Loud Exhausts on Motorcycles

In My Humble Opinion
41
  • surprised that it took that long, actually. Privileges were abused, and now everybody gets penalized. Thanks for nothing.

That being said, an OEM-pipes-only law seems overly draconian.

I think Belrix has the right idea: Noise primarily needs to be managed at built-up area speeds. If there’s room enough to crank it up, there’s generally speaking a good distance to other people’s ears. But if your bike can’t be maneuvered through a neighbourhood without setting off car alarms and waking people up, you need to get it fixed.

The stamp-on-the-exhaust model seems a dead-end, because exhausts can be purchased with stamps and then modified. The “fix-it” ticket really does seem the better way out. Just like you would do with a car that has smog or bald tires issues: Take the bike to an authorized testing station, get a writ that it is (now) within the prescribed limits for noise, present said writ at the PD.

(Incidentally, rider skill, attention, visibility and protective gear save lives. If you’re not 100% committed to those less-annoying safety basics, you have no business telling anyone that your loud pipes are there for your safety.)

42

You’re speaking like a very silly person.

It IS about the noise. But I guess if you want to press the issue it could really be about the penis-focused, entitled, intrusive, scum-sucking, selfish assholes who will always find some way to assert their feeble little wills on other people for whom “respect of others” ranks highly on their priority list. Loud pipe users are just another breed of antisocial slime.

eta:

their

For the lova Gawd:
Their = possessive
There = location
They’re = contraction for “They Are”
knuckledragger…

43

You are missing the point.

Loud pipes certainly increase other people’s awareness of your presence. This makes your riding safer. It is also noise pollution, and especially in populated areas, disruptive to everybody around you, including non-drivers and those who would have seen you anyway.

There are easier, less disruptive ways to ride safer. Proper training and safer riding gear (armored jacket, gloves, full-face helmet, high-vis elements) for example. Thus, if someone hasn’t done at least that much to ride, it’s clear the loud pipes are not a safety measure at all.

And as someone who does ride, almost every day and in a dense urban environment, a loud horn is just as good as a loud set of pipes, and aren’t going off at full decibels 100% of the time my engine is engaged (even while idling).

You may as well say everyone driving a car should have a police siren… that is linked to the ignition. “They never pull out of a driveway in front of me, or cut me off on the highway when they hear me coming!” True, and yet, totally besides the point that it would be hell for everybody else all the time, and there are better ways to get pretty much the same effect far less obnoxiously.

44

Ride assuming you’re invisible, it’s the best way to stay alive.

45

I don’t really care that much about load pipes, mine are not. But what gets me is the assumption that all safety for the rider is up to the rider and his pocketbook and his time. Helmets, armor, the people in cars ‘do not’ and ‘don’t have’ to look out for you. What driver test checks for the ability to see and avoid a motorcycle ?? What training is given to motorist to explain the handicaps that motorcycles have in regards to cars?

We teach about the dangers of big trucks… We do not punish people that look at motorcyclist and still run over them through gross negligence. He did not have a helmet on so it is all his fault he is injured…

It is 100% proven that helmets save lives but motorist are exempt. So is armored clothing. 5 point restraints. But when there is a car accident, does anyone point out that they were not wearing a helmet, 5 point harness, that they are running up the cost of insurance for everybody and they should have penalties assessed against them.

Good seats securely attached to the airframe, facing backwards, 5 point harness and helmets would save untold people in most airline crashes. Who of you will ride in an aircraft that has those restrictions? In a car with those restriction for all the passengers. W`
ear a helmet in a car? Women going to work with their hairdo in a helmet?? Bawahahaha

Your transportation does not come with those things, well you are personally responsible to buy and use them or we will punish you and raise your insurance rates…

Not going to happen is it? But you will complain about the noise and sign petitions and encourage laws that penalize a select group you dislike and do nothing about the other forms of noise pollution that surround us all.

How about a $1000 fine for incorrectly aimed headlights on your car. Don’t care what happened, 1000 bucks because you did not check them. You will be 100% responsible for the accident , even in daylight if your head lights are miss aimed… Head lights, when all on all the time, do no good for safety but we got them now and they are actually hazardous in many applications. Are you responsible for that? Of course not, you are not about personal responsibility, only what others are supposed to do.

