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I've never fitted aftermarket silencers to a 'bike because I wanted the 'bike to sound louder, it's been to make it sound better (the lightness was nice too).
My Ducati 851 with a pair of Termigoni exhausts sounds bloody fantastic!
My Moto Guzzi V1100 Sport with Mistral exhausts fitted sounds like an automotive orgasm.
I live close to a very beautiful city park and the motorcycles are not allowed to drive by there or thru there with their pipes wide open; however, they do come SCREAMING up over the hill where we live pipes wide open and no one stops them. Why are they banned from disrupting a city park and allowed to disrupt a residential area which is made up of mostly elderly people? The lady behind me is 98 years old, man across from her 86, and across the street is a woman who is pushing 90 and has arthritis so bad she can barely move. Me? I am 65 and right now it just totally ticks me off. Between your 2 cents and mine we have about 4 cents worth of support...anyone else???
Have you banned the lawn mowers and leaf blowers yet?
In most places, those bikes are already banned it's just nobody does anything about it. And honestly, I kind of have mixed feelings on that. My bike is louder than probably 90% of Harleys on the road, but I'm considerate about that. I can tool around town making quite a bit less noise than a lawn mower or leaf blower. I only really get on it very briefly getting on freeways in which case I'm no louder than the trucks going by or in the canyons/country roads. You're going to get everything from sports bikes to Harleys to Ferraris to muscle cars. They're all loud.
Then you have places like Mulholland Dr. in LA... That's been a motorcyclist/car staple of decades. I figure anyone stupid enough to buy a house there who finds the noise objectionable is just that. It's like the people that buy houses directly under the flight path of an airport and complain about the planes.
Have you banned the lawn mowers and leaf blowers yet?
In most places, those bikes are already banned it's just nobody does anything about it. And honestly, I kind of have mixed feelings on that. My bike is louder than probably 90% of Harleys on the road, but I'm considerate about that. I can tool around town making quite a bit less noise than a lawn mower or leaf blower. I only really get on it very briefly getting on freeways in which case I'm no louder than the trucks going by or in the canyons/country roads. You're going to get everything from sports bikes to Harleys to Ferraris to muscle cars. They're all loud.
It's good that you're (more) considerate when it comes to how much noise your bike is putting out. But the difference between lawn mowers/leaf blowers/semis and motorcycles/muscle cars with loud exhausts is that the first group serves a practical function that cannot be argued, whereas the second serves no practical function whatsoever. Even the theory that loud exhausts might prevent an accident seems entirely unfounded. Considering that the effects of noise pollution are factual, it's just as likely that a motorcyclist could lose his hearing as a result of all the noise over time thereby making the roads less safe rather than more.
So everything can be justified so long as one person thinks it's "effing awesome"? Interesting.
I personally don't know the difference. If something's ridiculously loud for no good reason (having no practical function), I find it inconsiderate of those who made it that way on purpose, doesn't matter what the source of the noise is. The bottom line is, something with only subjective value but with very objective negative consequences has no justification whatsoever.
Well, my pipes have the optional quiet baffles, to take out some of the high pitched noises, but they are still quite a bit louder than stock pipes, honestly, if you want to know what the practical purpose is, it's performance. Stock Harley's are pretty corked up and detuned off the showroom floor. It's pretty much a trade off, if you want more horsepower, you generally need to have a louder exhaust. This applies to cars, bikes, trucks, anything with an internal combustion engine.
Also, my pipes are 50 state EPA legal, including California air resources board legal, which is the most stringent of standards as far as decibel and pollution output. So, you can hate them all you want, it won't matter. The question the OP SHOULD have asked was "Why do people with loud pipes ride around at wide open throttle in residential neighborhoods?" It's the person riding it, not the pipes. My bike can be quiet if it want it to, just keep the revs low, and it keeps the neighbors happy. I save the high revvin stuff for the freeway.
Personal responsibility. Just like guns don't kill people, loud pipes do not the a-hole motorcyclist make. It's he a-hole behind the throttle.
And as far as mr. Internet tough guy in New Hampshire who just couldn't resist jabs at motorcycles somehow being a compensation for penis size? That's funny, really. Even my wife rides a Harley. What exactly is she compensating for?
And as far as mr. Internet tough guy in New Hampshire who just couldn't resist jabs at motorcycles somehow being a compensation for penis size? That's funny, really. Even my wife rides a Harley. What exactly is she compensating for?
Some people compensate by accusing others of compensating. I don't what's worse, a jerk who rides a needlessly obnoxious motorbike or the prig who accuses the jerk of "compensating".
I'll ignore the comment about "They're legal, so it doesn't matter if you hate them" because you're clearly not someone who has to lean on that to support your stance, and I commend you for that. Instead, let me say that the following is actually contributing to the conversation. Other bikers should take notes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanek9freak
The question the OP SHOULD have asked was "Why do people with loud pipes ride around at wide open throttle in residential neighborhoods?" It's the person riding it, not the pipes. My bike can be quiet if it want it to, just keep the revs low, and it keeps the neighbors happy. I save the high revvin stuff for the freeway.
Personal responsibility. Just like guns don't kill people, loud pipes do not the a-hole motorcyclist make. It's he a-hole behind the throttle.
Interesting. Thanks again for clearing that up, because I'm sure there are lots of motorcyclists who would claim otherwise just for BS' sake.
One more thing, though...
Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanek9freak
And as far as mr. Internet tough guy in New Hampshire who just couldn't resist jabs at motorcycles somehow being a compensation for penis size? That's funny, really. Even my wife rides a Harley. What exactly is she compensating for?
You're walking right into that one, you realize that?
I spent quite a bit of time in Germany with the military. Their motorcycle culture in Europe is so different from our. Yes, even they have quite a few Harley's over there, but local governments and municipalities embrace them, give them motorcycle only freeway lanes and parking. I don't understand why there's such a negative stigma here against bikers. It's a relatively safe and economical form of transportation and if more people had them, I'm sure pollution would be reduced, as would our dependency on foreign oil.
I don't understand why there's such a negative stigma here against bikers.
That's easy. For many of us, it seems (right or wrong) that anyone with a bike that can make noise so loud that two people in the car next to you can't hear each other speak, will make their bike do just that every chance they get. I don't know if you think you're representative of bikers in general, but I don't think so at all.
FWIW, I'm glad I live in a motorcycle friendly community. There's some kind of bike rally or poker run nearly every weekend around here, often hundreds, or sometimes thousands of bikes show up. We even get police escorts around town, by the MC cops who, also ride Harley Davidson Electra Glides.
Community seems to embrace it.
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