Noisy motorbikes

secretsam

There seems to have been a huge increase in these over the last year or so - not the hairdryer 125 things that kids ride, but big Harleys etc which make an unbelievable amount of noise. WTF is all that about? Surely there are laws about this sort of thing? :evil:

rick_chasey

Try living a street down from the harley davidson shop...

fat daddy

I like it ...... big bikes with big exhausts, it gets them noticed.

Quite often when driving I have been alerted to a bike by the noise before I have seen it, they need all the help they can get when on the road.

Admittedly its a little annoying at 3am in the morning, but its helpful when they filter though in traffic and you hear them before you squash them !

essex-commuter

I like them but they scare the feckin' life out of me sometimes when I'm on the bike.

bompington

I live a mile or so over the hill from a main road that leads from Dundee to the A93 - the road that goes over Glenshee, the highest pass in the UK, and a roundabout way to Aberdeen.
It's proper Highland scenery and a very popular motorbike route - it's one of those that have "watch out for bike" signs every couple of miles. On nice summer days the noise from bikes heading up it is quite annoying: by contrast I never hear the equidistant and much busier A90, the dual carriageway that is the main road to Dundee and Aberdeen.

I'm really not convinced that being louder makes them safer - in my experience you usually only hear them when it's too late to make any difference. If anything, the sudden noise must increase the chance of a driver or cyclist reacting in a panicked or unexpected way, which can hardly increase anyone's safety.

I suspect that the exhaust noise, like having a bike in the first place, is mainly a macho attention-seeking pose.

elbowloh

Aren't many of these bikes considerably quieter when they roll off the forercourt (to meet regs), but are then modded by the owner to get the roar?

I used to live in Dorking, which not only used to have a Harley showroom, but also the "Mickleham bends" on the A24, which was used for a bit of "racing" every weekend by the hundreds of bikers that would gather at Rykers burger joint.

Not too bothered, so long as they're safe!

bompington

elbowloh wrote:

Not too bothered, so long as transplant organs continue to be readily available

FTFY

oldbazza

bompington wrote:

elbowloh wrote:

Not too bothered, so long as transplant organs continue to be readily available

FTFY

I would imagine some others would say the same about cyclists,,,,

Used to have a Yamaha R1 with Akrapoic exhausts and properly set-up on a dyno;wasn't that loud with a nice burble at tick-over but get it at 10,000rpm+ and it used to sing and made some very nice pops on the overun when changing down.


If you want loud try standing directly behind a Honda RCV moto gp bike.

elbowloh

bompington wrote:

elbowloh wrote:

Not too bothered, so long as transplant organs continue to be readily available

FTFY

Donorcycles

bompington

oldbazza wrote:

I would imagine some others would say the same about cyclists,,,,

No doubt they would, but there's absolutely nothing about cycling that's as antisocial as a loud exhaust. And of course cyclists don't kill themselves nearly as often.

fat daddy

oldbazza wrote:

If you want loud try standing directly behind a Honda RCV moto gp bike.

heh, that reminds me, my very first track day, we all lined up on the grid awaiting all the riders to get together and the pace bike to lead us out. engines off.

pace bike comes round, goes to the front of the grid and signal us to start our engines.

I was at the back

The wall of noise that erupted as 20, "race spec" bikes all fired up their engines ... I was wearing ear plugs and was deafened and the heat as well, it was just a wind of exhaust ... epic really

tgotb

Plain selfish and antisocial, in my book, especially in an urban environment. The huge variation in noise generated by similar-powered motorbikes suggests there's no need for them to be that loud. Most motorbikes are fine; it's the minority, maybe 5%, that are clearly generating noise for noise's sake.

You're wearing a helmet that reduces your hearing (and, in some cases, ear plugs as well), many of the road users and pedestrians around you have no such protection. If you want your bike to sound noisy (and, let's face it, you're the only person who does), wear earphones connected to a microphone next to the exhaust with a big amplifier on the dashboard. As your hearing deteriorates, just turn up the amplifier.

If it's about being heard by other road users, why don't we fit continuously wailing klaxons to every bicycle too, and give pedestrians air horns to blast continuously whenever they're crossing the road. If you think that would make town centres intolerably noisy, now you know how many people feel about the noisier motorbikes.

bompington

TGOTB wrote:

Most motorbikes are fine; it's the minority, maybe 5%, that are clearly generating noise for noise's sake.

As I understand it, it's a well-known practice to buy an illegally noisy exhaust after-market and then just swap the legal one back on when it's time for the MOT.
I don't know what the legal noise limit is but I'm pretty sure a lot of bikes exceed it, and it would be nice if they sometimes got done for it. Then again, it would be nice if they sometimes got done for the speeding too.

