From http://www.noisefree.org/motorcycles/loudpipes.html
Loud Pipes Risk Rights
By Ed Youngblood
1999
American Motorcyclist
Looking for proof that America’s love/hate relationship with the
motorcycle is as strong as ever? Here’s the latest example:
Within days of the opening of "The Art of the Motorcycle" exhibit at
the Field Museum in Chicago, several of the Windy City’s aldermen
vowed to pass legislation to prohibit the use of motorcycles on Lake
Shore Drive-the very road that leads to the museum-between 11 p.m. and
6 a.m.
Why? Listen up: excessive motorcycle noise.
Over the past 20 years, the AMA’s Government Relations Department has
been forced to spend a share of your membership dollars each year
fighting highway closures, curfews and bike bans resulting from
citizens’ complaints about noisy motorcycles. Those pro-posing such
restrictions focus on the noise and nuisance issues, while we have
countered by defending your rights, as taxed and licensed operators,
to lawfully use the nation’s streets and highways.
Of course, some motorcyclists maintain that, by calling attention to
their vehicles within the traffic mix, "Loud pipes save lives." But
when these bans come up, those who don’t make too much noise feel they
are being victimized by those who do.
Typical of these disparate views are the quotes in an article from the
Chicago Sun-Times about the proposed ban. Jon Szostak, who lives along
Lake Shore Drive, told the paper: "It’s the most heinous racket you
can imagine when a band of these goofs goes flying by. It sounds like
a small battlefield in motion. It wakes up the entire neighborhood."
Meanwhile, Joe Collins, who rides his motorcycle on the road most
weekends, believes the city has no right to punish him for the actions
of others. "Not all people who drive down Lake Shore Drive are
criminals and thugs," he said. "I’m a professional."
The excessive noise issue has been with us from the get-go.
Newsletters published by the Federation of American Motorcyclists, the
earliest predecessor of the AMA, admonished riders not to incur
society’s wrath by using "cut-outs," a popular device of the era that
bypassed the muffler.
The AMA’s Muffler Mike campaign, launched in the 1940s, urged riders
to take a pledge for quiet riding, and even encouraged vigilante
action to curb excessive motorcycle noise.
In the 1960s, the AMA and the Motorcycle Industry Council teamed up to
promote the message, "Less Sound Equals More Ground" among off-highway
riders. Earlier this decade, Dirt Rider magazine renewed the call for
responsible off-highway riding by creating Team Stealth.
Two years ago, the AMA reasserted its position against excessive
motorcycle noise, encouraging everyone with a stake in the
motorcycling community - from riders to dealers to aftermarket
companies to manufacturers-to adopt a responsible approach to this
divisive issue.
Coincidentally, just two weeks before the Lake Shore Drive controversy
made headlines, the AMA Board of Trustees expanded the Association’s
current campaign against excessive motorcycle noise by adopting the
slogan, "Loud Pipes Risk Rights."
That message will be distributed in public-service advertisements
throughout the American motorcycling media. And it could hardly be
more timely, with one of our nation’s largest cities considering a
motorcycle ban on a major thoroughfare.
Unfortunately, slogans can only go so far, and the fact that we’ve
been at this since the 1920s without solving the problem is
proof-positive of that. In my mind, excessive motorcycle noise will
end in one of two ways: Either the federal government will come down
on us with the kind of onerous anti-tampering laws that are currently
being proposed in Europe, or our industry will become more responsible
and take real steps to solve the problem through self-regulation.
I think the second approach is preferable for all of us, but we’ve got
a long way to go. When motorcycle manufacturers work hand-in-glove
with aftermarket companies to create illegally loud exhaust systems,
this is not responsible. When manufacturers sell illegal systems for
700-pound touring bikes and claim they are designed for "closed-course
competition" or "off-road" use only, they seriously endanger their own
credibility. When dealers sell and install exhaust systems that they
know are illegally loud, it affects everyone who rides.
Until these practices are stopped, voluntarily or forcefully, the
issue of excessive motorcycle noise will continue to unite officials
at every level of government against motorcycles. And the AMA will
keep spending buckets of our dues money to keep trails and highways
open for riders who may or may not have loud pipes, and who may or may
not be members of the AMA.
Ed Youngblood was president of the American Motorcycle Association
from 1981 to 1999. He may be reached at www.motohistory.net.
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