Loud Pipes Save.......Nothing

car drivers can’t hear even loud motorcycles.
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I fondly remember sitting next to a 4x4 in traffic, his window was open and I was lane splitting but not in a hurry. He was on his mobile phone. I was on my SV650S with scorpion exhaust & baffle removed.

He didn't appreciate me bouncing off the rev limiter with the exhaust approx 1m away from his ear.

For all other cases, I agree with the article - and wouldn't ever want to trust my safety on someone else's ability to hear me.
 
Loud pipes are obnoxious, nothing more or less.
Those that think they help their safety are wrong but nothing I type will change their view.
I would appreciate it very much, if Northumbria Police are reading this (which I very much doubt), if you were to carry out weekend checks on the A697 and impound all offending vehicles regardless of the number of wheels they have. I'll even provide you all with socially distanced half time tea and biscuits.
Upt'North.
 
This is what me and my Idiot neighbor had a discussion about. He say's the almost open pipe that he has on his M109 saves lives because people can hear him coming. I say's no if that were the case then why are all the loud Harley Davidson rider with loud pipes are having crashes? I think this is more about just being a baffoon becuse he also has a loud Dodge ram with loud Magnaflow pipes and a Killer booming subwoofers installed in it. I have a theory and its only a theory but I wonder how many car people just get fed up with it and just aim their car at the Loud pipes saves lives people. Now don't get me wrong I do like that mellow tone coming from a nice properly tuned exhaust system. In fact I ride with a member on this forum that has two brothers installed on his ST1100. Real nice mellow tone I like it. But these almost open exhaust that people put on their cars and trucks and bikes....well less just say that it makes you look like an***.
 
Yeah macho indeed!! What can you say more about (sorry if this offends) compensating for diminished capacity with ones ego, id or anatomy - !!!
 
I agree that they don't save lives and are obnoxious but..... You can definitely hear them, that's why they are so obnoxious. If you couldn't hear them, no one would be complaining about them.
 
red one said:
I have a theory and its only a theory but I wonder how many car people just get fed up with it and just aim their car at the Loud pipes saves lives people.
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Agreed. Never appreciated how irritating and angering everyone around you, who are all in vehicles ten times bigger and heavier than yours, is a good idea that will enhance your safety.
st11ray said:
If you couldn't hear them, no one would be complaining about them.
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Of value only if they are heard by other road users when and where it is of benefit to increasing their safety. Not sure that that is the case most of the time. I suspect that they are heard by, and are more irritating to, pedestrians and people wanting to enjoy their own homes more than they are to other road users, which doesn't improve their safety.
 
One of the riders who got me back onto a bike was a Harley rider. He had a Springer Soft Tail with loud pipes. That wasn't what got me motivated to ride again though. It was simply that he always commuted to work on his bike when temps were warm enough for him. We rode together for a few rides and any time I was in front I kept having to look in my mirrors to make sure he was still following because I could NOT hear any loud pipes even at a lead of only 1 second while on a state highway. But once in a while we would trade lead and about the time he was even with my rear tire (I was riding a Gold Wing at the time) I finally could hear his pipes. While he was in front I could clearly hear loud pipes even from a half mile back.

Same result when traveling on the super slab with the family... no distinguishable sound from any bike with loud pipes until they were passing the rear tire of my SUV, and then it is just like the article stated just starting to be noticed. And that even when I knew they were there. The loudest was when they were passing my front tire and moving on ahead until they were more than a mile down the road ahead of me. Same result with some other bikes except the sound was much less and faded a lot sooner as they pulled ahead. But still nothing until they are just next to my vehicle regardless what vehicle I am in or on.

Saves lives??? Not if the rear of the exhaust is pointed away from you. BTDT.

Edit: sound from exhaust pipes as well as from horns is very directional. Others will hear it better when it matters if a horn is pointed forward. Exhaust is heard better from behind since that is pointed rearward.
 
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Hmm, one study doesn't make anything a fact. That said, I don't care for loud pipes either. A nice tuned exhaust, yes, I can appreciate that. But there's a fine line between good and bad. I've had plenty of vehicles with modded exhaust. Several have sounded great, but quickly became annoying. It's all how the mufflers work and tweaking it until you get what you want. None were particularly obnoxious.

All that said, the disturbing take away from this is how well do drivers hear a horn? I just put louder horns on my bike. Considering the results of this study, it may not have been worth it.

Just more reason to be even more conservative in riding style and assume they cannot see, not hear you, ever.

RT
 
rwthomas1 said:
All that said, the disturbing take away from this is how well do drivers hear a horn?
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Good point. I have noticed that whenever I am in a newer car the sound insulation is so good that I don't really hear police car sirens until they are very close. I have also noticed that all of the emergency vehicles, firetrucks in particular, seem to have ever increasingly loud sirens as well as sirens that keep changing the type and pattern of the sound that they emit. I assume that they have also discovered that it is increasingly more difficult to make themselves heard by other road users.
 
