I say loud pipes now, loud pipes tomorrow, loud pipes forever.

 

If the pipes are too loud, you're too old.

 

gee what a nice thing to say... you just made my day i am not as old as i thought!!

 

First Harley, 19 years old, 1974. Straight pipes, had her for three or four years, never pulled over for anything, noise or otherwise. Location was Torrance/Redondo Beach/Long Beach, SoCal:


Six or seven bikes and 17 years later, most (not all) of them with straight pipes in various SoCal neighborhoods, my first Evo with un-baffled upsweeps. Only bike I've ever been pulled over on, about a block or three from home, sitting at a red light, saw the cop in the mini-mall parking lot, tried to take off as quietly as possible but it did no good, got a noise tix, put a set of shorty baffles in, went to the CHP sub-station and got it signed off, took the baffles back out and never got pulled over again before moving to Alabama about a year later.


I'm on my sixth bike in Alabama now, and the current one is the only one that doesn't have straight pipes, which is fine because it's no kind of hot-rod anyway. She's a Road King with some kind of Screamin' Eagle slip-ons (don't know what they are exactly - she came that way). This is my first bagger, first FL of any year/description, and the SEs give enough rumble to satisfy me, so I don't anticipate ever changin' them out.

With all those bikes and in all that time, I've only ever had one non-cop person say a word to me about the noise, and that was a guy whose sound shop was located at the end of my street when we first moved to Bama. He just mentioned it in passing while we happened to be sitting in the booth behind him at Shoney's one morning. He asked if I liked 'em that loud, I replied that I didn't think they were any louder than some of the kids' music coming out of the cars he installed stereo systems in, he said yeah, you got a point there, we laughed and went on talking about other mundane things while we ate our breakfast.

It's kinda funny to see people buy into the meme that people who (_______________ fill in the blank) "...screw it up for the rest of us" when it comes to government intrusion into our personal lives. Government's prime directive is to intrude in our lives. Nothing we could ever do or refrain from doing will ever change that. If you don't like riding near or next to my loud pipes, fortunately, there's no legislation (yet) intruding into your ability to make the decision for yourself not to ride near or next to me. Exercise your own decision-making powers, and I will do the same. Otherwise, quit your bellyaching about free men and women exercising their own free will to equip their rides as they see fit. It's called "freedom." Live it, love it, embrace it.

Blues

 

3 tools in my neighborhood decided to drag race on a 2 lane residential 25mph road, with a soundwall on one side, houses on the other. Hit 70mph plus, one in the opposite lane at night. All on Harleys. Yeah, those ******** are great for our cause.

I HAVE LOUD PIPES. And before the mandated EPA stamp....

Nope, its your violation.

FALSE. Moss-Magnuson act allows aftermarket replacements and your reference is to the emissions/catalytic converter operation.

Don't need statistics. How do count an accident that never happened? I wouldn't ride a quiet bike unless cars were autonomous.

 

Admittedly I'm new here, and could probably find at least one version of an answer to this question if I tried, but I keep seeing references to "our cause" (or something similar), and I'm not intentionally being a smart *** when I say I have no idea what "cause" it is that I've apparently been drafted into believing in. If "our" cause is the same that I advocate for on other sites devoted to general or specific political issues, that being the cause of demanding that government leave us the heck alone, then no problem, I'll volunteer with wild abandon for that cause. With the widely-varying opinions of something so simple as making your Harley sound like a Harley being promulgated in this thread though, I seriously doubt there's any consensus on what "our" collective cause might be.

I guess I kind of fancy myself as being of Groucho Marx's ilk in that I'm hesitant to join any club that would have me as a member. "Our" cause sounds so confining to me. I just want to be free to live and ride how, when, where I want, certainly within traffic laws etc., but I really don't want or need anyone, government especially, telling me I have to wear a helmet, or have to limit my decibels so that nobody anywhere at any time of day or night will be bugged, which is literally an impossible standard anyway, so why not just grin and bear it when you see or hear someone getting their knees in the breeze their way, and not try to limit their options literally with the threat of government violence against them if they don't comply? I'll join the "our cause" crowd if that's what's being touted. Otherwise, leave me out of the mess that always ensues when others expect people to adopt and adapt to their causes. Thanks in advance.

Blues

 

So which Federal agents should we look out for? They just might very well have "bigger fish to fry" also, but who knows?

The big problem I can see with this is that things like the legalization of marijuana is a violation of federal regulations but it has been okayed by some states now. Shouldn't they be arresting the people who "made it legal" and imposing fines on them?
Also, what about the cars that have fart can mufflers on them? Muscle cars and trucks?

Cool....one more reason to NOT live in Kalifornia!! A particular states rules don't hold much water out of that state anyway. So trying to scare people into changing their pipes who don't live in that state is futile.

I guess there is no such things as loud pipes since it was passed in 1978. They nipped that in the bud real quick!!

 

So I just looked up your noise control act of 1978. Seems it started in 1972, and went essentially out of effect in 1982. It is still "on the books" but has zero funding so as to put everything on the state and local government.
So basically there is no one to inforce this regulation.....

 

Fine, MY CAUSE.

There is noticeable, and there is being an ******* in a neighborhood. If you're the later, I hope you pay the price.

A helmet is common sense. Ask Gary Busey.

 

As a general reply to the title of this thread...

Gosh, it seems to me...

Ride what you like. Use common sense. Don't be a dick.