I live in a (once quiet) and peaceful residential neighborhood, with the exception of a guy across the street who owns a custom Harley Davidson. I despise this guy! Why? Because his bike is so f-ing loud! It damn near could literally create a sonic boom. You can hear him coming from over a half-mile away. The worst part of it is, this guy constantly will get on his Harley, take off, be gone for about two minutes, and return home. He does this about 20 times a day, for no apparent reason. I swear he does this just to annoy people, bask in the sound of his hog, and do nothing more than pointlessly ride around a few blocks and back. I don’t attempt to understand him, I doubt his “practice” is able to BE understood. This guy has lived there for many years and had the Harley all that time, and been doing the same thing for all these years. Myself, nor many of the other neighbors, have ever gotten to used to it.
But let’s forget about the guy across the street, and get to my question:
[li]Is it possible to buy a Harley Davidson motorcyle that is manufactured to be quiet??? If not, can a Harley be modified to be made quiet???[/li]
I know if there are any HD enthusiasts here, you’re going to say “If it is quiet, it isn’t a Harley Davidson!” Or something to that effect. Well, I’m sorry, but I hate that sound!! I am not going to move away just so I don’t have to listen to Joe Blow across the street breaking the sound barrier 50 times a day . I would give damn near anything to fire a rocket launcher at that damn hog! So would many of the neighbors.
For the record: If I ever had the money and desire to get a Harley Davidson motorcycle, I would MAKE the damn thing as quiet as a Schwinn bicycle!
A guy at work had his Harley outfitted with very quiet mufflers (he likes to take his wife riding, and the noise gave her a headache). I think it still sounds very cool and mellow, sorta like a well-muffled V8 does.
He claimed he had to go to several shops before he could find someone to put them on - the guys at the muffler shops all reacted with horror that he would want to quiet the bike down.
Sorry, but, I see, nor hear, nothing “cool” about the offending sound of a Harley Davidson, or any other deliberately/obnoxiously loud vehicle. What the hell is “cool” about blasting your eardrums with that crap? I hope the bastard goes deaf.
Sorry, but I have to pipe in here. Granted, there are chuckleheads out there who like volume for the sake of volume, but these people are not limited to bikes. They have cherry bombs on their car, or three foot subwoofers in their trunk. Lots of people do things that make most people cringe. This includes having loud pipes on their bike. But that said, there is not a day that goes by that I don’t wish I had a louder bike. I am riding a Yamaha right now and every freaking day there is someone on the road who has no idea I am around them. Now, granted I am riding through the heart of Washington, DC, but the excessive hot air around here is not enough to explain it away. Thing is, with louder pipes, you know I am pulling up along side you, and you don’t drift casually into my lane. You know I am approaching your intersection, and you don’t pull out. And no, I don’t necessarily mean you yourself - I am referring to the sixteen year old punk on the cellphone, or the goon with the Bigmac, or maybe to the honestly nice person who really is paying attention, but my smaller silhouette escaped their notice.
Again, I am not saying that all volume is for saftey’s sake. Not at all. But before you condemn all loud bikes to the zona obnoxiosa remember, loud pipes save lives.
Sorry about that. Anyway, to answer the OP, you can customize a Harley in just about any way you want to. As they do have a distinctive sound, it is going to be a bit harder to find someone to do that particular customization for you, but it can be engineered. But what I think you really ought to do is go out and pick up a nice Harley, and we’ll trade. Whatta ya think
Stupid question: Do Harleys for export come with different mufflers ? A bike has to be pretty quiet to be legal in Switzerland, for instance - yet it seems to be quite popular there (bound to be, what with all those bankers). So over here, a stock Harley isn’t be all that loud.
Then again, lots of Harley riders love to fiddle - and modifying the exhaust is of course one of the easier ways to get a few extra HP. With 60 HP in the stock engine, I’d be tempted to fiddle as well
As for the “loud pipes save lives” line of reasoning - I’m not convinced. Stupid drivers cost lives. Rider skills and defensive driving save lives, IMHO. What loud pipes do very well is piss everybody off at people who ride bikes, sometimes making them do stupid and aggressive maneuvers.
I know a guy with a Valkerie (sp?), that’s a 6 cylinder bike made by honda and he put quiter pipes on his. first time I heard it I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t hear it when I started my bike it was so quiet.
As for the Loud Pipes saves lives I don’t believe it. I too ride to DC everyday and just yesterday I blew my horn at some women who started getting into my lane. she looked, she saw me, I blew my horn, she gave me the finger and STILL tried to run me over.
My husband and I ride a Harley Roadking, and the pipes aren’t loud at all. He keeps talking about getting them made louder, but I find it obnoxious. We don’t have a lot of neighbors, but the ones we have likely wouldn’t appreciate it.
