| HN Mirror

If you can’t find a way to sit in front of the AC and listen to the radio without clogging roads, burning fossil fuels at a double or triple rate, and impeding your visibility so much that you regularly endanger the life of your neighbors, maybe it’s time to find a new mode of relaxation.

The USA is one of the few countries where motorcycles are uncommon and seen as a surprising choice, probably due to our laughably simple drivers test that doesn’t even require knowledge of how to drive a manual. Motorcycles burn less gas, cause far less traffic, and cause far less damage to others when accidents occur. The single reason why motorcycling is dangerous is because of 4-wheel drivers, who constantly:

* Change lanes/cut you off without signaling * Slam on their brakes without signaling * Try to merge into your lane when they are next to you * Read their phones and do all of these things

When I say constantly, I mean (in my city) every block or two of riding. Motorcycling is an exercise in constant scanning for the next person who is going to intentionally or unintentionally try to kill you, and having a loud exhaust is a way to quickly get them to realize they’re about to do so. It’s hard to see car drivers constantly put us in danger by (illegally) not paying attention for their own comfort, and then insinuate that it’s the motorcycle riders who are the problem.

One last note - I think most HNers are talking about loud sport bike exhausts like Yoshimura here, not Harley exhausts that sound like thunder every time you let off the clutch. These exhausts are normally at an acceptable, sociable noise level but can get much louder when you rev high, which is nice for blipping the throttle to get the guy next to you scrolling Spotify to look up before he sideswipes you.

So, even though I’m recovering from the multiple fractures I received after going over my handlebars, to avoid hitting a car that turned left in front of me in an intersection, who may never have seen me at all, I think I’ll stick with my mode of transportation. And you can stick with yours, and turn the radio up if you find the noise of motors on a motorway that unacceptable. I certainly do think a lot of riders take it too far, or just do it for attention. But I don’t think it’s fair to blame them in general for doing anything they can to counteract the lack of care and attention paid by people in cars.