Posted by Timberwoof on July 23, 2007, 3:48 pm
> I've owned two bikes in the last fifteen years. Before I changed to
> louder pipes on the first bike, EVERY TIME I went for a ride, someone
> tried to take my lane. When I switched to louder pipes, there was an
> immediate, dramatic reduction in the number of cars trying to take my
> lane. It was exactly the same story on the second bike; before I put
> on louder pipes, I was constantly having to swerve and honk when
> someone decided to change lanes without looking, but with the louder
> pipes, that problem has once again been greatly reduced to the point I
> can't remember the last time it happened. Granted, that's a limited,
> anecdotal sampling, but until someone presents me convincing
> information to the contrary, especially in light of the fact that, as
> mentioned above, emergency vehicles also seem to think noise is a
> reasonable way to get the attention of oblivious cagers, I'll go with
> the loud pipes.
I've owned two motorcycles, a little Honda CB-1 and a BMW R1100GS. It
seems to me that I get more respect while on the R1100GS, and that was
confirmed when I rode a friend's EX500 from San Francisco to San Jose.
Cars seem to crowd me less on the big bike. The bikes all have stock
mufflers.
I ride with my high beam on during the day; it's got a headlight
modulator. I also keep a pair of auxiliary lights on. I know that people
can see me with those, for cars often get out of my way on the freeway
much like they don't when I'm driving my Civic.
The most common times when cagers change lanes into me are when I've
stayed too long in their blind spot or when lanes shift strangely across
an intersection. Usually a toot of the horn (and, of course, me being
more careful about cagers' blind spots) is enough to correct that.
One time, a cager looked at me and changed lanes into me anyway. I had
no place to go, so I beeped at him. He looked at me and continued his
lane change. Traffic stopped, and as he was halfway in my lane and too
damn close to me, his door suddenly developed a mysterious dent. Loud
pipes would not have changed that interaction.
I also look at it from other points of view. First, I got over how my
mommy didn't pay enough attention to me when i was a puppy, so I don't
need the ego-gratification of loud pipes, and I don't need to pretend
that it's about safety. I don't generally like loud noise, and loud
vehicles ‹ no matter the type ‹ annoy me. It does me no good to ride
with straight pipes, and it annoys people all around. If it's a safety
issue, then the only ones who really need to know about you are the ones
the next lane over and ahead or behind about a second or two. Loud pipes
tend to alert (and annoy) far, far more people than that.
And what if you're out in the country, on a road with little other
traffic? If it was about safety, you'd put on the stock pipes for such
rides. But no ... it's not actually about safety, it's about hearing
your exhaust echo off the canyon walls, scaring the bejeezus out of the
animals and annoying the snot out of campers and hikers and day-trippers
who want to a nice quiet day in the country.
I find it ironic that most of the riders I see on bikes with straight
pipes are also wearing those stupid DOT-rated yarmulkes. I do not know
of any motorcycle riding instructors who advocate loud pipes as a safety
measure. If safety was really the motivation for loud pipes, then why
don't the loud-pipes crowd wear full-face helmets and race leathers?
Because it's not really about safety, but about acting like a
six-year-old and making a lot of noise.
My safety is important, but loud pipes are not the solution for that
problem.
--
Timberwoof <me at timberwoof dot com>
faq: http://www.timberwoof.com/motorcycle/faq.shtml
It's easy to say a war is so important your neighbor should go fight it for you.
Posted by ¥ UltraMan ¥ on July 24, 2007, 5:58 pm
Timberwoof wrote:
>> I've owned two bikes in the last fifteen years. Before I changed to
>> louder pipes on the first bike, EVERY TIME I went for a ride, someone
>> tried to take my lane. When I switched to louder pipes, there was an
>> immediate, dramatic reduction in the number of cars trying to take my
>> lane. It was exactly the same story on the second bike; before I put
>> on louder pipes, I was constantly having to swerve and honk when
>> someone decided to change lanes without looking, but with the louder
>> pipes, that problem has once again been greatly reduced to the point
>> I can't remember the last time it happened. Granted, that's a
>> limited, anecdotal sampling, but until someone presents me convincing
>> information to the contrary, especially in light of the fact that, as
>> mentioned above, emergency vehicles also seem to think noise is a
>> reasonable way to get the attention of oblivious cagers, I'll go with
>> the loud pipes.
