Saturday morning rant about noise!

[moa84843]

I was at the plaza in Kansas City last night enjoying coffee with a few motorcycle friends. Just a fun evening talking about riding, and watching the world go by. Every little while this scene comes to a halt; as conversation becomes impossible; because the noise from certain motorcycles is deafening. It seems like everyone all along this shopping district has to stop what they are doing for a few moments, while the offending motorcycle moves out of range. Several times we had the pleasure of listening to the rider gun the engine a few times, so we know he or she has lots of hair on their chest. Then of course there is starting the bike so it hits the redline as soon after the engine fires as possible. That is always nice, because unlike riding by you have no warning what is coming, such a special moment. It's hard to describe how much fun this all is.

Enough is enough, I am ready for draconian muffler laws and please bring them to the Kansas City area. Make the fines large enough for the city to have a vested interest in having an officer dedicated to examining every bike in every parking lot for NON FACTORY STOCK MUFFLERS. I do not think any other method or option has a chance of being enforceable or effective. The city must have a large financial gain and easy yes/no verification.

I realize doing this will cause a lot of hardships and large problems for the motorcycle community. Really a very very bad idea, but I have had enough and will support any politician that will peruse this.

Maybe a few years, after a law like this is passes, things can be looked over again for a more sensible approach.

[Belquar]

Most towns have a noise ordinance but it is never enforced.

Probably cause that noise saves lives ya know. :banghead :laugh

[flash412]

Spread this idea around. Mention it to your local newspaper editor or Op-Ed columnist. The hand-sign for "tiny dick" is to hold out your arm, hand in a fist, palm down and then stick out your little finger and wiggle it. (This works for fellows in pick-up trucks with tires that are taller than they are, too.)

http://flash412.home.comcast.net/Pipes1.JPG

[bubbagazoo]

Haven't you heard, it's every Neanderthal's God given right to express himself in ways that absolutely annoy the other 99% of the population.

The problem, as Belquar stated, is the lack of enforcement of current statutes/bylaws. And the problem is not isolated to motorcycles of a certain style or manufacturer. Loud car exhausts, sport bikes with their loud but high pitched whine, automobiles and trucks with sound systems that could be used as the primary amplification source for a Rolling Stones concert are just as annoying.

Lawmakers enact legislation to curb certain behaviours or to encourage other actions at the request of or for the protection of their constituents. However, in many instances, these laws are toothless because there is no effective way to enforce them. The Province of Alberta has a mandatory bicycle helmet law that requires all persons under the age of 18 to wear a properly fitting and secured helmet when riding a bicycle. Unfortunately, it seldom gets enforced because the lawmakers did nothing to give the law enforecment agencies the resources to enforce the law.

Another example of this sort of lack of enforcement is the City of Edmonton's trash collection bylaw stipulates the maximum size and style of garbage can residents can put out. One of the stated requirements is that the garbage cans not have wheels. My garbage can is twice the stipulated size and has wheels for easy movement. And many others have the same type of garbage can. However, because these scofflaw garbage cans are available in every hardware/department store, the city does not enforce its own regulations.

We can all hope for common sense and respect to give us the society we all want to live in. However, it's not going to happen so long as there are people out there who just have to express their individuality on mass produced clone bikes while looking like everybody else who rides the same mass produced clone bike.

[pcsof8]

I'm sick of the noise pollution from these dumb asses with those "bikes". It's getting insane. I mean, damn...do you really have to let the whole f__ing state know your motor is running? Not getting enough attention at home and need that extra noise boost that will make the girls turn their heads and put their fngers in their ears?
I thank God that I'm not in that crowd of short penis two brain cell posers.

[The_Veg]

It really gets nuts on the lower part of Greenville Avenue in Dallas on sunny Sunday afternoons. Sometimes I'm tempted to buy myself the biggest, baddest bullhorn I can find and as the ear-splitting idiots ride by I'd raise my bullhorn and say something like "WHY DON'T YOU GET A PENILE IMPLANT?"

[BradfordBenn]

I think it is caused profiling. It annoys me cause I have been stopped and harassed for no reason. So draconian measures are a big no-no in my opinion. However outlawing the production of the non compliant products I would be all for.

VFR with stock exhaust, yup no problems with noise. Cop pulled me over cause I was too loud. So I asked him to produce the Sound Pressure Meter and the local code indicate the testing method. It was tense couple of moments. But I got off with a "warning" thanks to officer friendly. I then called the police department and registered a complaint. Because my company is a pretty big company in the area we have a good relationship with the community. I got a call of apology from the Chief.

I think a lot of this is because I go past the township motorpool as I commute to work, so if someone is having a bad day I am in the "enforcement zone".

