safety an argument for louder exhaust?
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From: Northern California
Ultimate HDF Member
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From: Joliet, Illinois
The supposed theory is that people who may not see you, or aren't paying attention to you, will hear you.
I suggest you try an experiment to test this theory yourself. Next time you're out on the road, listen for bikes with loud pipes. How many do you find, that you didn't see?
Then, try this... when you see a Harley, note where it is, and note how well you can or can't hear it.
What might surprise you even more, the next time you're on your bike, note how well you hear or don't hear other bikes around you.
In the end, you'll notice that unless the bike is accelerating and just making a huge ton of noise, loud pipes aren't noticeable enough to play any role in attracting attention.
Most assuredly, they won't help prevent a cager from turning left in front of you, and they won't help prevent a drunk driver from crossing into your lane and hitting you head on.
At best, if you are beside a car on a multi lane road, and they start to drift your way, revving the engine might get their attention. Then again, you have a horn too.
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From: Joliet, Illinois
You'd be funny if you weren't so pathetic.
Banned
Joined: Nov 2006
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From: Northern California
Hey, midnit evil, I've tried experimenting. People DO notice when they suddenly hear a bike, judging from the way they started looking around.
And like I said, over and over, I was talking about being alongside cars in traffic. Something I do on a multi-lane freeway to work for about a hundred miles a day. If I crack the throttle, just for a half-a-second ( well, I guess I could just honk my horn a few hundred times a day, but my airhorn probably is overkill ), I'm confident that there's a BETTER chance the cars I'm between may be aware that I'm around. I wasn't talking about cross-traffic pulling out in front of me. See, there shouldn't be much cross traffic on freeways. There are other things I do to deal with cross traffic to make myself more visible, like wear bright clothing, weave from side-to-side to make myself more visible, etc. But this thread isn't about that.
I'm sorry you have a problem with me trying to make my commute safer and increase my chances of survival. I'll try to conform to your wishes, even if it makes things more dangerous for me. Obviously, you would prefer I take more chances of getting in an accident. If you can tell me how to disconnect my headlight before I ride in the dark, I will do that so that my headlights don't disturb your vision.
And like I said, over and over, I was talking about being alongside cars in traffic. Something I do on a multi-lane freeway to work for about a hundred miles a day. If I crack the throttle, just for a half-a-second ( well, I guess I could just honk my horn a few hundred times a day, but my airhorn probably is overkill ), I'm confident that there's a BETTER chance the cars I'm between may be aware that I'm around. I wasn't talking about cross-traffic pulling out in front of me. See, there shouldn't be much cross traffic on freeways. There are other things I do to deal with cross traffic to make myself more visible, like wear bright clothing, weave from side-to-side to make myself more visible, etc. But this thread isn't about that.
I'm sorry you have a problem with me trying to make my commute safer and increase my chances of survival. I'll try to conform to your wishes, even if it makes things more dangerous for me. Obviously, you would prefer I take more chances of getting in an accident. If you can tell me how to disconnect my headlight before I ride in the dark, I will do that so that my headlights don't disturb your vision.
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2008
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From: Joliet, Illinois
If not... you really don't take any help you can get, you just take any excuse you can get to try to justify what you like & what you do.
Maybe when you hit your 20's or 30's and become a "granny", you'll be able to simply say "I like the way it sounds."
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Joined: Nov 2006
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From: Northern California
There's no "we", it's just you who is trying to tell us your young age, inexperience and desire to make loud vroom vroom's on your bike are, in your simple mind, sufficient for you to discount the knowledge of far more experienced riders and those of us who are educated enough to grasp basic realities.
You'd be funny if you weren't so pathetic.
You'd be funny if you weren't so pathetic.
I won't bother paying attention to you now. But thanks. Chances are I've been riding longer than you've been alive.
I bow to your infinite wisdom.
How DID I stay alive all this time without your condescending lectures, young man ?
ES,FOAD
edit: Oh, look, I was wrong. I've only been riding since you were six-years-old. I was wrong AGAIN !
Again, I bow to your infinite wisdom. I wish I could be as young as you, so once again I'd know-it-all.
ESFOAD. Now where's that 'IGNORE' list ?
Last edited by edilgdaor; Sep 22, 2008 at 12:51 AM.
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 6,235
Likes: 65
From: Joliet, Illinois
It's called the law of psychological reciprocity.
It's not uncommon that young people have not yet developed the ability to engage in an adult discussion and present an opposing view in a reasoned manner. Your name calling and inability to separate fact from fiction are clear indications you are either very young, or someone older who never managed to grow up.
Chances are you either never grew up, or have become so senile in your old age, reason completely escapes you.
As well you should.
Just bad luck on my part?
Old and senile seems to work well for you.
Damn old man, do I have to teach you everything? Why don't you ask your teenage great grandkids for help when these newfangled computers overload your old, withered mind?
Through your User Control Panel: User CP, Settings & Options, Edit Ignore List. Then, click on their name and choose: User List, Add to Ignore List
It's MidnitEvil ... make sure you pick the right one.
It's not uncommon that young people have not yet developed the ability to engage in an adult discussion and present an opposing view in a reasoned manner. Your name calling and inability to separate fact from fiction are clear indications you are either very young, or someone older who never managed to grow up.
Chances are you either never grew up, or have become so senile in your old age, reason completely escapes you.
As well you should.
Damn old man, do I have to teach you everything? Why don't you ask your teenage great grandkids for help when these newfangled computers overload your old, withered mind?
Through your User Control Panel: User CP, Settings & Options, Edit Ignore List. Then, click on their name and choose: User List, Add to Ignore List
It's MidnitEvil ... make sure you pick the right one.
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I think that loud pipes are like guys who like to "lift" their trucks to lool like mini Bigfoot.
Its all about showing off and acting cool. All it does is **** of the neighbors and disturb others.
I live a couple hundred feet from a highway here in Los Angeles that literally thousands of Rice Rockets ride on.
All I hear (and feel) are loud pipes from these damn rice burners. Its not one or two a day, its like 300+ a day and sometimes groups of thirty. Imagine thirty sport bikes all loud as hell driving down a road near your home day after day, year after year.
The Harleys aren't that big of a deal, but I have a vendetta against those rice racers. I laugh when they ride into the mountainside at Warp-3 cause they think they own the highway and that its is their own personal race track.
I guess their loud pipes didn't make the mountainside "scoot over" and give them a little extra room.
Its all about showing off and acting cool. All it does is **** of the neighbors and disturb others.
I live a couple hundred feet from a highway here in Los Angeles that literally thousands of Rice Rockets ride on.
All I hear (and feel) are loud pipes from these damn rice burners. Its not one or two a day, its like 300+ a day and sometimes groups of thirty. Imagine thirty sport bikes all loud as hell driving down a road near your home day after day, year after year.
The Harleys aren't that big of a deal, but I have a vendetta against those rice racers. I laugh when they ride into the mountainside at Warp-3 cause they think they own the highway and that its is their own personal race track.
I guess their loud pipes didn't make the mountainside "scoot over" and give them a little extra room.
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I don't care what the reason is. Wifey had to follow me the other day - me on my bike, her in her cage. When we got to our destination she said, "I think you should get louder exhaust. I could hardly hear you with the stock pipes. And with that dark leather and dark paint, I can barely see you. I'd feel better knowing folks could at least hear you." Yup. That's all the reasoning I need.