I ride motorcycle and I always love that argument. I have stock pipes on my bike and I prefer them to be as quiet as possible so that I hear as much of the road as possible, as well as other vehicles.
Yes loud motorcycles do make others aware of your presence … especially if they are very loud pipes.
What no one ever wants to admit is that you usually hear the loud pipes AFTER the bike/vehicle has passed you or is moving away. You seldom hear a loud motorcycle coming at you, especially if you are in a car with sound proofing or sound dampening. You definitely hear the big loud motorcycle pipes as the idiot is driving away from you.
The other thing I love about morons that enjoy big loud motorcycle pipes is that they are the same idiots that want an open air sound system for their motorcycle. So they get the loud pipes and then get a really powerful sound system so that they can listen to their muffled music over the sound of loud pipes, the highway and the buffeting winds as they drive down the highway. Usually, these are the same idiots that lose their hearing by the time they’re 50.
And fuck us cyclists… We get run over AND lose our hearing because we’re not protected by 1ton of soundproofed metal.
And if that logic was true, we would already have a problem worse than the yank tank issue, where the cars get bigger and bigger for “protection”. Every vehicle would get louder and louder to be heard above the other loud vehicles, and eventually living in a city would mean enjoying the non stop sound of atomic bombs exploding everywhere 100 times per second per car.
But unlike the yank tank issue, everyone would be deaf, and then the noise wouldn’t matter anymore. I guess that’s the best case scenario that those kinds of sadists hope for. They can’t hear anymore, so they want everyone else to be deaf as well.
The other thing those people fail to mention is that loud noises are disorienting, and the one thing you want when you sandwich yourself between a couple of 2 tons pieces of metal moving at 110 km/h is to disorient everybody and make them unable to move in straight lines.
shhh don’t tell the headlight lobby that these new blinding LED headlights are actually less safe because they blind oncoming drivers coming at you at 100km/h four feet away on a narrow turning road
I have a neighbor that might be entering a mid-life and/or identity crisis phase. A few months back he shows up with a hog and starts tinkering with it in the yard. Pretty soon he has a bunch of motorcycle friends who start showing up to ride and off they go, loudly farting down the street on their bikes.
I’m mostly ambivalent about the entire thing except that he tends to work a late shift, so he doesn’t get started with his hobby riding until 7 or 8 at night. Not late enough to really complain about but also late enough that it can be disruptive. He’s a okay dude and we’ve civilly chatted about the noise before, but I don’t think he thinks his motorcycle counts as noise. I hope he finds what he’s looking for out on the open road.
There’s a big change happening in motorcycling these days. A lot of older people (50+) are buying motorcycles because they always wanted to ride but they couldn’t afford it when they were younger. Mix in the fact that many old riders are now giving up their bikes and selling them … but young riders are not buying them because a young new rider can’t afford the insurance for the bike. Younger riders will go for new smaller engine bikes and many of them are now migrating towards electric bikes … it’s getting to the point where small engine bikes are as powerful, fast and economical as a good sized electric bike. Plus its easier for a young new rider to insure an electric bike than a gas powered one.
The danger with all those old riders is that many of them didn’t grow up riding a motorcycle … they always wanted to but never had the chance. But now that they’re older, have a bit money and have a bit of time, they want to ride but they’re old now … which means, they don’t have the reflexes, they don’t have the strength and they don’t have the awareness of what it feels like to get hurt on a bike. Most riders like myself learned to ride as kids on dirt bikes and ATVs … it’s a great training ground because you ride fast and do all sorts of stupid things … and most importantly, you fall and hurt yourself … so you learn from a young age what it feels like to fall on a bike a low speed and that it hurts a lot … you realize that if you go faster on a paved highway, you’re really going to get hurt.
Being an older rider you don’t get that experience and those guys usually only have one accident … and it either severely hurts them for life and they give up riding … or it kills them.
Thanks for the insight and perspective! Motorsports are admittedly not my thing, but I’m pretty sure older dudes buying motorcycles in middle age or retirement is far from a recent trend; it’s a pretty well known stereotype. Hell, Wild Hogs is almost 20 years old at this point. Not that that invalidates what you said about the dangers they pose learning to ride so late.
I’ve seen a lot of younger people in my region riding e-scooters with a seat attachment or electric mopeds.
People like me between the ages of about 40 - 55 are at a great period for riding motorcycles. There are a lot of people selling amazing old bikes that young people either don’t or can’t buy. We’re at a good age for insurance (if we have years of experience). I love biking and I’ve accumulated 6 old motorcycles with 3 on the road and 3 as project bikes. I don’t think this period will last tho … as those old bikes will start to become too expensive to maintain and mechanics no longer want to service old bikes. And everyone will be switching to powerful electric bikes that will look like full sized motorcycles.
What all this means in terms of your noisy neighbour is that there is a 50/50 chance that he won’t be riding for very long.
Sometimes these old guys just enjoy riding and continue riding for a long time.
