Sounds like our neighbor across the street. He not only has a loud motorcycle that he revs for long periods of time, at all periods of the day and night, he also has an old pickup truck with a noisy exhaust that he will rev at all periods of the day and night (and longhorn horns attached to the front end). He also has a huge, homemade trailer that he attaches to the pickup that is at least 15 feet long that he backs in and out of his driveway at all hours. He also owns a four-wheeler that doesn’t make a lot of noise, but that’s the least of the problems.
He also works (he’s a handyman) at all hours of the day and night, throwing junk into the pickup and the trailer, making lots and lots of noise.
I’m able to embarrass those jerks who rev their bikes into submission. They are assholes who make all of you hate us responsible riders. If I hear one revving, I’ll go running over to them with screwdrivers and carb cleaner in hand. There is NO need to do that, if your bike can’t run without constant revving, it needs a tune up but I can help you fix it long enough to get it to the shop.
I could probably tune it up as well, but I won’t unless I see that the owner is actually working on it and trying to fix the problem.
Let’s discuss these motorcycle assholes. Because it sounds like we live in the same neighborhood.
Can we all give a general physical description of the motorcycle revving asshole in question?
My neighbor:
Maybe 5’5"-5’6" tall.
About 50 years old.
No known friends or visitors.
An apparent, desperate need… plea, maybe, for attention? Seems to want people to approach/notice him and ask him about his latest “toy”. (Two recent cases which don’t include the bike… He got himself a mid-life crisis mobile, a two-seater convertible, which is a nice toy of a car, but highly impractical. However, we all do get to hear him rev this thing in his driveway when it’s too cold for his bike. He also got himself a sooper-zoom digital camera and he would take it out to the end of his driveway next to the main road and point it toward the back of the hill behind our houses, focusing in on god knows what, for hours, or until someone walking by was dumb enough to ask him what he was doing).
Is the poster child for “Napoleon complex” you learned about in psychology 101?
is the motorcycle a Harley-Davidson?
does he park the motorcycle in his front yard (instead of his garage, where he has plenty of room) on his sidewalk, thereby blocking anyone’s path to the front door unless they walk around the bike or through his yard (I assume, since I don’t have a motorcycle myself, that this is not-so-subtle way of telling people who may come to his house that "hey, I have a motorcycle, in case you missed it. Want to hear me rev it?)
He does all this and more. But the strangest is the revving of the bike engine early on the weekend. Seriously, what does he need, a big card from the neighborhood saying “we know he has a Harley, and we all wish we were him”?
I wish someone would give the guy the recognition/praise/whatever his sad life is void of, so we can all enjoy our peaceful lives. But no one wants to draw the short straw and take one for the team, so we all suffer.
Well, we live in a senior citizens mobile home park. My noisy neighbor lives with his elderly mother (like I do – my mother needs somebody to take care of her). He’s 5’10 or so and probably late 50s. He parks all of his vehicles in the front of his house because we don’t have garages, though we do have car ports. The house next door to his burned down a couple of years ago so there’s an empty home pad that he has taken over and covered with his vehicles and work spaces.
I’ve got a neighbor just like that. Last month, I was outside changing the oil in my truck and I heard him coming down the street. He was going about 45 mph(25 mph speed limit), and of course holding in the clutch and redlining. He got about ten feet past my house and there was a loud “CLUNK”, he looked down at the engine, wasn’t paying attention and ran into a parked car.
I am so comforted to hear that other people have the same problem with the Revving Man. I love motorcycles and want one of my own but I will not be getting a Harley with loud pipes (I want a crotch rocket anyway). I just. Don’t. Get it!
Mine is also about his fifties. They are very annoying neighbors but most of it I can ignore thanks to the privacy fence, the shrubs, and good insulation in my house. For example, they installed a martial arts dummy at the end of their driveway. This is definitely 100% so people can see them slapping at it all day; it’s not in their backyard but out in the open. They park an RV on our street every single year, often blocking people.
But everything else I can ignore, except for the revving. It goes right through my walls and you just hear a dull ruhrr-ruhrr-ruhhr. Rinse, repeat.
He has a bunch of kids, or something. At least there’s young folks hanging around.