MOST Harley’s can be made to be as loud or quiet as you want. My husband has inquired at our local shop about adjusting the levels, and they’ve said they can make them as quiet or loud as he wants. I doubt many Harley owners would scoff at the idea of quieter pipes. Most riders I know aren’t jerks, and could care less about your pipes. Do loud pipes save lives? Who knows. One thing I know is long rides are a real bitch with that noise in your ears.
MSK, what you have is an obnoxious neighbor. If it wasn’t a loud bike, he’d probably have a car with no muffler, or have screaming matches on the front lawn. Some people can’t be courteous, and a loud bike just makes that more evident.
I can’t stand loud pipes. I’ve had Harleys pull up beside me, and the pressure waves from the unmuffled engine caused my vision to jump and caused actual pain. Nothing like driving along and having your vision vibrate!
Harley drivers have attitudes. From my observation the attitude is: “I’m a badass motherfucker with a two digit IQ!” or “I’m too rich to care. Look at me! Ya never thought I had it in me, when I was getting my MBA!” I tend not to associate with rednecks or yuppies. Can’t stand the 'tude. (BTW: Yuppies on Harleys are known as RUBs – Rich Urban Bikers.)
Give me a nice quiet, fast, maneuverable, Japanese bike with slick fairings that looks like it jumped out of an anime.
I don’t believe stock Harley pipes are very loud, but thats the thing; they’re stock. Among most Harley enthusiasts, it goes without saying that you replace the stock pipes to something more to your liking.
I speak from personal experience. Your experiences may vary.
And blurred vision and pain being cause by some guy who thinks it’s “cool” is not acceptable to me. How would he like it if I started a rhythmic beating on his helmet? He wouldn’t. When loud pipes cause physical effects on the person next to them, they’re too loud.
No body has addressed the question of legality. Isn’t there a state or local law where you live that prohibits excessivly loud vehicles. If your neighbors were driving around town in Fords or Chevys that loud they’d probably be stopped and ticketed every time they went out.
Why are motorcycles “allowed/expected” to be significantly louder that automobiles?
The other “problem” with the “loud pipes save lives” idea is that there are plenty of places that people ride motorcycles that don’t have massive amounts of traffic. Take the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, for example. It is a two lane road, one lane going each way, not really wide enough to pass most of the time(especially with curves and mountains and such). I was there recently and one day as we were driving our mini-van along, we went into a tunnel, and suddenly the mini-van seemed to sound like a motorcycle. Shortly after leaving the tunnel, the motorcycle(s) appeared behind us. I’m glad someone asked this question because I had been wondering whether the motorcycles had to be so loud. When hiking in the woods, cars on the parkway sound like “swish swish” and motorcycles rumble much louder and longer.
I have a Harley. SO has a Harley, the latest in a loooong line of Harleys.
In answer to your question, no, they don’t have to be loud. Stock Harley mufflers are as quiet as any other cruiser type bike. You gotta WORK to make 'em loud.
It’s funny you ask this question, MSK, because I went from thinking just like you - I HATED those loud bikes - to thinking they’re pretty cool. I bought aftermarket pipes for my bike, and my SO drilled the baffles out to make them louder. I don’t go for much of the Harley look - I don’t wear leathers unless it’s too cold to go without them, I wear a helmet (well, most of the time…), I don’t insist on putting on my newest black HD t-shirt every time I go for a ride, etc. But there’s something about having loud pipes that just tickles me. The sound is generally behind you, so when you’re riding the bike it doesn’t break your eardrums. And I love revving the engine and listening to it make that lovely rumbling sound.
I do worry about bothering neighbors, especially when I’m leaving at 7am and they may be sleeping. But when it comes right down to it, my neighbors bother me when they insist on mowing their lawns at 8:30 am on a Saturday, or right when I’m sitting down to a nice dinner on the deck. They bother me when they leave all their outside lights on until midnight every night, and I want to do a little stargazing with my telescope. Living in a neighborhood has its drawbacks - we all bug each other with various activities that seem OK to us. I figure it’s all a tradeoff - I put up with their activities, and they have to put up with mine.
I do think that hopping on the bike 20 times a day is a bit excessive, though. When I leave the house, it’s generally for several hours at a time, and if I’m leaving early in the morning I try to get out of the neighborhood as quickly as possible and I don’t gun the engine. Maybe your neighbor is just a jerk…
Wow, that is the most ignorant thing I have ever read. I’m astounded at your level of ignorance.
I don’t personal ride a Harley, but my parents do, and I grew up around bikers. And NONE of them are like this. Egads, I wish we were in the Pit. I guess instead I’ll just have to ask you to kindly remember where you are at. Here at the Straight Dope, we don’t glory in stereotypes and ignoranced. Instead, we try to abolish them. Think about it.
And FTR, the sound of a Harley is music to my ears. I don’t care where I am at, or what I am doing, or what time it is. I LOVE to hear the sound of revving Harley.