[manicmechanic]

In a recent issue of MCN there was an article entitled "The Noise is Killing Us." Rather informative. If you get a chance, research and peruse it.

[StevieWonder]

so we know he or she has lots of hair on their chest.

FWIW, there is no grass on a well-worn playground !!! :D

[tessler]

The straight-pipes set around here produces decibels way above typical ambient New York City noise.

In many of our fashionable, hipster-paradise, melting-pot neighborhoods; the places inhabited by the "Now I wanna live in NYC!" transplants from other cities and towns in America (Williamsburg, LES, Chelsea, Meatpacking District, Hell's Kitchen, Park Slope), the earsplitting rumble is de riguer and meekly unchallenged.

But try that action in a real NY neighborhood and the offending "rider" is met with vociferous fist-shaking a little stronger than "Get a Muffler!"

[crazydrummerdude]

well, it seems like you now know where the noise is, so i would suggest that you not go there anymore.

i was just looking at the rant someone wrote about the rally t-shirt designs, and now this?

geez..

[tessler]

well, it seems like you now know where the noise is, so i would suggest that you not go there anymore.

i was just looking at the rant someone wrote about the rally t-shirt designs, and now this?

geez..who cares?Apparently, you do.

[Hodag]

I love a good loud exhaust, something you can hear coming and going

be it jets, cars, bikes, boats
songs from their engines make me smile

Like my mothers generation used to say...
if its too loud you're to old

but then again I don't like the sound of pissing, moaning, ragging, or complaining

[sgborgstrom]

I prefer to live my life quietly, drawing attention to myself only when I have something constructive to the conversation.

I'd rather not have to listen other's juvenile means of getting attention by making a lot of noise.

Steve

[tessler]

Ah... the sweet sound of loud exhausts :thumbs

[crazydrummerdude]

(tessler must have misunderstood me. also, i edited my post right after i posted it, but not soon enough. i took out the "who cares?" becuase i knew someone would have that exact response.

yet, you're wrong. i don't care about loud exhaust or crappy shirt designs. i am not one of the people who write the long cry-baby-sessions. i write short ones. ha..

seems i should have replaced the "who cares?" with a "why the hell does it matter?")

[sgborgstrom]

It matters because noise is the issue people who don't want motorcycles to be around use as justification for banning us from roads, gated communities, wilderness areas...Somewhere in California (Orange County? Riverside?) the powers-that-be have banned people from riding dirt bikes on their own property (I believe the AMA is working on a compromise down there but with politicians you just never know) the divisive issue there? Noise.

It is a sad fact of life these days that the "offensive" party usually loses. People move into a brand-new subdivision next to a farm that's been there for generations, decide they don't like the smell, complain and next thing you know there's a new subdivision where the farm used to be. When was the last time you heard an airport win the "We were here making this racket when you moved in" argument?

There's just too many of us on this planet for all of us to walk around giving everybody else the finger saying "Get over it". Even here in the allegedly Land of the Free, society almost always eventually beats down the individualist.

Steve

[GeneT]

It is not just motorcycles where I live, as a matter of fact the motorcycles are the least of the problem, that includes the Hogs with no muffler. This also includes the HD's the city police ride, which are not quiet.

Here we have the ever present boom box which vibrates the windows, yes there is some sort of law prohibiting this but no one enforces it. Next is the 4 cylinder rice burner cars with obnoxious exhaust sounds, never as mellow as a powerfull US built V8.

Next we have the serenade of the sirens, these band aid jockies have the sirens screaming as they carry the wonded to the hospital which is four blocks away.

Give me the motorcycles any day compaired to the other obnoxious sounds of the modern day world.

Hearing aids may have an advantage, I can turn all this off.

:dance

[gfspencer]

I think it is caused profiling. It annoys me cause I have been stopped and harassed for no reason. So draconian measures are a big no-no in my opinion. However outlawing the production of the non compliant products I would be all for.

VFR with stock exhaust, yup no problems with noise. Cop pulled me over cause I was too loud. So I asked him to produce the Sound Pressure Meter and the local code indicate the testing method. It was tense couple of moments. But I got off with a "warning" thanks to officer friendly. I then called the police department and registered a complaint. Because my company is a pretty big company in the area we have a good relationship with the community. I got a call of apology from the Chief.

I think a lot of this is because I go past the township motorpool as I commute to work, so if someone is having a bad day I am in the "enforcement zone".

Excellent!

[Newstar]

I try to be tolerant....really, I do! Everyone has the right to ride what they want to ride. But what every happened to common courtesy???

