Edmonton's Motorcycle Noise Bylaw

 



I caught a bit of a radio talk show this morning and the host was
interviewing a representative from Edmonton, an Alderman I think. The
topic was a revision to one of their community standards bylaws.  A
revision targeting loud bikes and loud pipes. The report was presented
to SPC on June 3rd.  You can read the complete report here:
http://actualriders.ca/noisebylaw.htm

For those not wanting to download the file, here are the nuts and
bolts of the revision:
"The proposed amendment to the
Community Standards Bylaw
14600 is viewed as an effective
enforcement tool to deal with
excessively loud motorcycles.
The bylaw amendment broadens
the current measuring standards
for sound level meter testing and
establishes the offence that no
person shall operate a
motorcycle that is capable of
emitting sound exceeding 92
decibels while at idle, or 96
decibels while the engine speed
is greater than idle. The
proposed bylaw amendment
carries a fine of $250."

They identified the type of equipment to perform the testing and the
testing procedure.  To my mind it is a very onerous standard.

Some of you may know I have a friend who works for the Edmonton Police
and I emailed her asking WTF. Well she passed my inquiry on to one of
the traffic Sargents.  He sent me a very thorough and thoughtful
explanation about the justification for the revision and a bit about
the testing process.  

There was a report on the local TV news and they tested a bunch of
Harleys at a local hang out. They all failed.  They tested a City bus
which also failed. The Sargent saw the report and let me know they
screwed up the test. He also told me they tested the Edmonton cop
bikes and they rang the bell at 84db at idle.

Anyway, my guess is this bylaw will be approved by Council. After all
it is an election year and us bikers are a nasty lot.

My sense is the bylaw is discriminatory and overly onerous, but it is
a sign of things to come. Too bad.

 

don (Calgary) wrote:

The reading they will get depends greatly on the test setup.  The numbers
actually sound quite generous, compared with the noise levels the OEMs
have to meet, *assuming* they are on the same scale and are tested in the
same way, which is an assumption big enough to drive a (loud) truck through.

92 dB is 2.5x as much sound pressure level as the 84 dB cop bikes, so
the cops can make their bikes emit 2.5x as much sound pressure before they
break the law. That should also be plenty of margin for those "loud pipes
save lives" guys to stay alive, just barely.

I decided to click on your link and read a little of the proposed bylaw.
It references SAE standard J2825, & a little googling came up with this:

http://www.cyclepedia.com/sae-j2825-standard/

A couple of excerpts:

.........................................................................
"The J2825 “Measurement of Exhaust Sound Pressure Levels of Stationary
On-Highway Motorcycles,” issued by the SAE in May, establishes
instrumentation, test site, test conditions, procedures, measurements and
sound level limits. According to the SAE, the J2825 standard is based on
a comprehensive study of a wide variety of on-highway motorcycles.

...

The SAE J2825 on-highway motorcycle sound test procedure is similar to the
one used for the SAE J1287 off-highway motorcycle test. The streetbike
measurement requires holding a calibrated sound meter at a 45-degree angle
20 inches from the exhaust pipe of a running engine. The procedure spells
out how to do the test with the bike at idle, at a predetermined engine
speed (“Set RPM Test”), or by slowly increasing the engine speed of the
bike, known as the “Swept RPM Test.”

The SAE J2825 standard, prepared by the SAE Motorcycle Technical Steering
Committee, recommends a decibel limit of 92 dBA at idle for all machines
or — using the Set RPM or Swept RPM Test — 100 dBA for three- or four-cylinder
machines, and 96 dBA for bikes with fewer than three or more than four
cylinders.
.........................................................................

Apparently the Edmonton council think no loud pipe guys will be riding
four cylinder bikes, or if they are, they aren't willing to give them that
extra 4 dB.  Again, IF the test is done correctly, no one is going to
fail with a reasonable exhaust.  Straight pipes, yep, they will fail and
they should fail.

 

wrote:


Interesting that is precisely what the Edmonton Sargent told me.


I did the same thing and found the same link.

That is reassuring. My pipes aren't loud, but they do have a nice
rumble and I kinda like them that way. I'd hate to have to go back to
stock pipes. Calgary has yet to go as far as Edmonton, but who knows
what a Council might do in an  election year. We do have one rider on
our Council. I've never discussed loud pipes with him and I don't know
his thoughts on the topic.

I was told as they take the bylaw live in Edmonton, there will be an
education period.  The police will offer tests without penalty to
anyone who wants to have their bike checked. I just might take a ride
up there and have mine tested.

 


<snipped for brevity>

Yeah, the clowns in government here.  We'll see how this goes.

Myself, if I get pulled over on the Street Bob (the Road Glide would
probably pass the test), I wonder what would happen if the bike had a
sudden failure and was not be able to start, in order for them to
conduct their little test.

Not at all related to the above, anyone have ideas on simple, quick,
(and non-obvious) ways to temporarily disable a bike to make it appear
unable to start?  Maybe something like a little cord attached to the
master fuse that could be given a quick yank, pulling it out of its
slot...

I'm bettin' Vito has an answer to this one!

 

On Tue, 8 Jun 2010 22:13:02 -0700 (PDT), "Road Glidin' Don"


Just install a second kill switch in some obscure but easily
accessible location. That should work.

The cops might get suspicious if all the bikes at a single gathering
fail to start. <g>