Thanks for the info. I’ve always thought that lane-splitting looks very dangerous, but I didn’t realize that there were good reasons for it (besides thumbing your nose at the schmucks stuck in traffic, of course). 
Thanks! My area gets a lot of bikers, so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to mull over just why the ‘loud pipes save lives’ bumper sticker got under my skin, while the actual loud pipes were reverberating in my ears.
Those aren’t actually good reasons; those are all excuses.
IOW, motorcycles are poorly designed for riding on crowded roads. But similarly to the loud-pipes issue, bikers want to deal with the disadvantages of riding motorcycles through the means of making things better for them in a way that makes driving more problematic for everyone else.
If people are going to drive a vehicle in heavy traffic that doesn’t work well in heavy traffic and is more dangerous to drive in those circumstances as well, then they should man up and deal with it themselves. It shouldn’t be ameliorated by turning it into an additional bit of hassle and risk for non-bikers.
I have to admit, I hadn’t heard the previous reasons for lane splitting (well, I’d heard that it was safer than being in the traffic itself, but I hadn’t heard the overheating thing), so I’ll take that all into consideration.
That said, when I go down to LA, every so often, traffic will be going along beautifully, then BLAM! Everybody slams on their breaks and stops short. I don’t tail gate (though in LA, if you stay far enough back to not tailgate, people just jump in the space. . . so it’s sort of an ongoing dilemma). Anyway, my point is that a few times when traffic has just BLAMMED! like that, I’ve had to stop so short that I’ve had to angle my car to the side a bit so as not to hit the guy in front of me. Now, I’m not pretending like this is a frequent occurrence, but it definitely has happened a few times.
Stopping short like that is scary enough. Stopping short like that and almost slamming into the motorcycle dude that’s trying to lane split at 70 or 80 and I didn’t see him come up behind me when I did my little to the side maneuver. . . yeah. That’s REALLY scary.
It’s worth noting that in the above scenario, even when I go to the side, my car is still fully in my lane. Unfortunately, the motor cycle is, too. Scary stuff.
Too right. I have a hefty cruiser which I love and is a terrible lot of fun to ride…but I was buying a bike with the intent to commute and it’s not the right choice for that. Stop and go is unpleasant if not dangerous on a bike (I just love hitting the brakes on a yellow light that’s too far for me to zip through but close enough to be a surprise), it definitely gets bloody hot at a long light, and even if lane splitting were okay in Arizona my bike’s too big to fit between two cars. It’s a perfect highway bike, but I don’t do highways. I just wish I knew that before I bought it.
Those were jokes…I say, those were jokes, son!
If you dump them in the sea ,can they take their helmet off?
I ride a motorcycle, and I think the ads mentioned in the OP are good ads. Why?
- I want to be seen
- I obey the rules of the road as if I were in a car.
- I wear a helmet and all safety gear.
- I have stock pipes on a non-Harley, so am not very loud.
- Even if I didn’t do 1-4, I hope that doesn’t mean I should be at a greater risk of death, if you know what I mean
I live nowhere near PA, but I understand that the Motorcycle Safety Foundation courses are free there. Why doesn’t every PA rider attend a course? Don’t get it.
When I ride my bike to work in the morning, I do not want to disturb the entire neighborhood. I like my mostly quiet stock pipes. Why would I want to advertise to the entire neighborhood that the house is now empty?
I always wear a helmet. There has been some dang big bugs and small rocks that have hit the helmet that surely would have drawn blood if they would have hit my head.
If you ride a bike with loud pipes…if I am seated on my bike and you are a block away and yet I can not hear my bike, your pipes are too loud, since you are putting me at greater risk of not being noticed.
Where to begin…?
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I live in Florida and grew up in Ohio. Both are states where helmets are not required if you are a legal adult. Strongly recommended, but not legally required.
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My dad raced motorcycles for 20 years. He is not
any of these things. In fact, he’s a faithful magical-underpants-wearing Mormon; hardly a criminal piece of shit scumbag, thankyouverymuch. I really appreciate you lumping my sweet mormon daddy in with Hell’s Angels. Hyperbole, much?
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Not all pipes are loud. In fact, many motorcycles you don’t even notice because they are rice-burners, run quietly, and are no louder than a car with a hole in the muffler. Hondas, especially the higher cc models, sound exactly like cars. Last time I jumped on the back of my dad’s 1100 cc Goldwing, I heard a funny ticking in the engine. I asked him what was wrong with the bike. He said he had a sticky valve and wondered how the hell I could tell. I told him that his bike makes the exact same startup sounds that my car makes, but there was an extra ticking in the idle that I do not hear in my car. Both engines are made by Honda. They sound exactly the same, when the Goldwing is running right.
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I really don’t have a problem with the loud pipes on Harleys, provided the biker is actually riding. My sister had a neighbor who (had more money than brains) bought a crotch rocket, but didn’t really know how to ride it. He blew thousands of dollars in high-end kevlar riding gear and then sat on the bike in his driveway revving and revving and revving the engine. Because he liked the way it sounded. :rolleyes: Sis said she never saw the guy actually get on the damn bike and ride it anywhere. We figured eventually he just blew the rings, trashed the engine, and probably sold it to some other loser. This is the kind of douchebag that I think the OP means to target. Not my daddy.
