Exhaust Sound

[BaldGuy]

Personally, I hope the Elio is nice and quite like any other "car". I personally never been impressed with guys who can work there throttles at stop lights or modify there bikes to be loud and obnoxious. I don't even feel they should be legal. I'm forced to keep my truck quiet so should they be. Jetskis use to be noisy, and got a lot of complaints. Now the new ones, are more powerful then the old noisy ones and are now one of the quietest boats out there.

 

[carzes]

Loud, loud, loud.... so what? any idiot can make more noise. How stupid does it look when the bad-a$$ beside me at a light takes off with a deafening roar that is supposed to impress everyone, and he's only accelerating from 0 to 30 at the same rate as my 4-banger truck? It takes THAT much noise for a mild acceleration to 30 mph? That's not 'tough', that's pathetic! If there was any REAL power involved it would barely have to go over idle to crawl through city traffic. If It's an easy job, it should SOUND easy. The most impressive engine I ever heard was a Lamborghini Diablo. Just coasting at idle there was no mistaking that THIS was the top toy in the box.

 

[Elio Amazed]

Loud, loud, loud.... so what? any idiot can make more noise. How stupid does it look when the bad-a$$ beside me at a light takes off with a deafening roar that is supposed to impress everyone, and he's only accelerating from 0 to 30 at the same rate as my 4-banger truck? It takes THAT much noise for a mild acceleration to 30 mph? That's not 'tough', that's pathetic! If there was any REAL power involved it would barely have to go over idle to crawl through city traffic. If It's an easy job, it should SOUND easy. The most impressive engine I ever heard was a Lamborghini Diablo. Just coasting at idle there was no mistaking that THIS was the top toy in the box.

Statistics and personal experience have taught me that a large number of cagers out there are in too much of a hurry and do not take the reasonable time and care that they should out on the open road. They are either too careless, too distracted, or too near-sighted to see smaller vehicles. I've got four additional lights on the front, five additional running/brake lights and two additional programmed brake light strobes on the back, and I'm putting four additional running/turn indicators per side, on each of my bikes. I also have Jardine rumblers on my 650 that have stopped people from pulling out in front of me at the last second countless times. I see them start to come out, I slam in the clutch and rack the pipes, their heads snap up, they slam on their brakes and they give me the "Oh my god, I didn't even see him" look.

"If there was any REAL power involved..." To show you real power, let me run my little 650 twin against your 4-banger from a dead stop.
I doubt that you'd ever express that particular opinion again. And that's one of the smallest cruisers out there.

I have a stock exhaust on my 250. I was sitting at a stop light about 5 weeks ago @ 3:30pm on a warm sunny afternoon and was thrown 15 feet into the berm while my bike was thrown 15 feet straight forward. The lady who hit me from behind had a little hyper dog jumping all over the inside of her car, admitted to being on three doses of a prescription narcotic, and I believe she was on the phone when she hit me. I checked my mirrors (always doing the 360-degree while sitting at a stop light) and this lady would have had to have accelerated from the speed she was going when I initially saw her in the mirrors to have hit me that hard.

The bike is totaled. Her insurance company is giving me less than half of what the KBB is for a totally stock unit (this particular bike was fully dressed and tastefully blinged), and the cop let her drive away still floating on her scripts. The pay-off minus the small salvage bid will barely buy the non-OEM aftermarket parts needed and pay the $400+ in gov. paperwork. I'm going to have to do the labor for free to get it back on the road.

I don't rev the engine while sitting at stop signs and stop lights, but now I see that there's actually a purpose for it. Had I had a set of Jardine rumblers and I'd been reving them on that bike at that light... Who knows? Just sayin'

I respect the fact that we live in a country where people can, and frequently do, express totally unqualified and uninformed opinions.
Who was it that said it has anything to do with "tough" to begin with? Who is it that assumes that loud MC pipes are there to impress?
As far as the quoted post (and several previous posts) it's starting to sound like repressed cases of slash-pipe envy to me.

 

[harlan stephens]

Dont know just find loud bikes loud ...
What makes me safe is not how fast or loud. But a freakish paranoid defencive riding constant awarness.
Looking for cell phone users....hard to enjoy the ride in traffic now adays.
Emergency stopping, being good at the ol swerve move. Or passing police style classes are the guys that impress me.
Fast and loud do not. And never have its just plain obnoxious.

Been Riding 46 years so far.
Road raced. Bmx. Salt flats once..just to say I did it. And drags. In traffic is more dangerous than all the above.
You choose to ride its you taking the risk.
someone blows a red light on the cell phone ..
Is all it takes. you need to have an escape route in your head and have it together allways..
Pipes will not help you keep your head right.

 

[Elio Amazed]

Dont know just find loud bikes loud ...
What makes me safe is not how fast or loud. But a freakish paranoid defencive riding constant awarness.
Looking for cell phone users....hard to enjoy the ride in traffic now adays.
Emergency stopping, being good at the ol swerve move. Or passing police style classes are the guys that impress me.
Fast and loud do not. And never have its just plain obnoxious.

Been Riding 46 years so far.
Road raced. Bmx. Salt flats once..just to say I did it. And drags. In traffic is more dangerous than all the above.
You choose to ride its you taking the risk.
someone blows a red light on the cell phone ..
Is all it takes. you need to have an escape route in your head and have it together allways..
Pipes will not help you keep your head right.

You're pretty much preachin' to the choir about the right state of awareness while on two wheels.
You're pretty much preachin' to the choir about developing defensive maneuver skills.
However, when they don't see OR hear you and go at the last second, your only escape route may be a summersault over the hood.
Or, in a case of an escape from being rear-ended, driving your machine into a culvert.