My wife & I were down in the Smokys , apparently during a Harley rally based in Maggie Valley but Harleys were rip-roaring & reverberating through the valleys & mountains . We were on the '91 GoldWing - we would pull into the scenic view parking lots and get compliments from families in cages on how nice & QUIET my GW was & they were pissed at all the Harley racket spoiling their vacations !
 
I'm site UJM's from 1970- present with headers - Yoshimura -Kerker etc.annoy lots,& got some ridiculous speed limits on roads like the forks of the Credit etc. At least the noise went away Quickly! Still way sweet compared to the V- twin.
 
My VFR has a carbon fibre slip on. No excuses or anything, no spin, no justification. It is loud, I just like it.
The V4 rocks!
 
Totally agree with the pointlessness for 'safety'. And I do like a nice sounding exhaust--but the straight pipes make ugly, needless, selfish, and rude noise.

As others pointed out, when leading and Harleys were behind me, I couldn't hear them. When they were in front, loud and stinky, and I'd back off following distance for my own comfort.

I thought I told a story about noisy pipes on this forum, but I can't find it. So restating it as I best recall:
I had just geared up after taking a break at some fuel/snack station, and was getting ready to fire up my bike (I think it was my ST1300A). Out of the store walks a mom and a several year old boy, hand in hand. Boy was happy smiling, and eyeing me then the bike, directly in front of him (5 feet maybe). No thought on my part, I reached up and turned the key on to start the bike, and the boy saw the light come on and assumed loud noise was a moment away. His face turned into a look of fear, he jerked his hand out of his mom's hand,, and covered both ears with his hands in anticipation of the loud noise my bike was about to make. I started the bike in that same moment, and his mom realized the fear, turned to him, pulled a hand away from his ear, and said something the the effect of "listen honey, that one isn't loud and painful." She smiled at me and the boy dropped his hands and stared with a startled look on his face--unsure why it wasn't painful. I smiled and waved. I'm sure that made a good impression on them both. (And solidified my venom of the noisy pipes save lives crowd.)
 
The crotch rocket crowd is just as guilty. Open header on a liter+ bike is easily as obnoxious. I ran an open Kerker exactly twice on my old GS. Absurdly loud.

RT
 
BakerBoy said:
Totally agree with the pointlessness for 'safety'. And I do like a nice sounding exhaust--but the straight pipes make ugly, needless, selfish, and rude noise.

As others pointed out, when leading and Harleys were behind me, I couldn't hear them. When they were in front, loud and stinky, and I'd back off following distance for my own comfort.

I thought I told a story about noisy pipes on this forum, but I can't find it. So restating it as I best recall:
I had just geared up after taking a break at some fuel/snack station, and was getting ready to fire up my bike (I think it was my ST1300A). Out of the store walks a mom and a several year old boy, hand in hand. Boy was happy smiling, and eyeing me then the bike, directly in front of him (5 feet maybe). No thought on my part, I reached up and turned the key on to start the bike, and the boy saw the light come on and assumed loud noise was a moment away. His face turned into a look of fear, he jerked his hand out of his mom's hand,, and covered both ears with his hands in anticipation of the loud noise my bike was about to make. I started the bike in that same moment, and his mom realized the fear, turned to him, pulled a hand away from his ear, and said something the the effect of "listen honey, that one isn't loud and painful." She smiled at me and the boy dropped his hands and stared with a startled look on his face--unsure why it wasn't painful. I smiled and waved. I'm sure that made a good impression on them both. (And solidified my venom of the noisy pipes save lives crowd.)
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Yeah. Its kinda sad that the EPA mandates the noise limit on all vehicles including motorcycles but does nothing to enforce it. Every motorcycle made since the earlier 80's have an EPA approval number to certifies it complies with the law. Just look on your pipes if its oem it'll be stamped on it. But almost all aftermarket performance loud maker pipes are ILLEGAL if they are not EPA certified. I get a kick out of my Local emission test station here. As long as it passes emission which means no check engine light is on Your muffler can rattle the entire emission center and no one will say a word.
 
In another study (don't have the link right now) it was found that in spite of how loud some sounds are they were basically tuned out due entirely to being a consistent tone and constant, unchanging. Like loud exhaust from loud pipes. So even if those pipes could be heard they were not really being heard because they were being tuned out. What was easier for other drivers to hear was constantly CHANGING sounds that varied in pitch and were on/off or wavering sound... like sirens... or blasting a loud air horn intermittently at a rapid but irregular interval.

Since loud sounds are directional (pipes point the sound to the rear and horns point the sound to the front) that also plays into it. One reason I always add much louder horns to any bike. I even added louder air horns to my Toyota Corolla which made a big difference over the stock horns.

I prefer to ride quietly, and if I really have to get someone's attention I want to be heard.
 
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