Or they give up on it because they end up scaring themselves with a near accident or their bike breaks down because they don’t know all the ways of taking care of a bike (it’s all dependent on the make, model, age, type and little details of the bike) … they often end up with a mechanical problem and they either don’t want to fix it, it’s too expensive or they just don’t know how and just give up on the bike and biking.
Slowing down and avoid high traffic areas … and don’t ride during peak hours.
Riding a motorcycle was fun up until about 20 years ago. There were a lot fewer vehicles and the driving was slower. Now you have many more vehicles, modern designed wide lane straightened highways and modern vehicles with more acceleration and speed to the point that everyone thinks it’s normal to drive 20kph faster than the posted speed limit (I’m in Canada so we measure in kilometers)
I always wonder if they are actually stupid enough to believe that bullshit themselves or if it’s just something they use because they know the honest “I actually feel pleasure by creating problems and pain to everyone else and I am somehow legally allowed to do that” would give themselves trouble.
Either way I always wish I could stick their asses on their exhaust and rev until they blow up like a balloon
And car makers have found a way to use these shitty sound generators to signal who is driving the biggest and most expensive vehicle. Fucking Audi is just ridiculous.
Their EVs are so loud, they might as well have an ICE.
You just described exactly why the “tire noise is enough, you just gotta go fast” comment was so stupid, but also yours is stupid and backwards because drivers do drive faster than they should.
You can look both ways and still get hit by a car that was around the corner, just turned onto your street, or was just going that much faster than other cars or what you realized when you saw them. Tire noise is far from enough to call that out and make you look-again, in-time; Even if you keep your head on a pivot as you walk.
That’s really only needed at slow speeds. At higher speeds the tire noise is enough. Even for most modern ICE cars, at higher speeds the tire noise dominates over the engine/exhaust noise.
Most modern ICE cars are still deadly-quiet at slower-speeds as well. Also, pedestrian safety is a weird context in which to be espousing “tire noise is enough for pedestrians, just gotta go fast”.
inb4 the “loud pipes save lives” folks.
I ride motorcycle and I always love that argument. I have stock pipes on my bike and I prefer them to be as quiet as possible so that I hear as much of the road as possible, as well as other vehicles.
Yes loud motorcycles do make others aware of your presence … especially if they are very loud pipes.
What no one ever wants to admit is that you usually hear the loud pipes AFTER the bike/vehicle has passed you or is moving away. You seldom hear a loud motorcycle coming at you, especially if you are in a car with sound proofing or sound dampening. You definitely hear the big loud motorcycle pipes as the idiot is driving away from you.
The other thing I love about morons that enjoy big loud motorcycle pipes is that they are the same idiots that want an open air sound system for their motorcycle. So they get the loud pipes and then get a really powerful sound system so that they can listen to their muffled music over the sound of loud pipes, the highway and the buffeting winds as they drive down the highway. Usually, these are the same idiots that lose their hearing by the time they’re 50.
And fuck us cyclists… We get run over AND lose our hearing because we’re not protected by 1ton of soundproofed metal.
And if that logic was true, we would already have a problem worse than the yank tank issue, where the cars get bigger and bigger for “protection”. Every vehicle would get louder and louder to be heard above the other loud vehicles, and eventually living in a city would mean enjoying the non stop sound of atomic bombs exploding everywhere 100 times per second per car.
But unlike the yank tank issue, everyone would be deaf, and then the noise wouldn’t matter anymore. I guess that’s the best case scenario that those kinds of sadists hope for. They can’t hear anymore, so they want everyone else to be deaf as well.
The other thing those people fail to mention is that loud noises are disorienting, and the one thing you want when you sandwich yourself between a couple of 2 tons pieces of metal moving at 110 km/h is to disorient everybody and make them unable to move in straight lines.
The same applies to very bright lights.
shhh don’t tell the headlight lobby that these new blinding LED headlights are actually less safe because they blind oncoming drivers coming at you at 100km/h four feet away on a narrow turning road
The yellow headlights are excellent for not blinding everyone infront of you, unfortunately I think they’re illegal in most countries.
better than white, but I’ve seen bright enough yellow LEDs to still be blinding lol
we need better regulation and enforcement
You’ve just described my neighbor that leaves for work every morning at 4am. I hate that man.
I have a neighbor that might be entering a mid-life and/or identity crisis phase. A few months back he shows up with a hog and starts tinkering with it in the yard. Pretty soon he has a bunch of motorcycle friends who start showing up to ride and off they go, loudly farting down the street on their bikes.
I’m mostly ambivalent about the entire thing except that he tends to work a late shift, so he doesn’t get started with his hobby riding until 7 or 8 at night. Not late enough to really complain about but also late enough that it can be disruptive. He’s a okay dude and we’ve civilly chatted about the noise before, but I don’t think he thinks his motorcycle counts as noise. I hope he finds what he’s looking for out on the open road.
