On another note, what about other vehicles which are also loud i.e. big rig trucks?

You live in a neighborhood where bikers ride around in circles? Where is this?

Norm

Emergency response vehicles have sirens so that they will be noticed. In the case of motorcycles we are flat out often invisible to cagers. Loud pipes are analogous to sirens. They help to get us noticed by cagers.

With that being said, those running straight drag pipes are causing the crackdown that I wrote about. We have to moderate or suffer the consequences thereof!

Norm

Today I signed up a gal who was hit by a cager while riding a bicycle. She was riding past a post office driveway and the idiot just basically ran over her as he was exiting the driveway, in the presence of her 7 year old child. She is all messed up.

I wonder what would have happened if she was on a motorcycle with loud pipes? Maybe the cager would have seen or heard her?

Riding bicycles carries with it a whole set of other factors to worry about especially with cagers. I did a case where a cager opened his car door without looking at traffic and caused a bicycle rider to hit the door and do a complete flip. Major injuries in that case too. You have to be very careful on a bicycle, you are totally silent!

Good Luck,

Norm

Yes, I am enjoying the time off Sandie, and we are always on a Harley 🙂

Take care,

Norm

Norm

Gary

What I do not understand is your insistance that loud pipes save lives. This is often repeated by bikers like a mantra, and there simply is no proof of this. In fact, what little research there is suggests the opposite, that bikers with loud pipes tend to get in more accidents. I’m sure that I enjoy the deep rumble of my motorcycle as much you like the sound of yours, but lets face it, bikers like the sound and use the myth as an excuse to justify it. If cruisers were really concerned about the safety aspect, they would also be wearing bright reflective clothing and wearing full-face helmets, both of which are proven to increase safety.

http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/streetsurvival/dangerous_motorcycle_safety_myths/

Yes I know there are a lot of Bikers out there in no Clubs, but have you heard some of the Factory pipes now a days.

Can you say a silent Harley coming right out of the truck.

Bikes are small the the only true way for someone to notice you is the loud pipes, but not the drag ones Norman is talking about, or if you just have a 14 foot long trike

I guess we should require all cars to have their mufflers removed and all bicycles to have ear-splitting air horns installed, so we’ll all be “safer”.

As someone who lives in a neighborhood where bikers occasionally like to ride around in circles, deliberately revving up their loud exhausts, I fully support any crackdown, and I hope you all get lots of expensive tickets. You get absolutely no sympathy from me. I hope the cities get lots of money from you.

My primary comment really had to do with the ‘safety” claims of loud pipes, and to that I would say:

(1) You canÂ’t seriously expect anyone to believe that safety is any significant portion of the reason why bikers do it? Anyone who believes that, I have a bridge IÂ’d like to sell them. Until you can quote an actual scientific study that proves this, you arenÂ’t doing yourself any favors with this claim, it is just going to make people stop taking you seriously.

(2) My advice is to be cautious with these safety claims. If your claims that motorcycles are inherently incredibly dangerous are taken to their logical extreme, you run the risk of people thinking, well, okay if theyÂ’re so dangerous then perhaps we should just outlaw motorcycles altogether (not something I support). There is precedence for society outlawing activities that are dangerous, particularly in the area of traffic laws, because, as they like to point out in driver ed, driving is a privilege not a right.

(3) Nobody is forcing you to ride a motorcycle, it is not necessary, it is simply your choice to engage in what is (by your own admission) a dangerous activity. Therefore, most of the general public would not see why they need to be subjected to the unreasonable discomfort of sleepless nights and split eardrums caused by obnoxiously loud pipes just so you can be a little safer in this optional activity that you chose.

(4) The safety argument overlooks the fact that it is mostly vehicles beside and in front of you that are the primary danger to you, yet most of the exhaust noise is behind you. I have been in cars many times when I have not heard the roar until it has passed me by. Likewise in the famous “left turn in front of the motorcycle” case, it is the person in front of you making the left turn that is the danger. If safety is your true concern, then I challenge you to start turning your pipes facing forward, so that the noise is in front of you instead of behind you. (What? This might be uncomfortable for you? Well, you’re perfectly willing to subject the rest of us to extreme discomfort for your safety, why wouldn’t you be willing to do it to yourself?)

As to my neighborhood, that must of course remain undisclosed, due to fears of retaliation.

As to your suggestion to rent a motorcycle, IÂ’ll pass on that, you have convinced me that it is an inherently incredibly dangerous and risky activity, and I have no desire to participate.

Finally, I would just like to say that I am not some rabid anti-motorcycle nut. I fully support your ability to ride a motorcycle. I only object when you start doing in a way that is deliberately obnoxious, and dangerous to me (my eardrums) when IÂ’m walking down the sidewalk. I am merely echoing your own pleas (in your own blog) to please be reasonable about it. Surely you donÂ’t really expect the general public to like it unnecessarily loud and obnoxious pipes, and welcome you with open arms, do you? CÂ’mon, be honest.

Why don’t “you bikers” start alienating those with straight pipes that give you a bad name?

I’d also like to point out how other actions contribute to a negative perception of bikers. On my town’s Main Street, groups of bikers frequent a few restaurants. When it comes time for them to leave, the group of 15 or so bikers slowly get ready and will block traffic so the entire group can leave at once (all this while straight piped bikes sit there rev’ing).
If this group exit is done for safety, why can’t you go in smaller groups to block traffic less? You could wait for the rest of the group to catch up with in a lower traffic area.

I tried again recently, and found that I really enjoyed the ride when I was on a road with no cars; once there was a car anywhere near me, I knew I could not trust them to make the right move.

That said, I feel the exact same way when I drive in a car, that I don’t know what the other person is going to do. I could drive around with the horn blaring constantly to make sure people know I’m there. Of course, I wouldn’t do that, as it would be illegal and obnoxious. The same applies to a motorcycle: riding with loud pipes to wake up other drivers would be rude, obnoxious, and mostly ineffective, unless, as another writer pointed out, you have the pipes facing forward to warn those in front of you.

When I rode many years ago, I pulled the baffles from my mufflers, because I thought it sounded “cool”. Well, within 2 days, one of my neighbors politely asked me to quiet my bike, since it woke them up when I came home after bedtime. Being a decent civilized person, and understanding their concerns, I put the baffles back in. After all, I don’t need to impress everyone else with my coolness by being excessively loud.

I guess if I wanted to make sure that I was heard when I drive a car, I could remove the muffler on that: I would be heard a block ahead, but I would kill my hearing, and be really illegal.

I really do have concern for the safety of bikers, but I think riding in a pack with normal legal pipes would provide a significant degree of comfort.

If bikers really want to improve their safety on the road, they should petition their local government to ban cell phone use while driving, even hands-free, as most people simply aren’t paying attention to their surroundings when they are talking on a cell phone, even hands-free. Those cell drivers are probably the greatest threat to motorcycle safety today.

I would hope that bikers could help each other out in telling these inconsiderate type of bikers to at LEAST try to cruise into their homes, rather than driving up to their house at 50 mph (on a small residential street). Otherwise, you’ll continue to see these type of ordinances being passed.