> I've owned two motorcycles, a little Honda CB-1 and a BMW R1100GS. It
> seems to me that I get more respect while on the R1100GS, and that was
> confirmed when I rode a friend's EX500 from San Francisco to San Jose.
> Cars seem to crowd me less on the big bike. The bikes all have stock
> mufflers.
> I ride with my high beam on during the day; it's got a headlight
> modulator. I also keep a pair of auxiliary lights on. I know that
> people can see me with those, for cars often get out of my way on the
> freeway much like they don't when I'm driving my Civic.
> The most common times when cagers change lanes into me are when I've
> stayed too long in their blind spot or when lanes shift strangely
> across an intersection. Usually a toot of the horn (and, of course,
> me being more careful about cagers' blind spots) is enough to correct
> that.
> One time, a cager looked at me and changed lanes into me anyway. I had
> no place to go, so I beeped at him. He looked at me and continued his
> lane change. Traffic stopped, and as he was halfway in my lane and too
> damn close to me, his door suddenly developed a mysterious dent. Loud
> pipes would not have changed that interaction.
> I also look at it from other points of view. First, I got over how my
> mommy didn't pay enough attention to me when i was a puppy, so I don't
> need the ego-gratification of loud pipes, and I don't need to pretend
> that it's about safety. I don't generally like loud noise, and loud
> vehicles < no matter the type < annoy me. It does me no good to ride
> with straight pipes, and it annoys people all around. If it's a safety
> issue, then the only ones who really need to know about you are the
> ones the next lane over and ahead or behind about a second or two.
> Loud pipes tend to alert (and annoy) far, far more people than that.
> And what if you're out in the country, on a road with little other
> traffic? If it was about safety, you'd put on the stock pipes for such
> rides. But no ... it's not actually about safety, it's about hearing
> your exhaust echo off the canyon walls, scaring the bejeezus out of
> the animals and annoying the snot out of campers and hikers and
> day-trippers who want to a nice quiet day in the country.
> I find it ironic that most of the riders I see on bikes with straight
> pipes are also wearing those stupid DOT-rated yarmulkes. I do not know
> of any motorcycle riding instructors who advocate loud pipes as a
> safety measure. If safety was really the motivation for loud pipes,
> then why don't the loud-pipes crowd wear full-face helmets and race
> leathers? Because it's not really about safety, but about acting like
> a six-year-old and making a lot of noise.
> My safety is important, but loud pipes are not the solution for that
> problem.
So don't buy any Loud Pipes.
Posted by Seth Hammond on July 24, 2007, 7:04 pm
> Timberwoof wrote:
>>
>>> I've owned two bikes in the last fifteen years. Before I changed to
>>> louder pipes on the first bike, EVERY TIME I went for a ride, someone
>>> tried to take my lane. When I switched to louder pipes, there was an
>>> immediate, dramatic reduction in the number of cars trying to take my
>>> lane. It was exactly the same story on the second bike; before I put
>>> on louder pipes, I was constantly having to swerve and honk when
>>> someone decided to change lanes without looking, but with the louder
>>> pipes, that problem has once again been greatly reduced to the point
>>> I can't remember the last time it happened. Granted, that's a
>>> limited, anecdotal sampling, but until someone presents me convincing
>>> information to the contrary, especially in light of the fact that, as
>>> mentioned above, emergency vehicles also seem to think noise is a
>>> reasonable way to get the attention of oblivious cagers, I'll go with
>>> the loud pipes.
>>
>> I've owned two motorcycles, a little Honda CB-1 and a BMW R1100GS. It
>> seems to me that I get more respect while on the R1100GS, and that was
>> confirmed when I rode a friend's EX500 from San Francisco to San Jose.
>> Cars seem to crowd me less on the big bike. The bikes all have stock
>> mufflers.
>>
>> I ride with my high beam on during the day; it's got a headlight
>> modulator. I also keep a pair of auxiliary lights on. I know that
>> people can see me with those, for cars often get out of my way on the
>> freeway much like they don't when I'm driving my Civic.