Who cares about loud pipes? It is not about safety or anything else. Some like them and some dislike them and as normal humans we are going to use anything to get our way. Rationalize it anyway you want to but on the end, is is about a personal dislike and you having the POWER to make other people do your will and that is FUN…

For those 0.000003% that have actual medical problems with sound, well. I do not think the rest of the world has to go completely under their control because they have a medical problem. Buy hearing protectors and wear them, Lot cheaper and lighter than a helmet…

If your house was properly built, loud motorcycles at the corner would not be a noise problem.

Why must everyone else pay for your lack of proper action, proper allocation of your money and also pay for all your physical impairments protection devices?

46

The bullshit level of this ‘open season on bikers’ paranoia of your completely taints the already weak (and wrong) point of the rest of your post wherein you paint loud pipe douchebags as persecuted by fuddyduddies.

Where do you live that the cops respond to a motorcycle accident and just kick the corpse to the curb so he doesn’t mess up someone’s whitewalls and hand his wallet over to the car driver so he can get the greasy smudge cleaned off his hood? Car don’t have to look out for bikers? We don’t punish drivers who run over bikers? Now you’re posting like a very **very **silly person. Stop it, you’re embarassing yourself.

47

He also doesn’t answer how this is, in principle, any different from saying that it’s OK for people to drive by with car windows down and a mega-watt stereo system blaring, at all times and all hours and all locations they drive, without it being an act of self-centered disregard for everyone else (even acknowledging that it’s really about “having the POWER to make other people do your will and that is FUN…”).

If you’re going to make the case that “it’s my ride and I’ll do what I want with it, and you can kiss my ass if you don’t like it”, well, that’s being what I would call a jerk but it’s your legal right to do so – until enough people in a democratic society decide there are too many jerks doing so, and do something about it (i.e., decide en masse that “they oughtta make a law”).

But please, please don’t make it about rider safety. If you’re going to be a self-centered jerk, be an honest one. I’ll even go first and admit to frequently driving up and cutting in front of a long line at a backed-up exit ramp or toll plaza. And I lane split in congested traffic, gridlock and at red lights as a matter of routine.

I’ll also point at that it’s different being a jerk in a wide-open, fairly rural place like “N/W Arkansas” where motorcycles, even ones with loud exhausts, pass by on the highway and are lost down the prairie road in a matter of minutes, bothering only a handful of people and only for a brief while. It’s quite another when it’s a dense urban environment where such a ride would bother a LOT of people, including people with open windows, walking on the street, eating at a sidewalk cafe, etc., and echo off the pavement, apartment buildings, etc., and are riding at under 30 MPH while spending a lot of time stopped at stop signs and red lights.

And that’s where these laws are being proposed: in cities. Noise pollution really is a serious quality of life issue here in NYC.

Finally, as to my own opinion on this matter: I hate loud pipes, but this law as written is unfair as there is no distinction between normal-leveled aftermarket pipes or very old motorcycles (which may not have the EPA stamp on them). There are always going to be jerks (yes, even in NYC :D), and in the grand scheme of things, there are better things to “crack down” on. Even if passed I don’t think this law would get enforced very much – it’d be just another one of those tack-on things for a cop to throw at you if you piss him off.

48

Did I post something about loud pipes saving lives? I can’t find that post. Did I say I have loud pipes and don’t care about others?

What the guy said about loud car boom boxes. You all are not mad at them too? Why, that is discrimination… ::: shame on you::::
Jeez guys, it is the little black squiggly parts that are important, not the voices in your heads. Read the words, all of them…

Bawahahahaha…

49

Well, lets face it. There are a slew of laws aimed at motorcyclists that are “unfair” and target only that population. My short answer is “Yes, unfair!”. The long answer is … more complex. Helmets, insurance, daytime headlights, passenger helmets/age requirements, blah blah blah…

I say, we still have the better of it. Parking, traffic, getting laid, fun-factor…

Having enjoyed the fruits of my Zymological efforts to a possibly argumenative leval of excess tonight, thats all I have to offer.