Last year, a local retired grandfather was literally run over while he slowed to initiate a right turn into his daughter's driveway.
His daughter watched the whole thing from the front porch of her house.
He and his cruiser were drug down the road underneath the SUV.
He was dead by the time they got the SUV off of him and his machine.
The driver of the SUV was texting.
As it came out in the trial, she didn't look up long enough to see the rider.
There weren't any skid marks at all until after the impact point.
The driver got time served (a couple of weeks), community service, 5 years of probation, suspended license and around $2,000 in fines.
The rider was a well loved and respected member of the community.
He was not a member of anything motorcycle except for a passive membership in the AMA.
There were over 200 bikes in his funeral procession.

Hindsight sucks in a case like this and really doesn't mean a thing.
But two things might have changed that outcome.
Like you've said, an escape route.

Because of the way the road was, any sucessful escape would have required a bike with a lot of low end torque.
In other words, a powerful bike (which the rider had). Some would interpret a powerful bike as being a fast bike.
It would have taken that constant awaress you mentioned.
It also would have taken the maneuvering skills you mentioned.

The second thing could have been enough noise emminating from that machine to have caused the driver look up from her phone.

I wear earplugs above 60mph to "keep my head right".
I wear a helmet, long pants, a jacket (usually thick leather) and boots each and everytime I take one of the bikes out of the gate.
If It's 85 degrees or hotter, I wear a mesh jacket with armor.

Personal bias aside and "sound" logic applied, I'm going to continue to give myself every chance to stay upright and healthy that I can.
I will not let my personal bias dictate taking additional risk by choosing not to use one or more additional personally proven safety aids.
If certain individuals assume that's an attempt to be "tough" or an attempt to "impress", that's totally a projection coming from the "assumee"
If I'm irritating people, it means that I'm successful in getting them to realize that I'm there.
And yet here I am again, responding to another post that contains the word "impress" or one of it's variations!

 

[harlan stephens]

Well its not proven loud bikes are more safe...many saftey classes talk about this.

Anything coming at you will not hear a thing...if beside you... they may
I just kick there door. or use the dang horn .
Sorry not buying it....sorry its not proven any safer and Is just obnoxious.

Just somthing some one put on a sticker. add to the
New biker cliches. Along with tattoos,bald heads,goatees, doo-rags....
Nothing like the freedom of being cookie cutter same....lol

 

[Elio Amazed]

"Anything coming at you will not hear a thing..."
Are you freeking kidding me?
Where was that hightened sense of awareness the last time you approached a truely loud bike from the opposite direction?
If you're referring to coming up behind me...
Are you really freeking kidding me?
Obviously you've never been behind my 650.
"...if beside you...they may"
IF YOU CAN'T HEAR THEM, HOW CAN THEY BE OBNOXIOUS?
Some of the stuff you're spouting makes me wonder if you even ride.
I have a packrat friend that has an entire two-story shed full of the official records of the nationals dating back 40 years...

And you have to resort to name calling?
"Nothing like the freedom of being cookie cutter same...lol"

Did you read my posts?
I guarantee that I'd've been feeding worms quite a few times over if I'd not caught side road bounders' attentions at the last second with my pipes.
Screw the horn, the pipes are louder, more directional, and way more effective.
I'm multiple times quicker on the clutch and throttle than on the horn.
Any decent rider is.

Doo-rags huh? Hmmm.

 

[harlan stephens]

I take you have not been to a rider safey class? well I kinda know you have not at this point.


I see you are still talking about your fast loud bike.

And seem offended with my new biker cliches. I have no idea what you look like.


So my 107 ci, woods camed, ported head ,welded balanced and plugged crank ,thundermax with wide bands and computer is not a bike? pretty sure its an 800 pound bike that will lift the front wheel and is not obnoxious loud. But I do get confused now and then. So mabey your right.

What about the 103ci geezer glide? Must not be a bike eather?

My whole faimly rides and owns a chopper shop....am I wrong about that as well? You sure?

Dude take a good rider saftey class.
They will explain the pipe stuff to ya

 

[Elio Amazed]

I'm fully aware that the safety course informs it's students that louder pipes are not proven to be safer.
If that's your point...

However, the ones here tell their students that it's not been disproven either.

Yep, wind, density, moisture, pressure waves, speed of sound, speed & direction of object one, speed & direction of object two, yadda, yadda.
Now a person would have to be a fool to swallow a mantra whole while completely ignoring their own personal experience, wouldn't they?
"Maybe" I've just got exceptional hearing and vision that no-one else has.
"Maybe" the folks that slam on their brakes as they're in the act of pulling out in front of me have that too.

As far as cliches, don't ever call me "Dude".
A "Dude" was Billy Crystal's character in a movie quite some time ago.

I've already stated that I am going to give myself every possibility of using every possible safety aid available to me.
Once again, my personal experience has indicated to me that in a number of instances and circumstances...
...my audible pipes have served as a safety aid.

I too, believe that a person should not depend heavily on any one safety aid more than any other.

I could care less about what you say you own and ride.
Do not take a superior attitude and attempt to demean a person who simply has a different opinion based on his or her genuine experience.
Especially about something that the experts say has neither been proven nor disproven.
If it's neither proven nor disproven by the experts, it might just mean that it's a matter of opinion.
This is my opinion, based on my experience and thus my personal preference, that is your opinion and obviously your personal preference.

Ride safe.

 

[harlan stephens]

I think of how many times I have been in back of a guy like you....
The one we talk about later on....wow even south park caught on to it.
Too funny.



http://m.autoevolution.com/most-common-motorcycle-myths-debunked-part-1-45969.html

http://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/stop-saying-loud-pipes-save-lives

http://virginiawind.com/byways/loud_pipes_save_lives.asp

http://www.eglaw.com/library/deadly-misconceptions-the-top-ten-motorcycle-safety-myths.cfm

http://www.motohouston.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153716