It looks like Anaheim, California is the latest California City to go after Bikers for loud pipes!
Well here we go again. Rather than using law enforcement resources to go after criminals, drunk drivers, and the like, another California City is instead going after bikers with loud pipes.
If you are thinking about riding through the City of Anaheim, you better think again. They are going after bikers with loud pipes and writing tickets to fill the city coffers like crazy.
Click here to read a story from the Orange County Register on what is happening. It looks to me like this is becoming a nationwide trend and it also looks like it is not going away anytime soon.
I for one will take my money elsewhere. If Anaheim does not like my motorcycle, then they certainly do not like me.
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2007
Welcome, my name is 
I like you Norm. This is a most unfortunate trend. Looking like it is sweeping across the nation. Seems like the DUI coffers are not full enough, now they are picking on us who ride our bikes for pleasure and bother nobody.
It’s scary Norm, I “see” these greedies sitting in their offices trying their best to think of more ways to steal even more from the people. What will be next? a tax for walking more than 500 feet? or, yawning with your window open? there was a time when we joked at stuff like this but it’s becoming reality today.
Banning motorcycles is a growing trend because of the many people who have installed and ride with illegal exhaust systems which are unbelievably loud. Many motorcycle authorities such as the american motorcycle association and harley davidson have realized that the myth “loud pipes save lives” is bunk, and threatens the rights of all motorcyclists. Even if loud exhaust systems were legal and did provide some substantial safety benefits, it is surely not right to blatantly disrespect the rights of so many others to enjoy some peace and quite, is it? In my area, loud motorcycles are a plague and I will be doing everything in my power to get law enforcement and the community in general to get these wildly inconsiderate people off the road, or failing that to ban all motorcycles from the area.
Please respect the rights of others, just as you want other to respect your rights as motorcyclists – thank you.
I’ve been a motorcyclist for over 30 years and I fully support the crack down on loud motorcycles. I will offer my full support to law enforcement and the communities to get them off the road or force them to quiet them up. I look at them as a threat at my rights to ride. Loud pipes do not save lives. It annoys people and eventually leads to a backlash against the motorcyclist. The motorcycle community is it’s worst enemy.
Norm, You are doing an injustice to those motorcycle buffs who are not violating federal and local laws (like myself) and who understand the ethical ramifications of egregiously disturbing the right of residents to PEACEFUL use and enjoyment of their own homes. Just because you know that there are always a few “conspiracy” theorists out there who will suck up your “the government is greedy” smuck, doesn’t mean that you HAVE to distract the rest of us from a real discussion of the real issue. The excessive noise produced from illegal exhausts in my town alone constantly disturbs us: it completely drowns out musical performers at our summer concerts, it scares children playing at the playground, it prevents children and recuperating adults from sleeping, and it distracts conversations and phone conferences–to through out a few implications.
And, you can use your own powers of analysis and reasoning to blow holes in the “loud exhausts save lives” argument: if you choose to do something that is that risky, please explain to me again why it is that you can transfer that risk to me? If you choose to smoke, you should bear the risks associated with that dangerous behavior, and, if you want to offload some of that risk to JQ public, isn’t it appropriate to get our acquiesence first?
I am so glad to hear that many cities are taking action to stop these people from making noise.
After having just been awoken again by some clown blasting his motorcycle down my street at 6:30AM (about the tenth time in the last couple of months) I’m here on the internet researching local noise laws – I live in Fullerton.
I’m a big live and let live guy but no more of this crap. I plan on getting involved in some small way. If bikers aren’t gonna show basic common courtesy to others then they shouldn’t whine when people rise up and slap them down.
I was googling this topic after just having had a biker gratuitously make as loud a noise as possible on a quiet Saturday morning in a low-traffic residential neighborhood just for kicks. Setting off the car alarms seems to be a kind of sport.
It’s always bothered me, but there was a mother out walking a little girl in a stroller and hearing her shrieks and crying after he was gone just made me feel ‘enough is enough’.
Why wouldn’t the same rules apply to bikers that apply to every other kind of vehicle or noisemaker.
I too was just wondering how harleys fit into the mix with cars with loud stereos or modified exhausts which seem mellow compared to the window rattling nature of the motorcycle with what may even be stock pipes.
