People who blare their car stereos and people with excessively loud motorcycles.
As far as motorcycles go, I’ve heard “loud pipes save lives”, in that people will hear the motorcycle and be aware of it when they otherwise would not.
It’s just an excuse, if they wanted to be noticed there are much better ways to accomplish it like headlight flashers during daytime. Not to mention some are so loud they create a distraction for other drivers and drown out all other noises which is inherently unsafe. If I can’t hear my car horn (or myself think) over your Harley how the fuck am I supposed to drive? That’s no different than wearing headphones while driving which is illegal for the exact same reason.
Plus, think about where the sound is exiting from compared to where most motorcycles are hit (someone turns left in front of them.) You don’t even have the person most likely to kill you in the direction of your sound waves. It’s just a talking point.
I’m a motorcyclist and that argument is fucking stupid (not you specifically). If you’re drowning out nearby conversation just so you feel safe when you ride a motorcycle maybe you shouldn’t be riding.
Again this isn’t a personal attack on you, I just hate that i get lumped in with the loud pipe mouth breathers when I’ve ridden 200,000 miles on a quiet motorcycle without getting turned into road pizza.
Oh yeah, fuck those loud motorcycles (please just use an electric one, they are superior in almost every way by now (but cost…)). I don’t get how these assholes enjoy annoying everyone around them, especially when driving through highly populated areas.
I hate loud motorcycles too but electric motorcycles aren’t ready for mass adoption yet. Nothing electric on the market today has great range and if you’re out in the sticks where it’s fun to ride there usually aren’t many EV chargers. I will 100% jump on an electric motorcycle as soon as the range and charger availability meets my needs but we’re just not there yet. I agree with you 100% on the noise though. A certain subset of riders need to stroke their egos by making loud noise and it makes all riders look bad.
I just want to point out, whilst I don’t think I’ve ever heard actual big bikes with shit exhausts, and only occasionally hear it with 16/17/18 year olds with little 50ccs, or brutalised 125’s. I know some riders, probably quite a few, do use high RPM, which will make it louder, but it is beneficial to the motorbike to use higher revs.
I know, for my bike, which is a sports bike (can’t speak for other types), prefers being ran around just under gear up revs, around the 5k-6.4k mark. This is the range where it gets its power from. You can tell because if you’re in 3rd going about 20mph, it feels sluggish, and I think that puts it around 4k. But as you get faster and the revs pickup, it solves that sluggish feeling. But, in 2nd at 30mph, at about 5.7k, it doesn’t have that issue. I’ve also heard that the temperature difference can also sort of clean the piston head. However, I can’t personally confirm this, as I have no way of doing it.
It’s also why you’ll see people using high revs when overtaking. Because you want that power to safely overtake and get it done quickly.
In short. Yes, shit sounding exhausts on bikes that have absolutely no purpose sounding like that is a dickhead thing to do, but when it comes to big bikes, it can be understandable why you’d need it. Unless I’m fully misreading this and some people in other places have extremely loud exhausts. I’m just speaking from experience.
And, no, I don’t use high revs at night, where it might disturb others, if I’m going past horses, in which case, I’ll pull my clutch and know off the revs, and slowly slide past them (killing the engine could also work, I just haven’t had chance to test it) or if I’m going past children/babies.
Another thing I think happens, but I could be wrong, is on cars, you’ve got the full length of the car to make it quieter. On a bike I’m assuming because there’s like no space, it doesn’t get the chance to get quieter. I think this is just for stick exhausts/actual aftermarket exhausts like an akropovic. Again, this could be complete bullshit, I just wondered if it made any difference.
I personally don’t understand why the loudness and dust pollution (which often also seems to be a bigger issue with bikes compared to cars as well) is much more regulated with bikes and cars, since a lot more people are suffering because of it compared to the “fun” for a few (assholes…).
One way or the other, the future is likely electronic, and I hope that this will happen sooner than later… As when using electronic bikes these issues compared to cars turn around:
- It’s more efficient than cars, because you don’t have these issues with high RPM etc. you have mentioned which is just inefficient combustion
- Even more silent than electronic cars (and I really don’t like the argument, that these vehicles need to be loud for the safety of pedestrians, design goddamn infrastructure that is safe for them regardless of the noise the vehicles make, you may have some kind of automatic warning in the future if this is really relevant).
Also issues like short battery life (or sluggish bike when using a big battery) will likely be solved incrementally in the future. In the meantime please (targeted to politicians) just regulate them slowly towards electronic bikes (e.g. allow only very silent new bikes, which is basically a death sentence to combustion, when very silent).
The ones who say based.
“Christians”, specifically those in the US.
- drivers of lifted trucks
- drivers of UTVs
- owners of vehicles with obnoxious exhausts or stereos
- people who park their shopping carts next to other carts in the aisle so no one can pass. Also accepted: walking three-abreast in the aisle.
This is far as I can go in the list without risking a stroke.
UTVs are fine, same as any other tool. But for whatever reason UTVs seem to attract a higher percentage of poorly-behaved owners. I suspect its because, unlike dirt bikes and similar, you can operate them with zero skills and not immediately suffer injury or death. And there is a cupholder for your beer, a cooler for the beers-in-waiting, and a place for speakers to blast one’s music into the wilderness.
Informally, I have observed that jerky/destructive behavior is correlated with the square feet of flag flown from the back of the UTV (regardless of the flag’s message).
The polar opposite appears to be adventure bike riders, who tend to be highly-skilled and considerate of others. I have never been dusted by a high-speed flyby from an ADV rider, or seen one deliberately rut out a wet trail. “Woo-hoo, looka muh roost!”
To be fair: I have seen UTVs used by talented and considerate individuals. Skillfully navigating terrain that it was hard for me to walk up with trekking poles, and leaving no visible damage. More power to 'em, and I hope they encourage the miscreants to behave better on public lands.