On the note of the Honda Civics. I am surprised to hear of all the people who have never heard of ricers. I am afraid to say it is common amongst a certain subset of young Asian men. I think it was more common in the 80s and 90s. My SO, who is of Chinese descent, always rolls his eyes when he sees them. But yes, they generally have HUGE spoilers on that tiny little car, specialized rims, bright body paint, huge stereo speakers, and anything else you can think of. Asians are Toyota and Honda people, so maybe it started when young men were only allowed to drive a sensible Honda Civic and decided to soup it up?
But it is kind of hilarious and ridiculous when you see this tiny little Civic shooting along with a spoiler it does not need, belting out tunes to the best of its tiny ability.
Hey, we have a Loud Stationary Harley Guy too! He’s also Loud Stationary ATV Guy. That said, he came over and helped me take down an old satellite dish one day even though we hadn’t spoken a word to each other in six years of neighbor-ness.
It’s pretty common among young white and Hispanic men, too (at least around here.) I will say this for ricers: at least you know they take care of their cars and their brakes will probably work if they are behind you. In a state that doesn’t require vehicle inspections that’s a pretty big deal.
I have two “ricers” in my neighborhood also. Honestly, I don’t know what make/model of car they are, because I can’t remember seeing them close up. I hear them coming toward my house and of course, as they drive by. They are small, both are lowered significantly (this I really don’t get. Any bump, and your tires are rubbing inside the fender well). But one kid is white, the other I am guessing is hispanic. I never associated the cars with a particular race or culture. Seems to be a young male thing. What amazes me is how much money they have dumped into making their cars sound and look so awful. I can’t recall seeing someone in their 40’s in one, so there must be a day in the “ricers” life where they realize this isn’t working for them any longer. Either that, or they all wreck the cars and die before their 30th birthday.
I have never been a “noisy vehicle” guy, so I really don’t understand the joy someone gets from one. But aside from the “ricers” and the “revvers”, there is another one… The truck driver that uses those “Jake Brakes”. You can hear those for miles. How can someone stand to be in a vehicle that makes that much noise? With all three of these people, I wonder the same thing. For me, it gives me a headache to hear it for a few seconds (or minutes for the revvers). But those people are in the car, truck or on the bike, enjoying that noise for as long as they are driving. How do they stand it?
And other than my very basic “please, look at me, PLEASE!” theory, does anyone know why people do this? There must be a real reason.
I suspect there is a “noisy vehicle” board out there, where people are describing me… “You know, my neighbor makes NO NOISE! I DON’T GET IT! I never know when he is out in his driveway, when he leaves his house or comes home… I don’t even know if he has a car, truck, or van because I never hear it. WHAT’S WRONG WITH HIM?”
Let us not overlook the person who habitually waits 30 feet behind the person in front of him on line at a restaurant, ticket counter etc., so that there is a gap encouraging others to “cut in” on the line, unaware that he is just being mindful of the privacy of the person ahead of him, and/or a flaming ninny.
Los Angeles airport yesterday. Big asshole in a cheap blue suit was furious because the TSA precheck line was closed and he had to get in the (short) line with all the regular shlubs. He pitched a fit with a bored TSA guy, who let him through a shortcut gate, where he had to get in the line with everybody else waiting for bags to go through the scanner. After trying to cut the body scan line while waving his first class ticket and complaining loudly, he pitched another fit when he was told he had to take off shoes and belt. They finally let him through another checkpoint. I also had pre-check and a first class ticket and arrived at that gate at the same time he did (after waiting in the regular line), although I’m sure with lower blood pressure. What a fucking tool.
We have a revver on the next block over. He has a early 70s Impala (I think, I haven’t seen it up close), and it’s really pretty, but I want to go over and put a coupon on his door for a free tune-up, cuz if you have to rev it for 15 minutes to get it to stay running, you need to get that shit checked out, ya know?
I had no idea they were called “ricers” as it seems like I’ve only seen white and/or Hispanic young men driving them. But what I’ve wondered is what the female members of their cohort think. Are they chick magnets? Thinking of myself back then, I’m pretty sure I would’ve rolled my eyes.