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But this
is just ridiculous. BASE jumping is dangerous; shall we have all the bridges torn down? Sky diving is dangerous; maybe we should ground all the planes. Bicycling is dangerous in some cities; don’t you think we should get rid of them, too? What about the stroller people at the mall? Sometimes the strollers have noisy babies in them. We should ban babies. And things with wheels. And anything else that makes noise and disturbs the OP’s delicate sensibilities.
Who’s with me?
The problem isn’t the bikes; it’s the riders. Some of them are in cars as well.
It’s all about “Notice me!” And we all dislike show-offs. It’s also stoopid and self-destructive.
A pox on people who share lanes unless invited, who swerve in traffic, who practice blipping and unneccesary revving.
They are the scourge of harmony. Along with people who don’t mow their yards, play their music too loud and have annoying dawgs.
Did I mention kids on my lawn?
At some point a person has to either get an ulcer or learn to deal with it.
I’ve ridden for thirty years without an accident or causing one so I’m begging out of the lump-them-all-together mentality.
Disclaimer: Well, there was that one time when I forgot to put my feet down at a stop sign. . .
Well here’s the problem with that. Only a fucking idiot lane splits at 70 or 80. It’s supposed to be for when traffic stops or slows down to around 15-20 mph. And the biker is supposed to only do 10-15 mph above that. So when you’re in traffic the bike should be past you fast enough to not worry about them. I’ve done it and find it quite easy once you get the hang of it. It does make it faster for me, safer for me, and keeps others from hitting me.
I don’t care much about people driving quiet motorbikes; mind you, they’re usually the teeny-agers stunting around the neighbourhood, driving 100 kph on a residential street, but they tend to sort themselves out (grow up or get dead); it’s the middle-aged assholes on their bike that I can hear coming from a mile away that make me grit my teeth and think truly nasty thoughts.
Oh, you can’t dump every single motorbike in the sea. Because then how am I going to buy one? It’s been my dream since I was 15 and I definitely intend to. I might be bang alongside you when it comes to HDs, though. I most definitely have a problem with loud pipes if they are riding or not. And the guy Dogzilla mentions, I would have started calling the cops.
They’re not. Bone-stock motorcycles, straight out of the showroom, are pretty quiet; there are regulations that set the maximum permissible noise level. Motorcycles are made loud by owners who modify or replace the stock exhaust.
I’ve heard plenty of loud cars. The problem is enforcement. There are limited police resources, and they tend to get used to crack down on speeders and other such public enemies.
Ayup. If you want more vigorous enforcement though, be prepared to pay for more police officers, and possibly some calibrated decibel meters for them to carry in their squad cars.
My, Grandma, what a big brush you have.
Somehow after eleven years of riding, I’ve managed to avoid turning to the dark side. So have the people in my club. None of us run drugs or guns, and to my knowledge none of us has killed or assaulted anyone. Indeed, at a couple of our gatherings, spontaneous collections have been taken up to help out [non-rider] strangers in need.
I’ve had a couple of speeding tickets, but nothing really outrageous. You won’t catch me playing in traffic as you described.
I will agree that the riding skill of the average motorcycle owner is abysmal. Many ride without an endorsement on their license; of those that do have an endorsement, most have very little formal training and make no effort to develop the handling/awareness skills that may save their lives. A disturbing percentage of motorcycle fatalities are single-vehicle, run-off-road crashes: the rider fails to negotiate a turn because he lacks the requisite skill.
OTOH, I’ve now covered 150,000 miles on two wheels, accident-free, in large part because I have developed those skills. Many of my friends can report the same for themselves. We work hard to learn from mistakes (our own and those of others), to know how to react in various riding scenarios, and to know how to make the bike do what we want it to do.
My armored riding gear is brightly colored to catch your eye, but it won’t help one damn bit if you don’t look. Put down your cheeseburger, hang up your phone, and fergodsake, stop painting your fucking nails. Pay attention while you drive.
Bottom line? Yes, there are some assholes on bikes. As has been noted, there are also assholes behind the wheel. And on foot. They’re everywhere. I’ll continue to ride a quiet bike in a reasonable manner, and encourage my riding brethren to do the same; I just ask that you encourage your driving comrades to pay attention behind the wheel, for everyone’s sake (not just the riders).
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Those ‘Start seeing motorcycles’ bumperstickers bug me. I often see them haul ass while weaving through traffic.
Less chickenshit tickets, more loud motorcycle tickets! Who’s with me?
Good observation! So you’ve got them in Canada, too.
There are a lot of professional guys (who should know better) who worked hard and saved up their money for top notch bikes. Kids are gone and they have time to ride. Makes 'em feel young again. They’ve finally got their motorcycle.
But no experience. Darwinism sorts them out pretty fast, too, unfortunately.
Sturgis looked more like the gang lining up to take that early retirement tour of an attended care facility than a Hell’s Angel’s picnic. But people try, nonetheless.
Damn old fools. 
Just so long as their check clears after they buy my bike…