Jim McCaslin, President and COO of Harley Davidson, has an article up on the HD website addressing the loud pipes issue. It’s obvious there are quite a few HD riders swapping out their mufflers for straight pipes, lower power and less torque be damned, it’s noise they want! Seeing all of the custom choppers with sweeping non muffled pipes must mean mufflers are just superfluous weight, right? Well, a lot of non-bikers are not quite so happy with the loud pipes, the endless throttle blipping at stoplights, the loud blasts down the street late at night and sooner or later it leads to laws and regulations that affect everyone and very often those laws are overkill.
Harley riders are not the only ones, however, sportbikes with aftermarket exhausts can be pretty loud, too. Any inline four can generate an enormous decibel level if you don’t have the proper cans on those pipes. It’s not a sweet sound for most of the population and if you keep tweaking somebody’s nose, sooner or later they react, with laws and restrictions.
Before you add that superlight racing exhaust system on your GSX-R or those booming straight pipes on your big V Twin, think about what you’re doing. Even bikers like to sleep at night and may not want to hear you blasting by. If you already have a set of loud pipes on your bike, look at some options for lowering the decibels a notch or two. In the long run we all benefit by aggravating fewer non riders who tolerate your passion at best and actively oppose it at worst.
Just think of the kind of music you can’t listen to for even a minute, then imagine someone cranking up the volume and having to hear it all of the time. Loud pipes to many people are like that. Nuff, said.
Prester John says
On the next visit to a motorcycle museum, take a look at the exhaust on the pre-WWI bikes. Many of them have a flap on the pipe just in front of the muffler, controlled by a rider-operated lever. Some are labeled “City” (closed) and “Country” (open). You have to wonder just how much noise these low compression, low rpm engines could have made, but still, it was a quieter time. Many state laws still contain the provision they added back then, “A person may not use a muffler cutout, bypass, or similar device on a motor vehicle”!
Tom
todd says
I always comment on how the loup pipes guys are giving motorcycles a bad name but I’m guilty of it myself. One of my bikes, my 1970 yamaha 90cc twin, has blown its packing out of the pipes years ago. Of course I only ride the thing around town once a week or so but it is pretty loud and I never thought I could be part of the problem. Somehow your article just made me realize that I am. Thanks. Now where can I find fiberglass muffler packing?
-todd
coho says
I was riding in Oregon last year and pulled into a gas station behind three guys on Harleys (on my ten year old BMW- not nearly as quiet as it was 80K miles ago) one of the Harley guys looked surprised to see me there when he turned around, and actually asked if I had pushed my bike up behind them. One of them asked me if I was aware that “…a bike that quiet is really dangerous…” and made some suggestions. I managed not to laugh out loud until they had started up their bikes and could no longer hear me.
ERIC HARTEM says
IVE BEEN RIDING SINCE 1969,SEEN ALL FORMS OF MOTORCYCLING,RACED OFF ROAD EVENTS SINCE 1972.IM NOT AN EXPERT,BUT THE MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION DONT WANT TO HEAR “LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES” THEORY,I DONT LIKE THE LOUD STRAIGHT PIPES EITHER.I FEEL THAT IT ACTUALLY MAKES THE GENERAL PUBLIC HAVE LESS CONCERN FOR A RIDERS WELL BEING,MAYBE PULLING OUT IN FRONT OF US,OR TURNING LEFT IN FRONT OF US,BECAUSE THEY`RE IN A SOMEWHAT PROTECTED ENVIRONMENT(THEIR CAGE).NOW OFF ROAD,WE HAVE THE GREAT 4 STROKE,EPA SAYS LESS POLUTION,THEN A COUPLE YRS. DOWN THE ROAD,TOO LOUD!LETS BAN THEM ALL!WHERES IT GOING TO END?REPACK YOUR SILENCERS,LETS KEEP THE 2 STROKES ALIVE.
