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Motorcycles are too loud


Mr. Silly

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1 minute ago, Mr. Grumpy said:

WHy don't manufacturers put decent mufflers on them?  The world would be a better place if they did.

There are piles of decent motorcycle mufflers in scrap yards where their owners dropped them after to changing to straight pipes.  The purr of a BMW seems to be lost on American ears.

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10 minutes ago, Airehead said:

Some are not loud enough. 

My 81 CB650 was very quiet.  On the 84 Sabre 700, they porpoisely made the pipes louder to compensate for the watercooled engine making less valve noise, so they had more room under the standards, I think.  My first road bike was a used CB350 that I probably should not have bought, but I loved everything aboot it except for the straight pipes that were noisy as hell.

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Anyone seen the South Park episode about Harley riders?  It is very funny.

My husband and I say t each other "FAG"  when a motorcycle rider goes past on his loud Harley.  Then, we phrase some comments from the episode.  

You have to watch the episode to understand the FAG reference.  It isn't what you might think it is.  :D

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18 minutes ago, Old No. 7 said:

Loud pipes tell stupid lazy drivers that you are there. I don’t like the noise either but I understand why. 

I will say this, every EVERY single person I personally know that has had a motorcycle has also had a motorcycle-caused hospitalization.  What their stories have in common is usually "I was going too fast" or "I hit a (pothole, patch of sand, slippery spot)".  I know some have said that they have had altercations with drivers, but the bulk of the actual accidents seem to come from overestimating ability to control the motorcycle under varying conditions.

The loud thing is a dodge for having the mind of a 4 year-old from what I see.   Anyway, when I am on a bike, I always act as though drivers can't see me.  It is up to ME to be aware of THEM because all driver's minds are trained to first look for other car sized objects.  Motorcyclists should do the same and stop the noise pollution and lame excuses.

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13 minutes ago, team scooter said:

Mine is quiet enough to hear the mechanicals over the wind noise. Stuff like the chain, the brake rotor buzz while braking, etc. 

One buddy (who hit the patch of sand and pretty much broke the left side of his body for a few months) has a very nice and quiet motorcycle, and he also takes pride in that, I think that is pretty cool!

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Most, if not all, of my close calls were because drivers look for other cars/trucks while driving, but not so much motorcycles. I try to do what I can to be seen. Short of having a strobe light on my head and burning out people's retinas with my high beams, my motorcycles are red, not black. I wear bright colored helmets and jackets and I still need to ride like I'm invisible, because to many, I am. I get the loud pipes save lives thing, but not enough to trust my life to someone else's hearing.

https://www.leatherup.com/products/milwaukee-performance-mpm1794-high-vis-mens-black-and-green-mesh-racer-jacket-with-reflective-piping?variant=15805191225387&msclkid=3a25ec76c1951ed1853cb28987a9f579&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=S%26O+|+Focus+Brands+2&utm_term=4582489590940941&utm_content=GSAPI+5cbf398c8c299

However I did put an exhaust on the Miata. Because a roadster needs to sound like a roadster. ;)

 

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2 hours ago, Old No. 7 said:

Loud pipes tell stupid lazy deer that you are there. I don’t like the noise either but I understand why. 

FIFY

I rode thousands of miles at night in many different states and never had an issue with deer. I have had nothing but trouble riding my bicycles at night even with really bright lights.

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26 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I rode thousands of miles at night in many different states and never had an issue with deer.

Here I am, all smug in my obviously correct opinion, and you have to come along and introduce evidence to the contrary!  :angry:

I hadn't thought about it from a wildlife perspective, but from the people perspective.  Assholes with loud motorcycles in population centers are assholes, plain and simple.   I can see your point from a deer perspective, though, it would suck banging into one on the road at night!

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3 hours ago, team scooter said:

Most, if not all, of my close calls were because drivers look for other cars/trucks while driving, but not so much motorcycles. I try to do what I can to be seen. Short of having a strobe light on my head and burning out people's retinas with my high beams, my motorcycles are red, not black. I wear bright colored helmets and jackets and I still need to ride like I'm invisible, because to many, I am. I get the loud pipes save lives thing, but not enough to trust my life to someone else's hearing.

https://www.leatherup.com/products/milwaukee-performance-mpm1794-high-vis-mens-black-and-green-mesh-racer-jacket-with-reflective-piping?variant=15805191225387&msclkid=3a25ec76c1951ed1853cb28987a9f579&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=S%26O+|+Focus+Brands+2&utm_term=4582489590940941&utm_content=GSAPI+5cbf398c8c299

However I did put an exhaust on the Miata. Because a roadster needs to sound like a roadster. ;)

 

I put a borla exhaust and a K&N filter on mine too. 

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I'm not a fan of loud pipes. 

I like it when someone says....I can't put mufflers on the bike because it will choke off the motor. Than I tell them that all my race bikes have mufflers and they will out perform any bike with straight pipes. 

If loud pipes save lives I think we should pray for the BMW and Goldwing riders. 

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3 hours ago, Longjohn said:

FIFY

I rode thousands of miles at night in many different states and never had an issue with deer. I have had nothing but trouble riding my bicycles at night even with really bright lights.

My coworker was commuting on his motorcycle to the train station (MARC train) out in West Virginia.  He hit or was hit by a deer.  It screwed him up pretty bad.  I think that was the start of his decade plus of severe back issues :(  I hit a deer a couple years ago with my car.  Totally different outcome.

