and why i don't even do that when i can avoid it. why give them any of my money when all they'll do it more of the same with it?
Loud Pipes (When Lane Splitting In California)
- Thread starter Vance
- Start date
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birkdale10
Well-known member
I realize this is an old topic, but it is one that I give much thought to.
I'm not sure if this side of the subject has been asked, so I'll ask - at length.
I ride to work every day. There are about 6 other riders whose bikes show up about half as often as mine. When I leave for the day, I occasionally get to the parking area about the time one of the others does. And they start their bikes. And I can't hear mine anymore, even with me standing right beside it, putting on my helmet. It irks me, it bothers me, and sometimes I just think to myself, who gave them permission to make their bikes so loud?
I have been in conversations during meetings where someone would bring up a story that they were in the parking garage and some idiot biker started his machine and 30 cars all around sounded their alarms. And the conversation often has the phrase "who gives them the right to have that loud a vehicle"?
I have gone so far as to ask one of these people, what would you like to do about it. And every single time, 100%, I get this response: I would just take that stupid noisy thing off the street. I would want a law to be passed making it illegal to have that noisy a motorcycle.
Let me add: in that same parking garage are a couple of clunkers that need the exhaust system replaced. And there are a couple of large pickup trucks with huge tires and straight pipes. These are stupidly loud. When I ask someone about them, the answer is, well those are idiots, too. But there is not a peep about making those cars/trucks illegal.
So, here is where I am going. I do not think that riding a motorcycle is a right. I will tell anyone that thinks that it is a right that they are wrong. It is a privilege. Enough of those little old ladies get together at the voting booth and they most certainly can and will vote for that city ordinance to get those noisy bikes and the godless antisocial people that are on them off of the streets.
And, those little old ladies vote. Do you? The riders reading this: are you registered to vote? Do you use that registration to go down and vote? Well, if you do, look around at how many of the people in line are in the 'little old lady' category. And if you don't, well shame on you.
If somehow it occurred that the bikes are voted right off the road, I don't think it will be the Harleys with open pipes that are pointed at. It will be the motorcycles. Mine. Yours.
You think that there are enough motorcyclists voting to match the numbers of non-motorcyclists voting? There are not.
I wish I could make my bike quieter.
But, I have very loud aftermarket horns. I wear a dayglow yellow green jacket, every single day, 103 degrees in DFW traffic.
Be seen! But BE QUIET!
Phew. I feel better now...
I'm not sure if this side of the subject has been asked, so I'll ask - at length.
I ride to work every day. There are about 6 other riders whose bikes show up about half as often as mine. When I leave for the day, I occasionally get to the parking area about the time one of the others does. And they start their bikes. And I can't hear mine anymore, even with me standing right beside it, putting on my helmet. It irks me, it bothers me, and sometimes I just think to myself, who gave them permission to make their bikes so loud?
I have been in conversations during meetings where someone would bring up a story that they were in the parking garage and some idiot biker started his machine and 30 cars all around sounded their alarms. And the conversation often has the phrase "who gives them the right to have that loud a vehicle"?
I have gone so far as to ask one of these people, what would you like to do about it. And every single time, 100%, I get this response: I would just take that stupid noisy thing off the street. I would want a law to be passed making it illegal to have that noisy a motorcycle.
Let me add: in that same parking garage are a couple of clunkers that need the exhaust system replaced. And there are a couple of large pickup trucks with huge tires and straight pipes. These are stupidly loud. When I ask someone about them, the answer is, well those are idiots, too. But there is not a peep about making those cars/trucks illegal.
So, here is where I am going. I do not think that riding a motorcycle is a right. I will tell anyone that thinks that it is a right that they are wrong. It is a privilege. Enough of those little old ladies get together at the voting booth and they most certainly can and will vote for that city ordinance to get those noisy bikes and the godless antisocial people that are on them off of the streets.
And, those little old ladies vote. Do you? The riders reading this: are you registered to vote? Do you use that registration to go down and vote? Well, if you do, look around at how many of the people in line are in the 'little old lady' category. And if you don't, well shame on you.
If somehow it occurred that the bikes are voted right off the road, I don't think it will be the Harleys with open pipes that are pointed at. It will be the motorcycles. Mine. Yours.
You think that there are enough motorcyclists voting to match the numbers of non-motorcyclists voting? There are not.
I wish I could make my bike quieter.
But, I have very loud aftermarket horns. I wear a dayglow yellow green jacket, every single day, 103 degrees in DFW traffic.
Be seen! But BE QUIET!
Phew. I feel better now...
