?). If that seems like a pain in the ass, you're right. The last thing I want to do is take the pipes on and off (increasing the chance of damage) to do simple maintenance. So I tried to get them off by loosening and removing the collars but they would. not. budge. from the cyclinder head. I figured, I'd wait until some other time that I had help so that I don't end up pulling the bike over on top of me just to get them out!

This is a huge pain in the ass because that side's carburetor is leaking and I need access damnit!