Do loud pipes save lives?

[BobbyZ]

I still find it funny that I wasn't even thinking about bikes when I started this thread.

Seems that the loud pipes do let every one BEHIND know you passed them. About the only thing I hear while passing me is the 18 wheelers with straight pipes. Those jerks give truckers a bad name. Thay seem to be the same truckers that pee in bottles and toss them out the window or leave them in parking lots.
I drove trucks for a few years. If you think people hate bikers hop in a Pete for while.
Make sure it's a 379 with 12" stacks and use your Jake Brake all the time.
Oh you'll need a leather vest and a wallet with a chain.

[Triton Thrasher]

"Loud Pipes Save Lives"

It started out as a joke on sew-on badges and stickers. It was quite clever at the time.

Then somebody chose to think it's true.

My own bike is quite noisy, sort of to original 1960s Brit bike standards. I try not to aggravate people with it.

[Boubou]

This thread is still going.
When I was 6 years old we used to clip playing cards or cigarette packs to our bicycles with clothespins so that they would go ratatatatatta on the spokes. Is the desire for grown men to have loud pipes the same as that?

Ok that part of the message finished, let's move on.
Loud pipes tell car drivers behind you that you have loud pipes. Nice.
Honking your horn tells car drivers on a collision course that they are on a collision course. Nice also.
It's your life, you choose.

Is the Harley engine so bad that you need the extra 1.4% power you get by tuning the pipes?
What are they, 1500 cc's? I had a Volks Jetta with a 1800 cc engine, that thing could move.
Last summer one of those loud pipe guys drove on my street in the middle of the night. I could follow his route in my head, all the stops and turns, for the next 2 miles just with the sound of his engine.
If that was my neighbor, I would have made him stop one way or another

Sent from my iPad using TDPRI

[jefrs]

The concept of a Harley "ripping past" traffic is confusing. Nice bikes, my neighbour has one and comes and goes at all hours with its pleasant characteristic throaty burble. But modifying it to make it actually go fast, especially by making it noisy, is not going to happen - get a Ducati

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by jefrs

The concept of a Harley "ripping past" traffic is confusing. Nice bikes, my neighbour has one and comes and goes at all hours with its pleasant characteristic throaty burble. But modifying it to make it actually go fast, especially by making it noisy, is not going to happen - get a Ducati

ummmmmm..... not here in the States mate! we have legit 9 sec 1/4 mile street legal "Harley's" that absolutely whoop! 'Busa's from stop light to stop light. The difference is torque delivery and gearing. At the track, we (me & my team) have 7 second 1/4 mile "Harley's", all be it highly modified with a 10.5" slick and wheelie bars but trust me, they can be made to Go!, if you know what you're doing.

Just for giggles, here's one that our crew chief helped build that is truly sick! 140 cu. inch, dual supercharger, alcohol drag bike that runs in the 6 second range in the 1/4 mile. ~800hp / 500 ft-lbs of torque. This is one of the nastiest race bikes around. It takes real balls and skill to get it down the track and it terminates the 1/4 mile at well over 200 mph.

[Triton Thrasher]

Just for giggles, here's one that our crew chief helped build that is truly sick! 140 cu. inch, dual supercharger, alcohol drag bike that runs in the 6 second range in the 1/4 mile. ~800hp / 500 ft-lbs of torque. This is one of the nastiest race bikes around. It takes real balls and skill to get it down the track and it terminates the 1/4 mile at well over 200 mph.

Hope it's not noisy.

[tboy]

Be pretty hard to argue that some car driver about to turn left across oncoming traffic somewhere, someplace, sometime, heard a bike coming that he might not have otherwise been aware of, because of blind spot, texting, messing with a CD, daydreaming, etc...

[J-man]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

That is easily the ugliest bike I have ever seen!

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by Triton Thrasher

Hope it's not noisy.

to borrow a well known film title...

