Motorcycle exhaust noise levels

[andrew_j]

They subject cars to exhaust levels however motorcycles are given a pass by law enforcement except in locales with noise ordinances. Motorcycles with stock exhausts seem really quiet even Harley and sport bikes.


My wife/I were traveling on RT95 around Boston and a bike about 1/4 mile ahead made conversation difficult our Tiguan doing 75 MPH.

Why is that ?

 

[wpod]

'Cause they can.

 

[wavinwayne]

It's for the safety factor. I SAID IT'S FOR THE SAFETY FACTOR!!!

One reason is that it lets a large group riding together know what the bikes in the lead are doing, accelerating, slowing, etc.

 

[skyactiv]

I use to ride. Always had a stock exhaust on all my bikes and would wear foam earplugs along with a helmet because the wind noise alone at high speed was too loud even with a helmet.

The number of people riding motorcycles where I live has nosedived. Millennials and gen Z aren't buying them and gen X and older folks aren't riding them in the numbers they use to. I attribute the drop in motorcycle riders to people wanting to be able to use their smartphone going from point A to point B. Most members here with a smartphone have used it in some capacity behind the wheel.

 

[ammolab]

It's for the safety factor. I SAID IT'S FOR THE SAFETY FACTOR!!!

One reason is that it lets a large group riding together know what the bikes in the lead are doing, accelerating, slowing, etc.

Here are two important Motorcycle safety factors.
1) Don’t ride in a LARGE group!
2) Don’t ride from Booze joint to Booze joint

 

[4WD]

There are 3 HD’s in my neighborhood … Two guys with good mufflers and just run them smoothly through the gears … Sound nice …
The loud pipe dude runs it like the jackass he is …

 

[hrv]

I loved my 1974 R75/6 BMW.... Nice and quit....and ran and ran forever....

 

[MSCH]

There are 3 HD’s in my neighborhood … Two guys with good mufflers and just run them smoothly through the gears … Sound nice …
The loud pipe dude runs it like the jackass he is …

fellow biker friends used to make fun of me for leaving the stock exhaust on my Electra Glide..
I used to say to them, loud pipes sound good for about ten minutes
but I gotta listen to this thing hours a day, I prefer it not to assault my senses.

that said, I had an old Panhead. no such thing as a stock muffler available for an old cobbled together panhead
so that sucker had drag pipes.
between the mechanical noise and the exhaust note, that bike would wake the dead.

Even worse was a friend of mine who had a Stroked Shovel on a hardtail frame.
He had it piped with an aptly named Thunderheader.
If you were behind him and he go ton the throttle
you could feel the sound impulses in your chest like someone was punching you..

 

[fdcg27]

I am so tired of hearing unmuffled Harleys ridden by jerks each summer.
Rider numbers may be declining since in any loose group of buddies someone has died in an accident that wouldn't have amounted to anything more than a bruise in a four wheeler.

 

[Jetronic]

It's for the safety factor. I SAID IT'S FOR THE SAFETY FACTOR!!!

One reason is that it lets a large group riding together know what the bikes in the lead are doing, accelerating, slowing, etc.

The rear can't hear the front of the pack if everyone of them has a loud exhaust

 

[wavinwayne]

The rear can't hear the front of the pack if everyone of them has a loud exhaust

This was information I found when googling the question myself. I don't have a horse in this race.

 

[Jetronic]

This was information I found when googling the question myself. I don't have a horse in this race.

Me neither, but doesn't it sound like grasping at straws to justify loud exhausts?

 

[SevenBizzos]

The loud/modified exhaust are hugely annoying but are legal. In most cases, like Harley, if the mod is done at a dealer, it's considered "stock" and therefore legal. When you're trying to walk with your family through a Wisconsin downtown in the summer and can't talk to each other it kind of ruins the experience.

On the road I don't mind them. I can tell there's a bike hanging out in my blind spot. So I get that it makes it safer for them.

 

[blupupher]

Don't you know loud pipes save lives?
One of the dumbest things I have heard IMO.

When I look for a bike, I have a hard time finding one because everyone takes off stock exhaust and puts on these horrible sounding things that make the bike run worse.
And worse, they toss the stock exhaust, so you can't go back.

My brother has a Harley with aftermarket pipes (he bought it that way) and I refuse to ride behind him when we go riding. Just too annoying.

 

[brianl703]

The loud/modified exhaust are hugely annoying but are legal. In most cases, like Harley, if the mod is done at a dealer, it's considered "stock" and therefore legal.

No, the mods done at the dealer are just as much a violation of applicable law as mods done by another shop or a shade-tree mechanic.

When those bikes leave the factory, they comply with all the noise laws.

 

[MSCH]

reality is the noise emission rules include exhaust systems, air intake systems and tampering with them is illegal.
Fact the law is totally unenforced doesn't mean the law exists.

 

[brianl703]

reality is the noise emission rules include exhaust systems, air intake systems and tampering with them is illegal.
Fact the law is totally unenforced doesn't mean the law exists.

It'll get enforced the day some EPA bureaucrat has a Harley owner for a neighbor.

 

[DuckRyder]

It is not just Harleys, sport bikes are obnoxious too.

There is an uptick in Homologated exhaust particularly for newer bikes.

Even back in the day there were reasonable pipes available... put an Indigo on my ZX7R, everyone was like why not a D&D -- uh because D&D sound like garbage maybe?

Had the quiet Yosahmuras on my ZX6 - they were not easy to get if you wanted the loud ones they were a dime a dozen... Screaming Eagles on the 103 are legal... as is the tune and air cleaner...

 

[gman2304]

Where’s Grampi…..?

 

[4WD]

Where’s Grampi…..?

Across town saving 0.01 on gasoline