There are several sets of loud pipes in my neighborhood. I don't have a problem with them....during daylight hours! I live near the entrance/exit of the development and have three guys ride by between 4:30 and 5:00 am. After numerous calls to the police (who told me they can't predict when and where to be. Um, try my corner at 4:38am M-F!) we finally got a local councilman involved. Within 48 hours, the biggest offender was stopped and cited. Here's the kicker. He doesn't even live in my neighborhood! He's "warming his bike" :dunno before going to work and didn't want to bother his own neighbors.

Loud pipes aren't going to save the lives of those who keep waking their neighbors. :fight

A friend keeps his Road King in my garage. It can be loud and it rumbles. How come I don't hear him come and go at all hours? Because he is courteous enough not to gun the engine while people are sleeping.

[The_Veg]

There's just too many of us on this planet for all of us to walk around giving everybody else the finger saying "Get over it". Even here in the allegedly Land of the Free, society almost always eventually beats down the individualist.

Very well said!

[dmr]

My last ride had samson pipes. It could be loud, but I could run it pretty quiet, too. When I got the BMW, the neighbor came out and told me she was going to miss the HD because I left for work when she needed to get out of bed. She told me it was a whole lot nicer to wake up to the rumble than the alarm clock.

Now I just go over and gently shake her awake.

[GeneT]

All this conversation reminds me of an incident in the city where I live, they forced the closing of a HD dealership that was a local landmark. As Harley dealerships go there was a regular gathering of bikers on weekends, even larger if there was a dealer sponsered cook out or whatever.

This dealership faced a state & federal road but behind it was a peacefull country club neighborhood, years before the city had built a wall between the homes and the business establishmants. this was done to shut off some streets and help keep noise from the homes.

However the home owners continued to complain to the extent the city revoked the occupational license of the HD dealership, which also rented and swerviced all the police motorcycles for the entire county.

Then about a year later comes an Indian Dealership on the other side of the road. The city eventually forced him out as well.


:dance

[Cliffy777]

Power of the neighbors II
We had an interesting incident relating to pipe and bikes. We live in the country on 2.25 acres. There is a road just west of our lot line that goes back to 3 houses on similar size lots or maybe bigger.
Last summer the guy right behind us who has maybe 5 acres or so started moving some earth around and we first thought he was putting in a big ole garden. Nope - he made a moto-cross track.
I try to be tolerant, but it was very disconcerting to come home and want to chill on the back deck only to hear and see John and his buddies rippin' it up on their very loud dirt bikes.
Fortuneately for us the guy who lives in the furthest house back (more or less "next door" to Moto-John) is a wealthy guy with a bunch of horses. He called the cops repeatedly. We just tried to talk to John and he basically said, Hey - its my property and I will do what I want.
Nope. The horse guy took him to court and won. There ain't no more moto cross riding back there anymore.
I guess to paraphrase the "Your right to swing your arm ends at my nose" thing we could go with "Your right to really loud motorcycles on your property ends at my ears."

[bubbagazoo]

I took a look at the owner's manual that came with my wife's Vulcan 500. There is a complete page regarding the built in noise reduction technologies on the bike. I'm not going to quote, just summarize it. My MOM for the Vulcan 500 clearly states that it is contrary to American Federal Law to do anything to the exhaust system, mufflers, air intake system or any other part of the bike that will increase the noise level of the motorcycle. The English language page does not state that it refers to American Federal Statutes but the French translation is very specific that the laws in question are American.

Or to put it more simply - if you made your bike louder, either intentionally or unintentionally, you broke the law.

The Vulcan's MOM, however, does not state what the penalties are for contravening these statutes.

[pcsof8]

German engineering doesn't have to be loud to be good. We ride these BMW bikes because we can slip through any little village or Hamlet in the wee hours of the morning and not be heard, thus not distrurbing the peace and solitude of our suroundings. The precise engineering of the boxer engine or the K engine humming along is beautiful to our ears. We need not the skulls and flame paint jobs on our equipment to be cool, we know we're cool.
-Just my thoughts :german

[dmr]

What if the motocross guy decided that the horses stink, and offended his sense of smell. Horses stink 24/7. Motorcycles only make noise occasionally. Do you think he could successfully get LE to eliminate the horses?

One person's noise is another's music. :heart

DR

[Cliffy777]

What if the motocross guy decided that the horses stink, and offended his sense of smell. Horses stink 24/7. Motorcycles only make noise occasionally. Do you think he could successfully get LE to eliminate the horses?
One person's noise is another's music. :heart
DR

I see your point, but the horses in this particular situation do not stink. The barn and surrounding area is as pristine as any I have ever seen. Maybe he trained his horses not to s&*^.....