I live in a quiet neighborhood but have a house at the end of the street that must be the meeting point for day trips for a group of wild harley riders. I am awakened every weekend by more than a few bikes coming down the street, at well over the speed limit on top of it, at 6:30, 7:00 am.. Then after everyone gets there about 7:30 or 8:00 they all haul butt back down the street to do their road trip for the day. Then about 5:30 or 6:00 they all come rumbling back down to the house and have a party, and then they take turns riding each others bikes up and down the street, (or is it a biker sin to let someone else on your hog?) rodding the throttle as they go. We are sitting out in the back yard and we cannot even hear each other talk.
Then the bikers filter out during the evening letting us have an ear full of noise every 15 to 20 minutes or so, and based one the empty boxes of beer and cans on the next trash day you can bet your butt that most of the guys were probably a little too tipsy to even be on the road.
Like I said, if it was some kid with a booming stereo or a loud exhaust on some “fast and furious” look alike car, there would be plenty of people complaining.
I too am a live and let live guy, but when inconsiderate people do not let me have the same courtesy it warms my heart to see a crackdown.
I am sorry this is happening to your group of biking enthusiast, but everything requires a bit a give and take, and so far, your group has mostly been doing all the taking.
Joe: “YOU’VE” got to be kidding me….right? As far as I know most streets are public unless you are on private property. I guess that “most” people can always find something to complain about……….. GOOD GRIEF!!!
Sandie, your street may be public but the homes along the street are private, your noise invades our private homes and it’s that we complaining about. We have no problem with bikers, just the horrendous noise you guys make.
ED: I live next door to a 60 something year old, retired lesbian master sgt. who let their dog out every single Saturday and Sunday morning between 6 AM and 7:30 Am and all the dog does is too bark…….just so you know this bothers me and wakes me up…..but I do not think it is enough to pas another law requiring people to put muzzles on their dogs. Dogs owners should give a little as well….ya reckon????
Give me a break.
There are many motorcyclists (you know who you are) who modify their bikes with aftermarket exhausts. They are LOUD. You know it. That’s why you buy them. You think you are “extra cool” with straight pipes on your Hog. Well, you’re not. You are a law breaker plain and simple. Doesn’t do the image of wholesome family bikers much good.
It’s not discrimination when LOUD MOTORCYCLES are pulled over. The riders are breaking the law. It is as simple as that. Riding is a privilege, not a right. Deal with it.
Eight years ago I bought my dream home in a rural area in Washington State. Two years later, I had a new neighbor who purchaced the 12 acre lot next to me. My new neighbor likes to ride his dirt bike–with modified exhaust–up and down our adjacent property line. This is about 50 feet from my back deck. I have personaly contacted my neighbor face to face, as well as in writing, asking that he ride his bike somwhere else on his 12 acres. Guess what? He continues to ride that path along our adjacent property line. I don’t understand why his right to enjoy his property supercedes my right to enjoy my property. I would love to see the local noise laws updated and enforced. I have been living with this for five years now!
I like you too Sandie. I do not think that this is an all of a sudden coincidence! If you look at the website in the article, there is a national organization which is aiming to have us noise free.
I am sure those people are behind what is starting to happen nationwide. I do not know for sure if they are behind it, however I have been riding for years and have never seen this many cities all at once enforcing pipes like they have started doing.
Norm
Gary you are not too far off. I have heard of plans in several major cities to charge a “congestion tax” from 6am-6pm just to drive into the city. They say the plan will reduce traffic. I say the plan would violate the 14th Amendment Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.
Then again with our current Supreme Court, you never know~~~~~~~
Norm
Gary I edited your comment to say people and not the curse word you used. I allow freedom of speech on here. However, remember; I am one of the people you refer too.
Do you drive a car? You make noise too!
Norm
What is it about the very small minority who like to announce to the world that they are around? I have never understood the obsession of people to make their presence felt by pure volume of noise whether it is with deafening exhaust systems, by the incessant invasive boom of the subwoofer in a stereo, or shouting down the cell phone in a dinner or on a train. Are these people lacking in something apart from respect and consideration to others – like being born with something small and noise makes up for the inadequacy? Have you ever notice if you approach one of these people they always become aggressive, threatening and shout you down? With this in mind I give my full support to a Silent Nation, we need it to keep our sanity.