MrSweary

bompington wrote:

I don't know what the legal noise limit is but I'm pretty sure a lot of bikes exceed it, and it would be nice if they sometimes got done for it. Then again, it would be nice if they sometimes got done for the speeding too.

Very much this.

kingstongraham

TGOTB wrote:

If it's about being heard by other road users, why don't we fit continuously wailing klaxons to every bicycle too, and give pedestrians air horns to blast continuously whenever they're crossing the road. If you think that would make town centres intolerably noisy, now you know how many people feel about the noisier motorbikes.

Isn't this effectively the solution some are proposing to the fact that pedestrians don't look before crossing, and will get hit by electric cars?

bikes`n`guns

bompington wrote:

TGOTB wrote:

Most motorbikes are fine; it's the minority, maybe 5%, that are clearly generating noise for noise's sake.

As I understand it, it's a well-known practice to buy an illegally noisy exhaust after-market and then just swap the legal one back on when it's time for the MOT.
I don't know what the legal noise limit is but I'm pretty sure a lot of bikes exceed it, and it would be nice if they sometimes got done for it. Then again, it would be nice if they sometimes got done for the speeding too.

Did your girlfriend run off with a biker or somit ?

tgotb

KingstonGraham wrote:

Isn't this effectively the solution some are proposing to the fact that pedestrians don't look before crossing, and will get hit by electric cars?

Indeed, the issue being that electric cars are quieter than normal cars. Hypothetically, if all vehicles were electric (or human-powered), you'd be able to hear the electric ones easily.

As soon as you promote/justify noise as a safety feature you end up in a race to the bottom, with only the noisiest vehicles gaining any benefit.

i find it had to believe that people really choose to ride noisy motorbikes on grounds of safety. Sounds far more likely that it's an excuse to justify a decision made for completely different reasons.

rower63

I have very sensitive hearing, if I'm standing around when a Harley or scrambler comes by I have to put my fingers in my ears. If I'm cycling, I can't and it's excruciating. I hate them.

fat daddy

bompington wrote:

it would be nice if they sometimes got done for it. Then again, it would be nice if they sometimes got done for the speeding too.

what on earth makes you think we don't get done for it ? .... the limit is 80db .. illegal cans don't have a visible stamp on them saying its for road use ... some even have a stamp saying NOT FOR ROAD USE or RACE USE ONLY on them. when we get stopped its very easy for the police to glance at the exhaust and deem it illegal or not

far far easier than determining if a car is breaking the law or not

also get done for speeding ... its just harder as bikes only have a rear facing numberplate so impervious to front facing cameras

bompington

Bikes`n`guns wrote:

bompington wrote:

TGOTB wrote:

Most motorbikes are fine; it's the minority, maybe 5%, that are clearly generating noise for noise's sake.

As I understand it, it's a well-known practice to buy an illegally noisy exhaust after-market and then just swap the legal one back on when it's time for the MOT.
I don't know what the legal noise limit is but I'm pretty sure a lot of bikes exceed it, and it would be nice if they sometimes got done for it. Then again, it would be nice if they sometimes got done for the speeding too.

Did your girlfriend run off with a biker or somit ?

No, but my wife has had some fairly traumatic experiences trying to put the bits back together in A&E. And speak to the relatives afterwards, of course.

fat daddy

bompington wrote:

No, but my wife has had some fairly traumatic experiences trying to put the bits back together in A&E. And speak to the relatives afterwards, of course.

yes ... this is one of the down sides to having a noisy exhausts on bikes

bikes`n`guns

She works exclusively on bikers ?

bompington

Bikes`n`guns wrote:

She works exclusively on bikers ?

No, just disproportionately

alan_sherman

A lot of motorcyclists are also cyclists (and vice-versa). I think people forget that with the ol' divide and hate thing.

I'm not a fan of loud 'race' exhausts. I have one, but the baffle stays in. Its too antisocial. Another antisocial thing some motorcyclists (particularly scooters its seems) do is ride around with the headlight on full beam "to be more visible". Just as idiotic as the MagiShine vagazzlers in the cycling world.

Where we could all work together more harmoniously is in the ASL thing. i think they are a bad idea generally. i do think that motorcyclists should be allowed to use the right hand side and cyclists should stick to the left side unless turning right. However that isn't the law. However where there is no ASL I think cyclists should not put themselves in front of a motorcycle. This is the law but the 'slghtly' RLJers of the world seem to think that it is acceptable.