Snakes are a different story! A neighbor of mine was riding his motorcycle and just got out of the neighborhood onto one of the bigger faster county roads. As the motor warmed up, he noticed a black snake headed up his leg.  He was able to slow down and simultaneously shake his leg wildly, and the snake fell off, he stayed upright, and I bet he started checking his bike out a little more closely before each ride :) 

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They do a ride here called "the Flood Run"...thousands of motorcycles  along the Mississippi river...it is not a good times to drive the area when they are out...and it is way worse to be on a bike..I have accidentally done both :frantics:..There was no respite on a bike..OMG..20 or 100 motorcycles would pass you... you had a minute and boom..the next wave..and it just kept on coming!!

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33 minutes ago, BR46 said:

I'm not a fan of loud pipes. 

I like it when someone says....I can't put mufflers on the bike because it will choke off the motor. Than I tell them that all my race bikes have mufflers and they will out perform any bike with straight pipes. 

If loud pipes save lives I think we should pray for the BMW and Goldwing riders. 

My 400 Suzuki Savage came ready to race but it had a down pipe expansion chamber with no baffles. I ordered a Bassini quiet pipe from California before I even took delivery of the bike. The bike got delivered first so I raced it for  about a month with the original pipe. It’s a wonder I’m not deaf. The last race I was in before my other one came in I hit a rock or a log or something and ripped the original pipe off. I hooked it over my shoulder and rode back to my truck with no pipe. That was even louder than the expansion chamber.

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A friend quit riding the poker run type rides with big groups, because of the racket from loud pipes.

And I don't buy into the loud pipes save lives bullshit.

I have had a loud bike rider crack the throttle next to my car and been very tempted to jerk the wheel left...

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3 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

My 400 Suzuki Savage came ready to race but it had a down pipe expansion chamber with no baffles. I ordered a Bassini quiet pipe from California before I even took delivery of the bike. The bike got delivered first so I raced it for  about a month with the original pipe. It’s a wonder I’m not deaf. The last race I was in before my other one came in I hit a rock or a log or something and ripped the original pipe off. I hooked it over my shoulder and rode back to my truck with no pipe. That was even louder than the expansion chamber.

The expansion chambers in karts weren’t that bad. I liked the sound, but mostly the smell. 

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There was talk back in 1973 that they were going to require some type of muffler to race so I was getting ahead of the game but I really needed the upswept exhaust so I wasn’t always banging it on stuff. Did they ever pass that requirement? I quit racing before I got married, loud exhaust was still the norm.

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10 minutes ago, Further said:

 

I have had a loud bike rider crack the throttle next to my car and been very tempted to jerk the wheel left...

I've had them do it while passing me when I'm on my bicycle.  Startled the shit out of me.  I almost rode into the ditch 

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4 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

My car can be loud, factory exhaust.  I like it.

I know what team scooter means about a roadster exhaust. The mg midget had a great exhaust sound from its tiny 1098 cc engine. Not really loud but it sounded nice. The del sol is too quiet now that it has a new muffler. :D

 

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1 minute ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

I know what team scooter means about a roadster exhaust. The mg midget had a great exhaust sound from its tiny 1098 cc engine. Not really loud but it sounded nice. The del sol is too quiet now that it has a new muffler. :D

 

The Miata has a nice little rasp for enthusiastic driving, but can be totally civilized when desired. 

I don't mind a little rumble. I grew up with muscle cars and you could hear which cars could back it up and which were just noise. 

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3 minutes ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

But there is snot much of that in a parking lot though. 

My bike is completely silent when I ride it, the slick tires don’t make any noise and the freewheel doesn’t make any clicky clicky noise. All those deer saw was a really bright light as it slammed into them.

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3 hours ago, Longjohn said:

There was talk back in 1973 that they were going to require some type of muffler to race so I was getting ahead of the game but I really needed the upswept exhaust so I wasn’t always banging it on stuff. Did they ever pass that requirement? I quit racing before I got married, loud exhaust was still the norm.

Most of the race tracks have strict noise levels now days and some tracks have strict hours that we can run the motors in the pits. A few tracks have sensors and if you set off the sensor you are black flagged with no refund. 

We have been to tracks in the Bible belt the we are not allowed to run generators at any noise level on Sunday over lunch break. 

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36 minutes ago, BR46 said:

Most of the race tracks have strict noise levels now days and some tracks have strict hours that we can run the motors in the pits. A few tracks have sensors and if you set off the sensor you are black flagged with no refund. 

We have been to tracks in the Bible belt the we are not allowed to run generators at any noise level on Sunday over lunch break. 

I can’t remember which track or exactly the year, but Mazda was racing the rotary engines in the IMSA GTP class. There was a noise ordinance. First time I had seen them use a noise meter track side. Evidently it was particularly sensitive to the Mazda. They kept setting it off even though people said they really weren’t louder...just distinct. They finally figured out they had to jump off the throttle for an instant at a certain point. Once they got it down, they didn’t lose much speed on the track. 

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1 minute ago, groupw said:

I can’t remember which track or exactly the year, but Mazda was racing the rotary engines in the IMSA GTP class. There was a noise ordinance. First time I had seen them use a noise meter track side. Evidently it was particularly sensitive to the Mazda. They kept setting it off even though people said they really weren’t louder...just distinct. They finally figured out they had to jump off the throttle for an instant at a certain point. Once they got it down, they didn’t lose much speed on the track. 

I guess that when the vintage motorcycle racing was at Laguna they were told where the sensor was.  Everyone would let off the throttle when passing the sensor 

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On 7/3/2020 at 10:43 AM, Randomguy said:

I will say this, every EVERY single person I personally know that has had a motorcycle has also had a motorcycle-caused hospitalization.

I was never hospitalized but did have some scans after a crash on my race bike. I can’t say the same thing for my bicycles.

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