Redfish Hunter
Gone Fishing
You make some excellent points and I agree with most of what you said. I disagree with you concerning rights vs. privileges but I am not going to argue the point. I certainly will not get into the "voting" part of your post/rant because I feel that this starts treading dangerously close to a political discussion. Good points all around though.
Oh, and I sure wish this thread had not been resurrected...
Oh, and I sure wish this thread had not been resurrected...
RadioHowie
I Miss Beemerdons!
beemerdons
Certifiable Old Fart
Hey Manatee Molester, check out these Leo Vince exhaust cans that Dr. Rich and Papa Chuy have put on our FJR's. Work so perfectly in Seattle and Phoenix, probably would work really well in Orlando too! jes' sayin' and nuff said!
https://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc198/beemerdons/September%202013/get-attachment-57aspx.jpeg
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Blind Squirrel
Well-known member
Wouldn't it be nice if they put a device on motorcycles that would enable the rider to push a button and make a loud noise to get some else's attention, but not make loud noise all the time.
RadioHowie
I Miss Beemerdons!
Don, mi amigo, it is SO good to see you posting here again, and I'm SO glad to see you're still an iggerint desert toad.
My ZRX has a Muzzy Megaphone on it
I guess 46+ years of riding, and 46+ years of loud audio in headphones has phuxored my hearing to the point I just don't wanna hear pipe noise anymore.
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beemerdons
Certifiable Old Fart
Blind Squirrel, I am really going to be showing my age with this response! I graduated from Orange High School in Southern California in 1966, every one of my motorcycle hoodlum buddies and I had a set of these Snuff-or-Not Knobs installed on our straight pipes. It was easy on my 1959 Triumph Speed Twin 500, simply unclamp the OEM mufflers and you were good to go!Wouldn't it be nice if they put a device on motorcycles that would enable the rider to push a button and make a loud noise to get some else's attention, but not make loud noise all the time.
However, if you rode Honda 305's and half of my school did: The mufflers were welded directly to the exhaust pipes, so those jokers would just hacksaw the mufflers off and throw them in to the dumpster. You can't believe how much those pipes cost now!!
So here was our riding scenario, we would be hauling ass up the Villa Park Grade and see an Orange County Sheriff squad car heading towards us in the opposite direction. A quick reach back and we "snuffed" the exhaust, clever little bastards weren't we!
Redfish Hunter
Gone Fishing
I don't know what part of that post is the most surprising. The fact that you actually graduated high school or that you actually thought you were clever.
Just kidding Papa Chuey!
I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you back here. This place was not the same without you.
Just kidding Papa Chuey!
I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you back here. This place was not the same without you.
Blind Squirrel
Well-known member
I saw those on my dad's bike when I was a kid. Made the bike quieter, and worked as a "spark arrester" for the CHP safety check stations. He had it on his Honda 150.Blind Squirrel, I am really going to be showing my age with this response! I graduated from Orange High School in Southern California in 1966, every one of my motorcycle hoodlum buddies and I had a set of these Snuff-or-Not Knobs installed on our straight pipes. It was easy on my 1959 Triumph Speed Twin 500, simply unclamp the OEM mufflers and you were good to go!Wouldn't it be nice if they put a device on motorcycles that would enable the rider to push a button and make a loud noise to get some else's attention, but not make loud noise all the time.
However, if you rode Honda 305's and half of my school did: The mufflers were welded directly to the exhaust pipes, so those jokers would just hacksaw the mufflers off and throw them in to the dumpster. You can't believe how much those pipes cost now!!
So here was our riding scenario, we would be hauling ass up the Villa Park Grade and see an Orange County Sheriff squad car heading towards us in the opposite direction. A quick reach back and we "snuffed" the exhaust, clever little bastards weren't we!
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AVGeek
Well-known member
Here's another surprise Redfish...my dad graduated from Orange High School in 1964...I don't know what part of that post is the most surprising. The fact that you actually graduated high school or that you actually thought you were clever.
Just kidding Papa Chuey!
I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you back here. This place was not the same without you.
mferriter
Occasionally trying to get work done
Riding a motorcycle is NOT a right, NEITHER is driving a car. But for some reason, riding a bicycle in a way as to impede the flow of traffic IS a right, seemingly along with riding a scooter that can only go 30 mph in a 55 zone. (By the way I am an avid cyclist, but always strive to make myself unobtrusive on the road knowing that I'm not going to win an argument with some texting cager in a crash).
A quick google search revealed the following:
- There are about 260 million registered passenger vehicles in the United States
- There are about 9 million motorcycles registered in the US
