By “putting a card in your bike spokes”, do you mean attached to the frame, going into the bike spokes, to make noise? Then no. If you mean to just stick ’em in there, then yes.
The thing is when you actually ride a motorbike you realize it has to be this loud. Otherwise car drivers will not spot you and they tend to swerve right into bikes anyway. Guess who comes out worse.
As a bikerette, I have to say that some take that to the next level though. I once FELT a Harley coming long before I heard it and as it got closer, I was overtaken by feelings of dread and I’m pretty sure the pipes emitted the brown note because my digestive track reacted to it. That was entirely unecessery
Sorry, but for all the noise, bikers still get hit. It’s a pretty lame way to defend yourself. Most cars block most of the noise, the major portion of the noise is pointed directly behind or to the side of the bike. Not very useful for audio car defense. HEY, try piping your exhaust to the front! There you go, all safe now. Oh yeah… “that wouldn’t look cool”. Ah, the real thing rears it’s ugly head. “I WANT PEOPLE TO LOOK AT ME” Even if they look and shake their heads.
Actually, front-facing exhaust pipes would have several problems. For one, when the exhaust is in FRONT of you it impairs visibility. Secondly, as motorcycles aren’t contained like cars are, the rider would have to BREATHE that exhaust. Thirdly, it would be unaerodynamic and possibly prone to backing up if you went too fast. If you’re going to be arrogant and condescending, at least be smart enough to back it up.
Many car drivers can’t spot other cars either. Some can’t even spot a big ass truck. Imagine if everyone used loud aftermarket pipes. The traffic would sound like a huge herd of horny manatees.
When I ride my motorcycle I know I must be extra cautious about other drivers.
I ride my bike to the shop and jump into a my rig.
There is literally, no difference between defensive driving in either one.
What gets me the most is the people that will tail gate you on your bike – even when you speed up to 20+ over the speed limit to get away from them, they follow you up (usually on their cell phones).
I’ve been riding for over 14 years, and I’ve never had a loud bike. Most of the time I have to beep my horn to let people know that I’ve arrived outside their house.
the as to Vulcan may be the loudest airplane in the world. Or the loudest jet. USAF tried an experiment named XF-84H that used supersonic propeller blades. The sound made people vomit, and was reportedly audible from 40 km away.
I also concur with an earlier comment. I ride a ninja and it is actually very quiet but I do not really hold anything against the loud motorcycles. Yes there are some that get excessive I will admit that. The number one excuse for hitting a motorcycle is “I could not see it” when the truth of the matter most people just don’t care. I have had someone change lanes into me when I was right alongside their driver side window. If they had actually looked out the window all they would have seen was my elbow.
I’ve had a car pass between me and another car, on the center line, that were side by side in semi-heavy traffic.
I could’ve reached over and smacked her window.
The other car at my side looked over at me with more fear in his eyes than I had – mainly because I half expect that kind of moronic behavior.
I’ve heard the phrase “loud pipes save lives” and that’s legit, but it’s also very true that people universally don’t pay attention to other vehicles regardless of size, volume, color or flashing lights. Most people are selfish jerks.
A couple weeks ago I saw a guy on a motorcycle with straight pipes pull out of a gas station onto a relatively empty road, mash the throttle, then after less than 20 yards start braking to make a turn. There was no reason for it except to make noise (probably to impress his girlfriend). Not sure how many times I’ve seen that or very similar performances. I can understand riding loud when there are actually other vehicles around to alert to your presence, but deliberately making that much noise when there’s no real reason (which is to say, when it’s painful and/or disruptive and the causal acceleration is needless or dangerous) gets you labeled “a tool”.
Very loud bikes remind me of a cartoon about a guy whose anatomy drew laughs from locker room guys, his girlfriend, even his doctor, so he bought a Hummer. As he drives it, everybody laughs– men, women, kids, dogs. Caption: “Now they all know.”
They’d drive around blasting music at full volume in their cars, on a sound system worth 10 times more than the car, with the bass cranked up so loud it rattles the entire car and everything else on the block.
Think of it this way: Blasting rap? Illegal. Blasting country music? Legal. That was my youth. But there was an obvious problem. So they tried making it about noise in general. And then they went and passed specific exemptions for Harley Davidson motorcycles, because, damn it, patriotic American heritage demands that you be able to wake people on the far side of the block with your motorcycle in order to feel emotionally secure in your self-expression. I really do think the Harley exemption is what turned a lot of my generation against the old road glamour.
Besides, it turns out the road two blocks down from my place is where the motorcyclists decide to race. I’m not certain what is more annoying, the sound of their damn bikes, or the racket the sirens make when emergency response rolls out to scrape someone off the road.
It’s one of those things where, you know, I’ll defend your right to be an (expletive!), but why do you have to put such an effort into being an (expletive!)?
bikers arguing the loud noise their bikes make is for safety should also wear colorful dresses like riders of bicycles (with nearly no noise pollution) do. Preferrably neon-yellow etc. But do you see any? Only Black and if a color other than that then a dark one.
There’s bikers and there’s riders… and then there’s those loud braap braapers.
It’s the “adult” equivalent of putting a card in your bike spokes.
(…Do kids still do that, or am I dating myself?)
Now they just download an app that matches the speed of the bike with a selection of sounds such as Crazy Frog, Harley Davidson and Transformers.
By “putting a card in your bike spokes”, do you mean attached to the frame, going into the bike spokes, to make noise? Then no. If you mean to just stick ’em in there, then yes.
The thing is when you actually ride a motorbike you realize it has to be this loud. Otherwise car drivers will not spot you and they tend to swerve right into bikes anyway. Guess who comes out worse.
Couldn’t you do something else, something less unpleasant? You could get an ice cream truck sound system, for instance.
