Loud pipes alienate people and give motorcycling a bad rap, you can't hear the siren of an emergency vehicle, you will soon have hearing aids the size of alarm clocks hanging out of your ears, they attract cops....need I go on?

I DISAGREE.

I run an open exhaust w/ a fat, empty muffler at the end;
the sound is deep and rich and my GF can hear me coming
2 blocks away and my dog about 4 blocks away it seems
(about 1/2 mile), I really try not to rev at all in my block.

My point is that this kind of sound travels in all directions and
at low speeds ANYONE can hear you (or something) coming
so they instinctively use their mirrors and look around and
most accident statistically happen at low speeds close to home/work/etc.

** I like this animal thing, never thought about it but it's SO true.

...(listen, ppl are stoopid enough as it is) Loud pipes save lives, no doubt about it!

alcoa wrote on 06/17/09 at 03:45:10:


That bike must not have been very loud or your definition of loud differs from mine.  Me, I only occasionally come across a bike that I think is loud.  Not too often, honestly.  But to the little old lady down the road just about every bike is probably loud to her.  Definitions  differ.  

The newly-introduced Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 deals with the issues of electric vehicles being too quiet.  
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/04/23/pedestrian-safety-enhancement-act-int...  Some companies are already one step ahead of this legislation with products intended to add some extra sound to silent vehicles.

"... Other people, including pedestrians who are not blind, bicyclists, runners, and small children, also benefit from hearing the sound of vehicle engines. New vehicles that employ hybrid or electric engine technology can be silent, rendering them extremely dangerous in situations where vehicles and pedestrians come into proximity with each other."

Apparently they believe a louder car reduces accidents as compared to quieter cars.  Now I'm no traffic safety engineer, but I think the same would apply to motorcycles.  I bet one day someone will do some research and find out that quiet scooters can be more dangerous in blind spots and blind intersections than a loud motorcycle.  I don't need the research to know this but some do.

Also: http://www.bikernewsonline.com/2008/04/pedestrian-safety-enhancement-act-of.htm

A few times in my life I;ve almost pulled out in front of a bike that I didn't see.  But I've never almost pulled out in front of a bike that I heard coming.

+1 Rogue.  

Look, there are some situations where even super loud pipes will make little difference- if the radio in the vehicle is blaring, riding in a truck with some serious off-road tires, an 18 wheeler cruising down the interstate and such.  But much more often than not louder pipes do improve recognition on some level.  Recognition improves safety and helps keep my body healthy just the way I like it.  If I ever get into a car vs. bike, I bet it will be a teenage boy driving a truck with some serious off-road tires (daddy pimped my ride!), with the subs pumpin' 50 Cent (daddy's money again) and he pulls out just after the 18 wheeler passes.  

abotech wrote on 06/17/09 at 20:49:20:

How do you train a cager to get his head out of his @$$?

I toodlelin down the freeway, rush hour traffic riding even with an illegal dark tinted drivers window cager.  When he decides to occupy my lane.  Needles to say I make a quick lane change.  A couple of months later I got a supertrapp and it hasn't happened since.

Now I'm not a proponet for wake the dead loud pipes, but you mouse fart stock pipe guys will soon be dead wrong.

I have to say, that on one occasion so far my louder pipes have kept a car from encroaching all the way into my lane.  Was making a left turn in the outer of 2 left turn lanes.  The car beside me starts to veer from the inner lane to the outter (mine!) lane.  I hit the throttle to get out of the way, and she heard me and got back in her lane.  I will say however, I don't care for the super loud pipes either.  And I don't think louder pipes (mine anyway) help near as much on the highway as they do on the surface streets where they are easier to hear in all directions from you, not just behind.

Do loud pipes increase the chances of being seen in all situations? I doubt it. One area I believe loud pipes increase safety is while in someones blind spot. (Yes I know better than riding in blind spots but anytime you pass a car you have to go through it.) Will it always save you from being run over by somebody? Probably not. But if it saves me once a year or even in a lifetime from an accident that would put me in the hospital then it is well worth it. It is one of the many things I do to make my rides safer and I will continue to do it until I am told I cannot. I pass patrol cars every day and have never been pulled over. People hate motorcycles for various reasons and I doubt very seriously if many of them would change their mind if we all put our stock exhausts back on today. If you ride your bike through residential areas wide open at 3 AM with a drag pipe and no baffle you are an idiot and you will probably get a ticket but there are idiots in all walks of life not just bikers. www.lubedealer.com/1lube  

Balderdash wrote on 06/18/09 at 09:10:04:

Man, get an extra-loud horn.  Not the Stebel 139db one, that one would probably startle the driver into a sudden swerve.  I just picked up a $20 132db horn and relay from Autozone.. may do a thread when I get around to installing it.

As for the loud pipes, IMO the stock HD dyna pipe is plenty loud for you to be noticed when you're on the gas, yet quiet enough to idle away from your neighbors in the morning. Perfect!