It Might Get LOUD!!!

yeah, with the alky motor and the boosted compression, it is very staccato-ish. Sharp & biting like a NHRA alcohol Funny Car.

Speaking of which and speaking of noisy neighbors....

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by J-man

That is easily the ugliest bike I have ever seen!

the beauty in it, isn't superficial. Form follows function.

[Mike Bruce]

I don't see how noise pollution of any kind is good.

I live a couple of hundred feet from a four lane highway as it passes through my little town, speed limit 50 kmh. There is no reason for loud revving engines in any vehicle that disturbs the peace. It's arrogant, selfish behavior by drivers who are self-impressed in my opinion.

[J-man]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

the beauty in it, isn't superficial. Form follows function.

In this case, I think I'd rather have superficial beauty..

[64Strat]

Originally Posted by Mike Bruce

I don't see how noise pollution of any kind is good.

I live a couple of hundred feet from a four lane highway as it passes through my little town, speed limit 50 kmh. There is no reason for loud revving engines in any vehicle that disturbs the peace. It's arrogant, selfish behavior by drivers who are self-impressed in my opinion.

yep, I agree.

The first thing that I would do is make police and fire/rescue get rid of their vehicle sirens. Those things KILL my ears when they pass by. Absolutely one of he worst offenders! Arrogant bastages!

next? I would eliminate all commercial & LE air traffic until they can abate the noise. Those things are incessantly disturbing the peace at my home, 24/7. And are especially bad when flight patterns are overhead due to wind direction and I'm 23 miles from the airport. Or the LE helicopter rotors that thump my house, just maddening when I'm trying to sleep.

Come to think of it, I hear the above stuff way more often than any motorcycles with loud pipes.

[J-man]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

yep, I agree.

The first thing that I would do is make police and fire/rescue get rid of their vehicle sirens. Those things KILL my ears when they pass by. Absolutely one of he worst offenders! Arrogant bastages!

next? I would eliminate all commercial & LE air traffic until they can abate the noise. Those things are incessantly disturbing the peace at my home, 24/7. And are especially bad when flight patterns are overhead due to wind direction and I'm 23 miles from the airport. Or the LE helicopter rotors that thump my house, just maddening when I'm trying to sleep.

Come to think of it, I hear the above stuff way more often than any motorcycles with loud pipes.

All of those things are inherently that loud or are that loud intentionally for good reason. There has been no good reason established in this thread that justifies loud pipes.

Try again.

And as I stated earlier in the thread, other people's noise pollution isn't a justification for your own.

[Triton Thrasher]

A noisy engine might stop a pedestrian stepping out in front of you. It's possible. I expect even quiet motorbikes make enough noise for that though.

Otherwise, if your life depends on the exhaust noise or the horn noise, you are living very dangerously. Safe motorcycling involves paying attention to where you are going and to where the other road users are going.

[Skully]

A loaded handgun would be a supremely effective tool for silencing people who bother me. It doesn't mean it's a good idea to use it that for that purpose.

[Triton Thrasher]

Originally Posted by Skully

A loaded handgun would be a supremely effective tool for silencing people who bother me. It doesn't mean it's a good idea to use it that for that purpose.

Loud guns reduce noise!

[Mike Bruce]

Originally Posted by 64Strat

yep, I agree.

The first thing that I would do is make police and fire/rescue get rid of their vehicle sirens. Those things KILL my ears when they pass by. Absolutely one of he worst offenders! Arrogant bastages!

I wouldn't. Emergency first responders save lives. Don't you like that? Not the same thing at all as noisy pipes.

[Boubou]

Originally Posted by Mike Bruce

I wouldn't. Emergency first responders save lives. Don't you like that? Not the same thing at all as noisy pipes.

He doesn't quite understand the difference between things that make noise for a reason , sirens, helicopters, etc. as opposed to choosing to make noise by having loud pipes where there is absolutely no need

[hannigan]

Sarcasm is tricky...