Are motorcyclists jerks, or do motorcycles have to be that loud because of engine physics?
Question about motorcycles
- Thread starter Rrty
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...there are jerks on bikes, just as in every walk of life....the loud pipes ARE annoying....it is not a requirement....
Thanks for the reply. From your answer, I gather that it is possible to make them quiet, but many do not do this, perhaps so that the bikes are loud. I wouldn't know, but it would seem that way.
When I say probably 1000 bikes went by my house (must be some gathering, I guess, I really don't know), I probably am not exaggerating; if I am exaggerating, it had to be in the hundreds, at the very least. All day. They were so loud; they set off alarms. And I have tinnitus.
I can't stand the three-five that do it around midnight on a Saturday, but this was ludicrous. Wanted to have my facts straight if I decide to call city hall tomorrow. (Not that there is anything anyone can do about it, but it's just a placebo for me.)
...they all come with mufflers, but it's a macho thing to go blapping around.....I myself, would let the bike speak for itself-without the blasting pipes.....
Actually, the loud pipes alert other motorists to the presence of the motorcyclist. A lot of accidents are due to drivers in cars not paying attention. Not to say there aren't irresponsible cyclists.
In my state, white lining is illegal, so every time some jerk does it, I just want to throw open my door.
when a motorcycle drives between two cars on the line, instead of staying in his lane like everyone else.
Thank you! I thought I was the only one who had a problem with this!
I have a neighbor a couple houses down that owns at least three bikes. It seems to be his great ambition to drive halfway around the block at least thirty times a day on one or all of these bikes. That's all he does. His pipes are so loud you can tell when he hits the stop sign at the end of the street, and you can practically tell which house he stops at. He guns his engine as hard as he can in the small space between his house and the aforementioned stop sign, hardly pauses, then revs four or five more times before coming to a stop. When he isn't roaring around the block, he sits in his garage and idles.
And if that isn't annoying enough, the person directly across the street from him has four--yes four--extremely loud vehicles. I'm actively wishing I could go deaf.
I have a neighbor a couple houses down that owns at least three bikes. It seems to be his great ambition to drive halfway around the block at least thirty times a day on one or all of these bikes. That's all he does. His pipes are so loud you can tell when he hits the stop sign at the end of the street, and you can practically tell which house he stops at. He guns his engine as hard as he can in the small space between his house and the aforementioned stop sign, hardly pauses, then revs four or five more times before coming to a stop. When he isn't roaring around the block, he sits in his garage and idles.
And if that isn't annoying enough, the person directly across the street from him has four--yes four--extremely loud vehicles. I'm actively wishing I could go deaf.
As a lifelong motorcyclist, I have some thoughts about this.
I've always preferred quiet bikes, and part of it is probably overcompensation on my part of bike noise criticism. BMWs are the quietest. My Honda ST1300 purred like a watch. Gold Wings, no louder than any car. Yamahas, Kawasakis, Suzukis, they know how to make quiet bikes.
You drive a German or Japanese bike for what the bike can do. You drive an American bike for how it makes you feel. That's a generalization, not universal, but it follows the odds.
For some people, there's a certain testosterone experience to motor around on two wheels, the wind hitting you, going faster than you could in a car, out there in the environment. It has a certain atavism to it, and making it loud adds to that presentation. It's visceral.
Warning sound to the world around? When I'm on an outdoor patio, and the guy 10 feet away throws his leg over his Harley and fires it up, and no one can speak or even hear a thing for the next 30 seconds, it's not an early warning system. It's just damn rude and inconsiderate. And if the rider is not wearing a helmet (which they can in this state), you get the distinct impression that safety isn't the overriding motivation there.
Me, I like riding because it makes me focus on the world around me, on the texture of the road that might bring me down, of the thermal layers around me, of the cars on the road that pose a danger, on the vehicles that might be on the road in the next couple seconds, threatening my life. And it's just me, my body positioning the bike, listening, watching, sensing.
In short, riding a motorcycle is dangerous. And meeting that danger makes me more alive. Every second I'm on it. Extra noise does nothing for me. In fact, the other reason I like a quiet bike is so that there's less distraction and I can hear other things around me.
So are they all rude? It's like having a door slammed in your face and asking if all people are rude, or reading an angry posting and figuring everyone on the Internet is rude. Like the Giant said above, no more or less so than anyone in any walk of life.
I've always preferred quiet bikes, and part of it is probably overcompensation on my part of bike noise criticism. BMWs are the quietest. My Honda ST1300 purred like a watch. Gold Wings, no louder than any car. Yamahas, Kawasakis, Suzukis, they know how to make quiet bikes.
You drive a German or Japanese bike for what the bike can do. You drive an American bike for how it makes you feel. That's a generalization, not universal, but it follows the odds.
For some people, there's a certain testosterone experience to motor around on two wheels, the wind hitting you, going faster than you could in a car, out there in the environment. It has a certain atavism to it, and making it loud adds to that presentation. It's visceral.
Warning sound to the world around? When I'm on an outdoor patio, and the guy 10 feet away throws his leg over his Harley and fires it up, and no one can speak or even hear a thing for the next 30 seconds, it's not an early warning system. It's just damn rude and inconsiderate. And if the rider is not wearing a helmet (which they can in this state), you get the distinct impression that safety isn't the overriding motivation there.
Me, I like riding because it makes me focus on the world around me, on the texture of the road that might bring me down, of the thermal layers around me, of the cars on the road that pose a danger, on the vehicles that might be on the road in the next couple seconds, threatening my life. And it's just me, my body positioning the bike, listening, watching, sensing.
In short, riding a motorcycle is dangerous. And meeting that danger makes me more alive. Every second I'm on it. Extra noise does nothing for me. In fact, the other reason I like a quiet bike is so that there's less distraction and I can hear other things around me.
So are they all rude? It's like having a door slammed in your face and asking if all people are rude, or reading an angry posting and figuring everyone on the Internet is rude. Like the Giant said above, no more or less so than anyone in any walk of life.