As a bikerette, I have to say that some take that to the next level though. I once FELT a Harley coming long before I heard it and as it got closer, I was overtaken by feelings of dread and I’m pretty sure the pipes emitted the brown note because my digestive track reacted to it. That was entirely unecessery
Sorry, but for all the noise, bikers still get hit. It’s a pretty lame way to defend yourself. Most cars block most of the noise, the major portion of the noise is pointed directly behind or to the side of the bike. Not very useful for audio car defense. HEY, try piping your exhaust to the front! There you go, all safe now. Oh yeah… “that wouldn’t look cool”. Ah, the real thing rears it’s ugly head. “I WANT PEOPLE TO LOOK AT ME” Even if they look and shake their heads.
Actually, front-facing exhaust pipes would have several problems. For one, when the exhaust is in FRONT of you it impairs visibility. Secondly, as motorcycles aren’t contained like cars are, the rider would have to BREATHE that exhaust. Thirdly, it would be unaerodynamic and possibly prone to backing up if you went too fast. If you’re going to be arrogant and condescending, at least be smart enough to back it up.
Many car drivers can’t spot other cars either. Some can’t even spot a big ass truck. Imagine if everyone used loud aftermarket pipes. The traffic would sound like a huge herd of horny manatees.
When I ride my motorcycle I know I must be extra cautious about other drivers.
I “hear” ya on both points.
I ride my bike to the shop and jump into a my rig.
There is literally, no difference between defensive driving in either one.
What gets me the most is the people that will tail gate you on your bike – even when you speed up to 20+ over the speed limit to get away from them, they follow you up (usually on their cell phones).
Some drivers can’t even spot emergency vehicles, despite being covered with many bright flashing lights.
— the voice of experience
Yeah. Been there, too.
Even before cell phones were a thing.
Hahaha.
“Loud pipes save lives” & “that front brake’ll flip ya!”
— Stupid things Harley riders say.
I’ve been riding for 32 years and I sure have to agree with Adam here.
“If loud pipes save lives, imagine what it would do if you learned to actually ride the thing!”
Cosmic forces aren’t always in your control.
Bushel of chainsaws funniest Thing today 🙂
I’ve been riding for over 14 years, and I’ve never had a loud bike. Most of the time I have to beep my horn to let people know that I’ve arrived outside their house.
the as to Vulcan may be the loudest airplane in the world. Or the loudest jet. USAF tried an experiment named XF-84H that used supersonic propeller blades. The sound made people vomit, and was reportedly audible from 40 km away.
Now we know where the technology for Noise marines comes from 😀
I also concur with an earlier comment. I ride a ninja and it is actually very quiet but I do not really hold anything against the loud motorcycles. Yes there are some that get excessive I will admit that. The number one excuse for hitting a motorcycle is “I could not see it” when the truth of the matter most people just don’t care. I have had someone change lanes into me when I was right alongside their driver side window. If they had actually looked out the window all they would have seen was my elbow.
I’ve had a car pass between me and another car, on the center line, that were side by side in semi-heavy traffic.
I could’ve reached over and smacked her window.
The other car at my side looked over at me with more fear in his eyes than I had – mainly because I half expect that kind of moronic behavior.
Almost disappointed if they’re smart!
Yes, yes, a million times, yes.
I’ve heard the phrase “loud pipes save lives” and that’s legit, but it’s also very true that people universally don’t pay attention to other vehicles regardless of size, volume, color or flashing lights. Most people are selfish jerks.
A couple weeks ago I saw a guy on a motorcycle with straight pipes pull out of a gas station onto a relatively empty road, mash the throttle, then after less than 20 yards start braking to make a turn. There was no reason for it except to make noise (probably to impress his girlfriend). Not sure how many times I’ve seen that or very similar performances. I can understand riding loud when there are actually other vehicles around to alert to your presence, but deliberately making that much noise when there’s no real reason (which is to say, when it’s painful and/or disruptive and the causal acceleration is needless or dangerous) gets you labeled “a tool”.
Ladies do love the vibrating seat between their legs…
Very loud bikes remind me of a cartoon about a guy whose anatomy drew laughs from locker room guys, his girlfriend, even his doctor, so he bought a Hummer. As he drives it, everybody laughs– men, women, kids, dogs. Caption: “Now they all know.”
you poet!
They’d drive around blasting music at full volume in their cars, on a sound system worth 10 times more than the car, with the bass cranked up so loud it rattles the entire car and everything else on the block.
Think of it this way: Blasting rap? Illegal. Blasting country music? Legal. That was my youth. But there was an obvious problem. So they tried making it about noise in general. And then they went and passed specific exemptions for Harley Davidson motorcycles, because, damn it, patriotic American heritage demands that you be able to wake people on the far side of the block with your motorcycle in order to feel emotionally secure in your self-expression. I really do think the Harley exemption is what turned a lot of my generation against the old road glamour.
Besides, it turns out the road two blocks down from my place is where the motorcyclists decide to race. I’m not certain what is more annoying, the sound of their damn bikes, or the racket the sirens make when emergency response rolls out to scrape someone off the road.
It’s one of those things where, you know, I’ll defend your right to be an (expletive!), but why do you have to put such an effort into being an (expletive!)?
Aren’t the loud bikes for the male menopause?
It’s always middleaged men who ride them here.
bikers arguing the loud noise their bikes make is for safety should also wear colorful dresses like riders of bicycles (with nearly no noise pollution) do. Preferrably neon-yellow etc. But do you see any? Only Black and if a color other than that then a dark one.
No one on the obnoxiously loud sort of bikes ever wears a proper modern helmet like that one.
The artwork…So. Much. Win! Especially Bug flying out of bed at the HONK! contrasted with the calm, cool demeanor of the biker. XD