>>
>> The most common times when cagers change lanes into me are when I've
>> stayed too long in their blind spot or when lanes shift strangely
>> across an intersection. Usually a toot of the horn (and, of course,
>> me being more careful about cagers' blind spots) is enough to correct
>> that.
>>
>> One time, a cager looked at me and changed lanes into me anyway. I had
>> no place to go, so I beeped at him. He looked at me and continued his
>> lane change. Traffic stopped, and as he was halfway in my lane and too
>> damn close to me, his door suddenly developed a mysterious dent. Loud
>> pipes would not have changed that interaction.
>>
>>
>> I also look at it from other points of view. First, I got over how my
>> mommy didn't pay enough attention to me when i was a puppy, so I don't
>> need the ego-gratification of loud pipes, and I don't need to pretend
>> that it's about safety. I don't generally like loud noise, and loud
>> vehicles < no matter the type < annoy me. It does me no good to ride
>> with straight pipes, and it annoys people all around. If it's a safety
>> issue, then the only ones who really need to know about you are the
>> ones the next lane over and ahead or behind about a second or two.
>> Loud pipes tend to alert (and annoy) far, far more people than that.
>>
>> And what if you're out in the country, on a road with little other
>> traffic? If it was about safety, you'd put on the stock pipes for such
>> rides. But no ... it's not actually about safety, it's about hearing
>> your exhaust echo off the canyon walls, scaring the bejeezus out of
>> the animals and annoying the snot out of campers and hikers and
>> day-trippers who want to a nice quiet day in the country.
>>
>>
>> I find it ironic that most of the riders I see on bikes with straight
>> pipes are also wearing those stupid DOT-rated yarmulkes. I do not know
>> of any motorcycle riding instructors who advocate loud pipes as a
>> safety measure. If safety was really the motivation for loud pipes,
>> then why don't the loud-pipes crowd wear full-face helmets and race
>> leathers? Because it's not really about safety, but about acting like
>> a six-year-old and making a lot of noise.
>>
>>
>> My safety is important, but loud pipes are not the solution for that
>> problem.
> So don't buy any Loud Pipes.
I don't even buy the concept. I'm not an inconsiderate asshole.
HTH....
Posted by rbrtm01 on July 25, 2007, 6:49 pm
>> Timberwoof wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've owned two bikes in the last fifteen years. Before I changed to
>>>> louder pipes on the first bike, EVERY TIME I went for a ride, someone
>>>> tried to take my lane. When I switched to louder pipes, there was an
>>>>
SNIP!
>>>
>>>
>>> My safety is important, but loud pipes are not the solution for that
>>> problem.
>>
>> So don't buy any Loud Pipes.
>>
>>
> I don't even buy the concept. I'm not an inconsiderate asshole.
> HTH....
Who told you that lie?
Posted by ¥ UltraMan ¥ on July 26, 2007, 3:11 am
rbrtm01 wrote:
>>> Timberwoof wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I've owned two bikes in the last fifteen years. Before I changed
>>>>> to louder pipes on the first bike, EVERY TIME I went for a ride,
>>>>> someone tried to take my lane. When I switched to louder pipes,
>>>>> there was an
> SNIP!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My safety is important, but loud pipes are not the solution for
>>>> that problem.
>>>
>>> So don't buy any Loud Pipes.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I don't even buy the concept. I'm not an inconsiderate asshole.
>>
>> HTH....
>>
> Who told you that lie?
One of the FOUR (4) car drivers that crashed into him!
LOL!
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> louder pipes on the first bike, EVERY TIME I went for a ride, someone
> tried to take my lane. When I switched to louder pipes, there was an
> immediate, dramatic reduction in the number of cars trying to take my
> lane. It was exactly the same story on the second bike; before I put
> on louder pipes, I was constantly having to swerve and honk when
> someone decided to change lanes without looking, but with the louder
> pipes, that problem has once again been greatly reduced to the point I
> can't remember the last time it happened. Granted, that's a limited,
> anecdotal sampling, but until someone presents me convincing
> information to the contrary, especially in light of the fact that, as
> mentioned above, emergency vehicles also seem to think noise is a
> reasonable way to get the attention of oblivious cagers, I'll go with
> the loud pipes.