Noisy, noisy, noisy exhausts!

[Edrof]

Hello Bikers, please don't hit me

Now the weather has turned nice a seasonal plague has returned to my pleasant shores: that of massively noisy bikes. Let me first say that I'm not against bikers at all and wouldn't mind owning one in future and I understand that sometimes the whole point of owning a bike is for the feel and sound of the gravelly engine, but some that regularly go past my home are massively, massively loud. There is a quad bike in particular that really takes the biscuit. I can't really describe what its like other than to say that it shakes the house and makes me shout naughty words (not that anyone hears them over the racket!). It's like Concord roaring past at 200ft. It's lovely at 4am, too. Anyway...

How can they not think of the kids and babies they distress as they thunder past?
Have they modified their exhausts to get them this loud?
Most importantly: what's the law on this? Do you guys thinks it's worth me getting some number plates and reporting them to the police?

Just to be clear: this thread is about the loudest ones, not your everyday bike. Thanks for reading.

Matt

 

[Edrof]

Hope you post the same message in the car forum then ?

I was considering it but thought the mods would clean it away. Anyway, I'd say about 90% of the noisy ones here are bikes and certainly the worst offenders are bikes. Like I said above, this isn't about bike-hatred

 

[Edrof]

MY RSV isn't exactly quiet, but I don't start it up early in the morning or late in the evening and I trundle through residential areas on the tiniest amount of throttle I can. There is a two wheeled agricultural scrapheap (AKA Harley) that lives nearby and his open pipes have woken our daughter up on numerous occasions, there really is no need for it. The scrawny little knuckle draggers on mopeds with no baffles are possibly even more annoying as they restrict most of their activities to housing estates.

You sir, are a credit to your two-wheeled chums. I wish everyone was as considerate as you.

As for the loud mopeds, that tinny cacophany - is that because they've altered their exhausts, too, or are they naturally that way?

 

[Edrof]

Frankly, if you need a loud exhaust to "save your life" something's gone very wrong somewhere.

 

[Edrof]

op need to man up a little

Thanks, I'll tell that to my 20 month-old daughter when she's crying

Also, are car drivers unable to discern where a biker is because they over-take a lot and don't stay centrally in their lane much? Cars are quiet but it's easy to know where they are because they almost always 'behave' within expected parameters. Don't know if I've explained that clearly

 

[Edrof]

in certain circumstances I can see that a loud can may alert a driver to a motorcycles presence. However due to the fact that the exhaust(s) and therefore the majority of noise is focused to the side of but mostly to the rear of the bike, I can't see that "because it makes car drivers aware of my presence" being a justifiable excuse to annoy / upset pedestrians and home owners that live on busy biker roads. Perhaps the increasing number of bikes with excessively loud exhausts upsetting people has something to do with the increasing number of car drivers that seem less inclined to let me filter past them to the point of actively pulling over to the right to block my progress.

I'd also like to throw into the mix that riding with an illegal exhaust potentally voids your insurance as your vehicle is not road legal.

I've ridden with illegal exhausts before but since I started to see how this effects kids and therefore their parents view of bikers I have stopped. The last time I was knocked off my bike (3 years ago) I had a race can on my Speed Triple, so from my experience loud exhausts dont prevent accidents.

Making bikers look intelligent and considerate.

Aww noes...think of the childrens. What were you doing, burnouts on their sandpits???

Making bikers look stupid.

'tough luck', that is what I would say if my neighbour approached me about my bike... I wounldn't fit a quiet pipe for him under any circumstance

Even if it is illegal?