[bayindirh]

I understand that performance engines need unobstructed exhausts up to a certain point, but pipes tuned to amplify this sound is distracting at best, damaging your ears at worst. I don't like them.

They become hazardous in tunnels, underpasses and other closed spaces. Ultra loud pipes kill my ears' locating capabilities and I can't mentally place the motorcycle to the correct place so I won't unintentionally endanger it.

The place I live has many more motorcycles in recent years and they drive dangerously to save time (delivery guys), and it makes my life as a car driver much more harder.

If you always drive in my blind spots and have loud pipes to blind my ears, I cannot see you, even if I very hard to try. So please be a little more considerate.

[ericbarrett]

Hear hear. Noise pollution is one of the biggest reasons why I never want to live in a city again. And loud-pipe motorcycles are by far the biggest contributor to that—more than garbage trucks, delivery vehicles, truck engine (jake) brakes, or even sirens (except in New York where the sirens are inexplicably loud even outside the urban canyons of Manhattan).

[noir_lord]

Euro 4/5 big bikes are surprisingly quiet off the floor then they swap the exhaust and it's loud as fuck.

I'm a motorcyclist and I'll be moving to a larger bike next year but I want one that is as quiet as practical, on bike comfort is better if you don't scream every time you go over 5K.

[KozmoNau7]

> "I understand that performance engines need unobstructed exhausts up to a certain point"

As a motorcycle and car enthusiast, that point is way beyond any sort of reasonable level of performance for public roads.

[rorykoehler]

Performance engines belong on the race track

[VBprogrammer]

I don't know what to tell you, I'm normally a pretty sensible type. Stick to the speed limits, have a small sensible car etc. But on a motorbike the noise of the exhaust while riding a motorcycle is intoxicating!

[ubercow13]

Lots of 'intoxicating' things are incredibly selfish or even endanger others, that doesn't seem like a justification for anything.

[berkes]

I live in a nature area, on a curvy road (a dike). On sunny days, the amount of motorcycles passing is insane: several hundreds.

Of those, under 1% is like you: rediculously loud, shifting gears too late, etc.

Me and my neighbors are so fed up with those 20-something noise pollutors per week, that we're working with our regional govt to ban all motorcycles on these roads, or re-arrange our road so motorcycling is no longer fun, here. Apparently that is the only route left, now.

So congratulations: you've managed to spoil a hobby of hundreds of motorcyclists. (Besides being annoying as hell, obviuosly)

[VBprogrammer]

You seem to be projecting. My motorbike always had a street legal exhaust on it and it wasn't particularly loud.

Perhaps you should spend less time worrying about a little bit of noise, especially during daylight hours, presumably on mostly sunny days.

[bayindirh]

Can you be underestimating how sound propagates in silent environments, and our brains are so efficient at filtering background noise?

Since the pandemic started, traffic around my home decreased tremendously and, even smallest traffic became bothering. In sparsely populated areas, that oddball sound is much more disturbing to residents which are used to silence.

BTW, getting angry to people who we don't know personally is not very productive IMHO.

[VBprogrammer]

I'm intrigued about which part of that response you thought was angry?

The front elevation of my house is less than 15ft away from a reasonably busy road. I'm no stranger to the perils of noise pollution. In fact, around one week a year, last week in fact, the M25 (the London ring road) is diverted overnight along our road. This means we have heavy trucks passing our home all night long. We also live under the departure route for Heathrow (though that's been relatively quiet this year!).

I think people should live and let live though. Otherwise we end up in a situation where people are constantly trying to ban other people's hobbies. Off-road driving, motorcycles, horse riding, light aircraft, playing the drums, road cycling, caravaning, beer gardens, smoking weed, barbequing, DIY, fixing up old cars etc. They all have something someone else could find objectional if they lack joy enough in their own life to want to cause misery in someone else's.

[bayindirh]

> I'm intrigued about which part of that response you thought was angry?

From your general tone, but I'm not a native English speaker, so I might be mistaken. I won't be insistent.

I won't dispute about the noise levels of your home, but you might be more tolerant to noise then people in quiet places, because auditory subsystem learns to ignore it, and it decreases noise sensitivity somewhat.

> I think people should live and let live though.

I'm not against that, but I don't agree that one's hobby can bother others under the name of freedom. We see a lot of similar stuff done by local governments. UK is installing "decorative" items on the walls and benches in parks to prevent skaters from using walls for tricks for example. Contrarily, I'm sure that there are specially built skating parks for who want to board and skate.

In the same perspective, I'm not against biking. It's a nice culture. It's important, however loud pipes, dangerous driving under the name of increased visibility, etc. are not acceptable in my book. Similarly, if a quiet country is ruined by excessive motor noise, I can understand the residents' reaction. As I've said somewhere in the comment, my father was a rally driver. I'm no stranger to powerful engines and cars, yet I don't like the noise of a modified car screaming through a nearby street in the silence of the night.

Ford's latest Mustangs have a "neighborhood mode" when the engine is first started, which enable all mufflers and disable resonators. That thing sounds like a family sedan in that mode. If a car manufacturer is installing something like that to a naturally loud beast, it's telling IMHO (and I applaud them for their ingenuity).

If we (not in the terms of you and me, but in the terms of general public) can apply some empathy to the issue, it's possible to find a nice middle ground around this issue.

[NikolaNovak]

Absolutely. To you.

Other 10,000 people you pass be dammed.

[PopePompus]

I recently had to move because of the noise caused by people like you.

[bayindirh]

Any engine can be intoxicating. Especially 3.0L V6 and upwards.

However, having an intoxicating piece of equipment doesn't allow anyone to drive recklessly in public roads, endangering yourself and others.

This the the thing I can tell you, as a son of a rally driver.

[goldenkey]

Inhaling the exhaust is intoxicating too. Not all of us want to destroy our lives for cheap thrills.

https://youtu.be/eEdf0R5ypsg

https://youtu.be/GO6guuJtPkM