My bike is medium loud. Those POS cars with loud mufflers and $5000 stereo systems drown my bike out. A new neighbor moved into the rental down the street and his diesel truck is louder than my bike and he starts it, lets it warm up for HOURS (well maybe only 20 minutes) at 6am. His wife gives me stink eye when I dare to start my bike at 7am.
Don’t even get me started about loud sterios at 2 am, or my crazy neighbor lady standing in the street and screaming at them. Or the barking dogs or screaming like they are dieing kids.
Noise is a part of life. Everyone gets all butthurt about other people’s noise while not noticing their own.
Oh, sorry. Forgot about that. The video is of an episode of South Park called ‘The F-word’ in which the boys deal with a bunch of inconsiderate Harley drivers, and also hold a summit on the meaning of the word ‘Faggot’ while they’re at it. It’s one of their better ones
One of the board’s most predictable topics: you’ll always get a few loud-pipe fucksticks chiming in with an eloquent “I ain’t care what you’s all think! This is AMURKA!” Pretty much what you’d expect if you managed to pull one of the morons over and scream “WHY?” into his tinnitus-wracked ear holes.
It’s a special kind of assholery that’s immune to reason. Don’t waste your time.
OK, there is a motorcycle idiot on my block I think *everyone *in this thread can hate. I wouldn’t mind a bit if he rode his bike to and from wherever he wants to go–but he rides it up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down the street for no apparent reason, at all hours, revving as loud as he can. I even saw him with his toddler on the handlebars once.
If I had a slingshot, there would be fewer but better neighbors on my block.
“Loud pipes save lives” is a proverb* in use among motorcycle riders. As a proverb, it represents folk wisdom, not necessarily science. As a proverb, it says more about group identity and values than it does about reality.
Certainly, being loud makes people more likely to look for you, and many drivers of cars are fairly insulated from the sounds outside. So part of what the proverb is for is communicating safety. But as people pointed out above, there are other ways of being safe, and most motorcyclists don’t want to do these (some or all of not being on a motorcycle at all, wearing reflective dayglo colours, not splitting lanes, keeping with the flow of traffic).
Equally, the proverb functions as a justification for behaviour that distinguishes the group from others, particularly other users of the roads (i.e. car drivers). The proverb says “we’re more concerned about the group than what people think of the group. Yeah!” as well as expressing the fact that riding motorcycles is inherently risky, possibly deadly. It also reinforces the idea that being a motorcyclist involves being loud. Loud is a positive feature of the group identity.
For that reason, motorcyclists are always going to say, “yeah, we’re loud. So what?” or at best, “well, some people go too far, but loud is important / necessary for our safety.” It’s very hard for people to take one aspect of their group identity and analyze it critically. For example, lots of other cultures find Americans to be loud. Assuming you’re American while reading this, how can you react other than defensively, even if it’s objectively true? (Note the “even if”: I don’t know if it is true, and I don’t care. It’s just an example.)
*A traditional sentence expressing wisdom, known and used by many different speakers, usually with poetic features (in this case, assonance of the vowels aʊ̯ aɪ̯ eɪ̯ aɪ̯, and consisting of two iambic feet).
My first bike was pretty loud- it was a used bike, and the previous owner had installed Cobra pipes. I always felt a little guilty riding it, even though I live out in the country and was unlikely to annoy my neighbors.
My new bike has stock pipes on it, so it’s *much *quieter. I’ve never believing in the idea that “Loud pipes save lives”, because I know that when I’m in my truck, with my music playing, I’m unlikely to hear even the loudest motorcycle unless it’s right next to me… generally when I’m sitting at a stoplight. When I’m on the bike, I just assume that I’m invisible, and try to drive as if everyone’s out to kill me. That seems like a better idea than just assuming that they hear me.
That said, I am going to buy some more lights, because I know that at night a motorcycle with a single headlight can be kind of confusing- my first thought is, “I wonder if that’s a car with a broken headlight,” and the second thought is “I wonder how far away that motorcycle really is?” I think that multiple headlights do more for making me known to the other drivers than loud pipes would.
May I say that I don’t normally come into the Pit, but that I decided to because I too suffer from loud motorcycles? A couple of idiots apparently redlining their bikes while sitting at the traffic light outside of my apartment a few weeks back very nearly moved me to violence.
This video, though, makes me ever so glad there are jerks with loud bikes, and fed-up dopers complaining about them. Hilarious.
Also, I may at some point start my own thread about truckers who install railroad horns on their rigs and then use them in Manhattan…
This attitude saves more lives than loud pipes, lights, horns, and reflective clothing put together. Motorcyclists need to get over the mistaken idea that we are equal participants in traffic. We’re more of a moving target.
The problem in my neighborhood isn’t just the one or two guys (or gals) riding on their loud bikes. Its the fucking packs of 10+, all of them with loud pipes. So much for “rugged individualism” when you’re riding around in your mid-life crisis gang.
I live on a fairly busy street, so am used to lots of sounds, but when the large packs of those fuckers go by, you literally cannot have a normal conversation while outside.
I have Vance and Hines Big Radius pipes on my bike. They were on there when I bought it. I have not replaced them because I like the way they look and sound.
Yes, it is loud.
No, I don’t care.
I ride quietly in residential areas, but it is loud when I start it in the morning to go to work at 6:00AM. I go as quietly as I can through the apartment complex parking lot, but if it wakes someone up I honestly don’t care.
Yeah, I lay on my horn when I’m driving my car. I know it’s loud, but I don’t care. I like the sound and the way the Naugahyde feels against my elbow. Besides, dogs bark and I’m saving lives and you can’t stop me. I wet the bed until I was sixteen.
Ashamed (sorta. . .not really) that I’ve done this in campgrounds. There have been a couple of times when bikers or just a car full of assholes will come into the campground late, after everybody is asleep or at least observing quiet hours, and make as much noise as possible setting up camp, having a few beers, talking loudly, playing music, etc. I return the favor at 0600 when we decamp by laying on the horn as I go past their tents. It’s childish, but satisfying.
Serious question: why not? Is it because it’s easier not to consider other people, because other people aren’t real to you / you lack empathy, or something else? I ask because I’d never be able to live with the guilt, and I wonder how other people do it.