One of the best things I was taught on a motorbike was: Filter up to the back of the first car waiting in a queue. Wait behind them. This lets them retain their first place in the queue (removing their psychological frustration of a biker plonking themselves in front). Also it reduces the risk that the biker gets caught in the overtake position as the lights change (collision risk), and means you can sit in neutral instead of riding the clutch waiting to zoom away. On a bike you will overtake the car a few seconds after the lights change anyway. This results in much calmer journey and doesn't really impact time unless there are a lot of motorcyclists and you get stuck behind people who make that jump but can't make progress otherwise (scooters mainly).

reformedfatty

When I had a motorbike I had a 'distinctive', not necessarily noisy and certainly road legal exhaust on my bike. The reason was to make me more noticeable to inattentive car drivers.

Bicycle wise.. my commuter has got things like lurid colour bar tape, multicoloured lights that screw onto the valve caps. Reasoning? to make me more noticeable to inattentive car drivers.

As well as their reason for being, these also have one other thing in common - they can appear incredibly childish to people who haven't had sufficient experience of people trying to squish them with a ton and a half of vehicle.

meanredspider

I used to be ambivalent towards this until I lived in the middle of Inverness for a year and some fecker rode through town at 5am every morning on a bike with a stupidly loud exhaust. Lying in bed awake at that time gives you plenty of opportunity to wonder why it's so important to have an exhaust that wakes up half the town....

rick_chasey

I remember a conversation with a particularly loud harly rider. I mean, really loud. Just ticking over at the lights you could feel it in the floor. Been to much quieter nightclubs than sitting next to that bike.

Me: "Your bike could be a bit louder mate"
Him: "What??"
Me: "Your bike could be a bit louder mate!"
Him: "Whaat?!?!"
Me: "YOUR BIKE COULD BE A BIT LOUDER. IT'S REALLY LOUD."
Him: "Do you really think so? Thanks!"

:roll:

tangled_metal

Part of the issue used to.be the test itself. Unless it has changed it's all about the noise at certain revs. The real issue is that most motor bikers don't use those revs other than when setting off. A super sport bike will operate best at a lot higher revs than the test so could easily pass the road legal test with flying colours but be excessively noisy in real life use. This is possibly the same with cruisers like the Harleys but the company I used to work with only concentrated on super sports bike exhausts. Basically we made a nice bit of business out of gaming the test. Increases in power right up the power curve (33% increase or greater at some revs) while meeting the very narrow test requirements. Surprisingly easy to cheat.

Bike MOT centres often carry exhausts for the main super sports bikes in case the customer has forgotten to put his very nearly new original pipe back on. They rarely get caught out doing it so no major risk.

Race courses are now having stricter. Sound requirements for race cars. I have no doubt bike tracks are feeling the same constraints. As a result there's quite a few smaller race oriented exhaust companies producing road legal race pipes. From road to race use which kind of works for the track day enthusiast. The only trouble is they will still be gaming the test standards,

Put simply, unless you have an enforced requirement for a maximum exhaust noise level irrespective of the revs the bike (and car) is being run at you'll never stop this problem. I'm highly against bikes because of this noise issue and other problems i see with.them. As a result i feel first case of excessive noise you get fined and points, second you get your bike crushed. I feel that strongly about it.

PS I'm still in a related business so my own financial status could be affected by such a draconian measure but I still hold to it.

BobMcbob

Seems to be worse since motorbikes were allowed to use bus lanes. Commercial Road is a racetrack most evenings

dodgy

This thread has just reminded me that next year Morzine hosts the 'Harley Days'. It comes back every 2 years and it's a fecking PITA. Beautiful mountain passes, usually echoing to the sound of alpine cow bells and bird song is instead swamped by fat blokes and their stupid overly loud bikes.

FFS. Often they will do ride outs to neighbouring towns, they turn up to the parking spot and start revving their engines before turning them off, for god knows why. They look around the town square expecting admiring looks, but everyone is just wishing they would sod off back to Morzine.

Ahhhhh, that's better.

fat daddy

Tangled Metal wrote:

Part of the issue used to.be the test itself. Unless it has changed it's all about the noise at certain revs. The real issue is that most motor bikers don't use those revs other than when setting off. A super sport bike will operate best at a lot higher revs than the test so could easily pass the road legal test with flying colours but be excessively noisy in real life use.

That "should" be a moot point.

Your average sports bike does about

60-65mph in 1st gear
100mph in 2nd gear
130 -in 3rd
etc etc

testing a bike at 10k rpm in theory should be a pointless task as people shouldnt be riding at over 100mph on the roads in the 1st place