There’s a big change happening in motorcycling these days. A lot of older people (50+) are buying motorcycles because they always wanted to ride but they couldn’t afford it when they were younger. Mix in the fact that many old riders are now giving up their bikes and selling them … but young riders are not buying them because a young new rider can’t afford the insurance for the bike. Younger riders will go for new smaller engine bikes and many of them are now migrating towards electric bikes … it’s getting to the point where small engine bikes are as powerful, fast and economical as a good sized electric bike. Plus its easier for a young new rider to insure an electric bike than a gas powered one.
The danger with all those old riders is that many of them didn’t grow up riding a motorcycle … they always wanted to but never had the chance. But now that they’re older, have a bit money and have a bit of time, they want to ride but they’re old now … which means, they don’t have the reflexes, they don’t have the strength and they don’t have the awareness of what it feels like to get hurt on a bike. Most riders like myself learned to ride as kids on dirt bikes and ATVs … it’s a great training ground because you ride fast and do all sorts of stupid things … and most importantly, you fall and hurt yourself … so you learn from a young age what it feels like to fall on a bike a low speed and that it hurts a lot … you realize that if you go faster on a paved highway, you’re really going to get hurt.
Being an older rider you don’t get that experience and those guys usually only have one accident … and it either severely hurts them for life and they give up riding … or it kills them.
Thanks for the insight and perspective! Motorsports are admittedly not my thing, but I’m pretty sure older dudes buying motorcycles in middle age or retirement is far from a recent trend; it’s a pretty well known stereotype. Hell, Wild Hogs is almost 20 years old at this point. Not that that invalidates what you said about the dangers they pose learning to ride so late.
I’ve seen a lot of younger people in my region riding e-scooters with a seat attachment or electric mopeds.
People like me between the ages of about 40 - 55 are at a great period for riding motorcycles. There are a lot of people selling amazing old bikes that young people either don’t or can’t buy. We’re at a good age for insurance (if we have years of experience). I love biking and I’ve accumulated 6 old motorcycles with 3 on the road and 3 as project bikes. I don’t think this period will last tho … as those old bikes will start to become too expensive to maintain and mechanics no longer want to service old bikes. And everyone will be switching to powerful electric bikes that will look like full sized motorcycles.
What all this means in terms of your noisy neighbour is that there is a 50/50 chance that he won’t be riding for very long.
Sometimes these old guys just enjoy riding and continue riding for a long time.
Or they give up on it because they end up scaring themselves with a near accident or their bike breaks down because they don’t know all the ways of taking care of a bike (it’s all dependent on the make, model, age, type and little details of the bike) … they often end up with a mechanical problem and they either don’t want to fix it, it’s too expensive or they just don’t know how and just give up on the bike and biking.
I’ve found amber or violet head lamps help out more with being noticed.
Slowing down and avoid high traffic areas … and don’t ride during peak hours.
Riding a motorcycle was fun up until about 20 years ago. There were a lot fewer vehicles and the driving was slower. Now you have many more vehicles, modern designed wide lane straightened highways and modern vehicles with more acceleration and speed to the point that everyone thinks it’s normal to drive 20kph faster than the posted speed limit (I’m in Canada so we measure in kilometers)
I wonder how much specifically traffic noise contributes to premature deaths compared to noise pollution in general.
I’m betting it’s most of it haha
Loud pipes don’t save lives because if they drive past my house one more time one of us is gonna wind up dead.
I always wonder if they are actually stupid enough to believe that bullshit themselves or if it’s just something they use because they know the honest “I actually feel pleasure by creating problems and pain to everyone else and I am somehow legally allowed to do that” would give themselves trouble.
Either way I always wish I could stick their asses on their exhaust and rev until they blow up like a balloon
I mean, EV’s were too-quiet for pedestrian safety until they added various noise-makers …
And car makers have found a way to use these shitty sound generators to signal who is driving the biggest and most expensive vehicle. Fucking Audi is just ridiculous. Their EVs are so loud, they might as well have an ICE.
No disagreement here. Gimme a speaker or three, and let me decide what plays on it. Too bad an Ice-cream-truck jingle would just tease people.
Heaven forbid pedestrians look both ways. As instructed since childhood.
The biggest problem with humanity is natural selection left us loooong ago… now look at how many morons we have to suffer.
You just described exactly why the “tire noise is enough, you just gotta go fast” comment was so stupid, but also yours is stupid and backwards because drivers do drive faster than they should.
You can look both ways and still get hit by a car that was around the corner, just turned onto your street, or was just going that much faster than other cars or what you realized when you saw them. Tire noise is far from enough to call that out and make you look-again, in-time; Even if you keep your head on a pivot as you walk.
That’s really only needed at slow speeds. At higher speeds the tire noise is enough. Even for most modern ICE cars, at higher speeds the tire noise dominates over the engine/exhaust noise.
Most modern ICE cars are still deadly-quiet at slower-speeds as well. Also, pedestrian safety is a weird context in which to be espousing “tire noise is enough for pedestrians, just gotta go fast”.