50

As far as sitting at stop lights and signs go, regardless of how loud a set of pipes are, at idle they are generally not that bad. If you are complaining about attention seekers who sit there revving their bike for no reason other than to make noise I will agree that it can be aggravating, but I will stick by my guns and say that even if the loud pipes stop someone from running into me or pulling out in front of me just once so I can go home to see my kids it’s well worth it.
You absolutely have to ride like your invisible because many times people just don’t see you. You have to pay attention to every vehicle, person and animal on the road and always have a plan for action if they do the wrong thing. I have noticed over the last few years there are a lot of new riders on the road and that lack of experience and foresight can be deadly to them. Remember there are two kinds of motorcycle riders… Those who have crashed and those who will!!!

51

When I encounter people who deliberately make their bikes extremely loud, I actually encourage them to ride without wearing a helmet (they usually already do that) and to attempt to do risky stunts.

52

From a psychological perspective, individuals who engage in behavior of this nature are usually trying to compensate (often unconsciously) for general feelings of inadequacy or impotency in other areas of their lives. This is often mockingly called the “small penis syndrome”, but typically the underlying reasons are not specifically related to genitalia or sexual performance. More typical reasons are an inability to form lasting, meaningful relationships, a lack of success in academic / professional lives, or even a general dissatisfaction with overall physical appearance.

It is a fundamental human desire to feel important and respected. People who are unable to achieve this in the more traditional avenues of their lives often resort to outrageous behavior. For example, consider a “loser” (by which I mean someone who feels inadequate) who alters his or her appearance through numerous facial piercings and a wild hairstyle. They will now garner public attention, albeit most of it negative. In their eyes, the fear or disgust people demonstrate is often interpreted as respect, and helps satisfy their need for importance. This interpretation is reinforced by interaction with others members of the subculture where such an appearance is valued. (Please note that I am not saying all people adopting a non-traditional appearance have psychological problems – just that some of those adopting that appearance are doing so for unhealthy reasons.)

Operating an excessively loud car or motorcycle in public is really just a variant on this type of behavior. The operator will often misinterpret the wide berth they receive on the streets as respect, and the annoyed looks as admiration. In cases where the reactions are correctly interpreted, it still provides the operator with a sense of power they are unable to achieve elsewhere. Amongst their peer group, it becomes a status symbol to have the loudest vehicle, reinforcing their negative behavior.

The operator of such a vehicle may simply think “it’s cool and it pisses people off”, but there is a lot more going on beneath the surface. Overall, it is sad that there are grown adults with such feelings of inadequacy and lack of coping skills that they must deal with it by hurting others.

53

I am a sick, sick puppy. :smiley:

54

Aren’t you the one who bragged that he and his oh so brave:rolleyes: biker buddies once terrorized a single woman in a car? And then went on to allude you did worse to another woman with an infant child?
Yes, it is “sick, sick” to abuse a woman like that. But “puppy”? No.

55

Odd thing for you to say, considering that (a) nobody here has claimed you’ve said anything about “loud pipes saving lives”, while OTOH JFLuvly has posted twice claiming exactly that, and (b) the entirety of post #45 is an attempt by you to hijack the discussion as a safety issue, when nobody opposed to loud pipes has made it about safety at all.

Furthermore, this in your first post:

…makes absolutely no sense at all. Nobody has singled out HD for special attention here (does Harley even make bikes anymore? The shops over here seem to just stock baby clothes and kitchenwares), which really makes it look like you’re projecting.

And your “it’s about fear” claim is simply pathetic. Fear of what? The ‘outlaw biker’ image has been relegated to sitcom stereotype since the '80s. The negative images bikers face nowadays are “twentysomething man-child” and “accountant having a midlife crisis.”

56

I’m glad you have something to cling to as a source of pride in yourself.

57

Jeez, I feel like I just attended high school psychology class… in the 60s. :rolleyes:

58

Sorry, Bolt the Nut, thought we were in the pit…

59

Gee Bolt, do you like blanket statements much?

60

You forgot one: “fat-ass hoopie who lives in a run-down mobile home, dresses his kids in stuff from Goodwill, and spends most of his paycheck from his shitty job on beer and bike payments.”