keith says
I’m in my late 20’s now, and have had my motorcycle endoresment even before I had my cage license. Before I moved, there was a motorcycle that would go by every night at 10:45 pm. you could set your clock, it was always on time. I consider the noise excessive for residential and actually thought about following him (or her?) and having a little conversation. I moved before it came to that. I love your opinion, and the stance that HD has taken that there is such thing as too much noise. Noise won’t save you on a bike. I think a strong argument can be made that riding smart, common sense, and actually paying attention to the road will do more to protect you than the db level of your bike. I have always thought that the excessive noise crowd were trying to be annoying and now that they have proved their point, please tone it down.
hoyt says
not sure what will get through to the open pipe crowd….
the music analogy might help. Good volume level, but not distorted. Open pipes are the equivalent of a has-been stereo with the speakers turned up beyond quality sound. You would think these guys would realize their bike sounds off, mechanically as compared to a proper tuned pipe. I don’t get it.
Interesting timing for this as Daytona Bike Week is starting this weekend. H-Ds used to sound much better than they do now. (not because of HD, but the ‘louder-is-better’ adoloscent mentality)
Eric says
I don’t expect the “Loud-Pipes” Crowd will read this but I say to them. “Tell your insurance man that you removed your silencers for safety reasons and want a discount” I also comment that police cars, fire trucks and ambulances make lots of noise and still have crashes.
aaron says
playing the devil’s advocate…
loud pipes are cool! for confirmation of this undeniable fact, gather 6 people of this opinion but with differing tastes. find out what the midpoint of their sleeping period is. run an open piped 2006 r6 at redline past the harley guys house. a tz750 with minimal muffling past the r6 guys home, and the harley past tz guys place. repeat several times that night. check opinions next morning.
my point…loud pipes on a beautiful sounding engine rock. when surrounded by appreciative people in an appropriate setting. 3am in the city and I’d probably feel bad about driving a 50’s ferrari, no matter how beautiful the noise is.
the upside is, some race tracks now have decibel limits, so performance pipes are coming out that are lighter and breathe better that only gain 2-3 dB over stock. some are even quieter!
Diego says
Good post. Glad you had the courage to bring this up.
I’m the first one to say that I love the sound of a Ducati Desmo or a Ferrari V-12 or a small block Chevy, but I don’t like them blowing by my house, no matter the time of day.
Bora says
I used to have stage II screaming eagle pipes on my HD FI softail. After a few trips I got tired with the noise. Listening for a few hundred miles to those loud pipes does not increase you pleasure (maybe a trip to the local pud does). I then put on stage I pipes which are considerably less loud. Of course the sound was better, but the biggest improvement was that the engine actually ran a lot smoother and faster.
aaron says
2 more things…
1) ever see an open piped pig (sorry, hog) being ridden by a filthy, smelly “bro” (sorry, lawyer accesorizing with “dirt” make up for men and “stench” by gucci…) deafening everyone while wearing earplugs? die!
2) I must admit, i do need some noise (and vibration). just took a new bmw boxer ST out for a 1.5 hour backroad burn and I did not enjoy the glimpses at the speedo indicating I was doing 40kph more (in the twisties, no less) than I thought. No thrills because I had to really push the bike (or my limits, which are likely lower) to get a sensation of speed. In this case loud pipes would save my life, giving me sensory inputs not consisting of
whirr……..scrape, whirr…. squirm – what’s going on? I’m taking it easy, how fast am I going? 140? this road scared me at 120 on the gixxersaurus….
c owens says
Those who ride bikes do so for a visceral rush, not practicality. What’s more visceral than loud pipes? NOTHING feels better than riding a Harley with pipes bumping underneath you. I’ve been riding for 36 years and have had all types of bikes- German, Asian, American- and I always loved the sound of my HD’s best; although years ago I ran straight pipes on my Harley, now, as a senior, I have a tuned baffle set of pipes on my HD tourer- not outrageous, but not stock….