Comment by kypro | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kypro | Hacker News Reader

As someone with auditory sensory overload I'm always amazed how much noise people are able to tolerate, and perhaps even enjoy?

I don't even think the issue is custom exhausts or revving engines honestly, because it seems many stock motorbikes have incredibly loud exhausts already. Certainly loud enough to drown out speech. Yet no one seems to care. If I'm walking down the road having a conservation with someone then a noisy motorbike goes past people don't seem to react to the motorbike, instead they just instinctively start shouting at me so I can hear them over the bike as if that's a perfectly normal thing to do.

Same thing seems to happen when I go into shops and restaurants these days. I feel like I'm going into a club or something, yet no one seems to notice until I point it out. The music is always so loud that people are literally shouting over the noise, yet no one thinks this weird. In fact they think I'm weird because I can't handle the noise in these kinds of places.

I get I'm an outlier here, but I've always been amused by that. It seems to me people must actually like noise and shouting at each other because obviously no one is forcing anyone to buy really loud cars and bikes, nor is anyone forcing restaurants and shops to play music so loud you can't hear people speak. People seem to actually have a preference for loud exhausts and loud restaurants.

Stock motorbikes are actually pretty quiet these days, because there are laws about how loud legal exhausts can be. Even legendarily noisy Harley Davidsons come with quiet-ish exhausts by default. It's just that it's very common for people to swap them out, even if they're leaving the rest of the bike otherwise unmodified.

And yeah. Can't speak for restaurants, but people really like loud exhausts. For one, there's a saying within biker circles, 'loud pipes save lives' - as in, if your exhaust is loud, people can hear you coming and you're less likely to get flattened by an oblivious driver. Whether or not that's true is very debatable (studies seem to say it makes no difference), but people believe it. And secondly, people do just like loud things in general - there's something about being kicked in the chest by pressure waves that seems very enjoyable.

> 'loud pipes save lives' - as in, if your exhaust is loud, people can hear you coming and you're less likely to get flattened by an oblivious driver.

That's an interesting perspective, and not without merit. I've never been a biker, but I used to drive a customised classic vehicle (1958 Morris 1000 van) with atrocious rear visibility. Even in cold/wet weather, I'd keep my side widow rolled down just so that I could hear motorbikes, which the huge blindspots rendered invisible.

I ride, and used to commute exclusively by motorcycle. Trouble with this sentiment is that exhausts are pointed backwards, so they do nothing to alert the traffic in front of you. My anecdata anyway.

I agree, I ride a bicycle so I'm more aware than someone sealed in a car would be, and unless I'm not moving, I only hear loud motorcycles right as they're passing me. The headwind from cycling at 32 km/h is enough to overpower loud exhausts in my experience.

> For one, there's a saying within biker circles, 'loud pipes save lives'

It's a nice way to justify annoying everyone in a 1 km radius because you like things that go vroom

> For one, there's a saying within biker circles, 'loud pipes save lives'

And believing that then they start overtaking on the right, or between two cars, or not wearing a helmet or protective clothes, etc.

I don’t have a diagnosis of any sort that I’m aware. Personally I’d have motorcycles banned, I don’t see any (net) benefits of them, and the noise is ridiculous. I made it a top priority to live «far» from a main road when moving, after living too near one for a few years.

Shops - I don’t think I live anywhere near you. I haven’t had that experience.

I saw a bike with "Blood" and NHS signs zipping through stopped traffic the other day.

Just in case you wanted the one benefit anyway.

Thanks! Good engineers should recognize both pros and cons. I guess there are «police» ones, too.

Whether or not there's a net social benefit to motorcycles being on the road is a question that could be debated (extra fun for bikers, less space and fuel taken per person travelling, versus extra mortality and costs from crashes) but it seems like you'd want to ban them simply because you think that motorbikes are fundamentally loud.

As I mentioned above, motorcycles don't need to be loud. They're loud because people modify them to be so. Depending on where you are, there may already be laws about how loud they can legally be.

Like I mentioned a little higher up, I used to commute exclusively by motorcycle (a 600cc two cylinder from the late 90s). For me the net benefits were:

- Simple tech that I can maintain and repair myself without expensive tooling

- Very low tax

- When riding conservatively it has great fuel economy

- Filtering is legal here so backed up traffic had very little impact on my commute time

I run my bike with a legally approved exhaust that has a nice note but is not loud. All in all it has saved me a lot of time and money, and isn't that the point of owning a vehicle in the first place?

I know people who do the same. In winter they drive their cars, so I don’t see a big net win. Of course, in California I guess the snow is less of an issue.

The noise is not ridiculous on all of them.

I ride what they call a maxi scooter, my exhaust is bog standard and I try to ride calmly, not revving like a madman at every green light. I hate that people are mounting loud exhaust on similar bike, this is not even a sporty motorbike what is the point?

Having said that, Yamaha T-Max scooters should be banned. There is not a single decent human being riding them, I think they are just a close third at the bottom of the scale after the nazis and the feyenoord rotterdam fans...they are all riding like assholes.

> I get I'm an outlier here

I do often wonder how much of an outlier that makes you (and me too by the way). The question really is how you define things. I would bet that the majority of people lose focus when exposed to sudden loud noises, causing them to lose their train of thought when for example discussing things in public.

Have you tried noise cancelling headphones? I know several people with sensory overload problems and they tell me noise cancelling headphones are transformative.

I never leave the house without them. It's difficult when with people though because it can look like I'm being rude.

I like earplugs too, but again that can look look rude in social situations. My girlfriend and close friends get it, but it depends on who I'm with what I'm doing.

I think Airpods might be changing things though, it's quite common to see people with those in 24/7. I haven't tried them myself, but I've heard really good things about their transparency mode.

You are talking about me, a 55 yo who got a pair of EarPods Pro from my kids only recently and man... the quality of life improvement is incomparable with anything I have ever experienced.

I have tried suppressing sound with more sound over the years but that is not even 20% as efficient (for me). Now may recipe for relaxation is EarPods in, Noice canceling on, a song on repeat and Bob's your uncle! Better than retalin even.

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