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Comment by Jcampuzano2 | Hacker News Reader

I wish they'd bring this to near me. I'm especially interested because I'm a motorcyclist. Seems 90% of riders get angry when an exhaust isn't loud as a jet and it's often one of the first mods people make.

I couldn't care less and prefer not to annoy everyone in a 100 yard radius from me.

Unlike what most riders will say loud pipes don't really save lives, good and safe riding does. They just use this excuse for the mistakes they make most of the time.

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I always thought it was an excuse. Like, 'Check out my cool bike. It's matte black because that looks cool. I got a pretty rad old-school matte black helmet to match. And of course a black riding jacket. Oh yeah, and I set the carburetor to sound like a cessna because cars don't see us!'

I was looking at a house with my wife that was relatively close to a major road. I wasn't sure if it was going to be an issue or not. A loud bike drove by and we crossed that house off the list.

If I had a bike, I'd model my look after a disco ball instead of the road tar.

I mean I won't lie, I like how my bikes look. I like the style of wearing my gear and whatnot. It's what I grew up aspiring to do, I wanted to ride from the time I was like 12.

I'm 31 now and have ridden all my adulthood and still like the style, but I don't intend to announce my presence via annoying sound to everyone within a football field radius.

I actively try to be a friendly driver unlike some of the dumbasses I share this hobby with who make us all look bad.

> Seems 90% of riders get angry when an exhaust isn't loud as a jet and it's often one of the first mods people make.

I am a motorcyclist, and I get angry when I hear a loud motorcycle. I want my next motorcycle to be as quiet as possible! And I want people to be fined when they produce such high levels of noise pollution.

While we're hoping, let's get something for the tilted up headlamps as well.

In most countries there is a mandatory periodic technical examination for motor vehicles (like MOT, TÜV, etc) where lights are tested for exactly this reason.

Also, I don't think people tilt their headlamps up on purpose.

What typically happens around me seems to be that someone installs aftermarket headlights — often obnoxiously bright — and then fail to actually adjust them correctly. And we (in this American state) don’t have those types of safety inspections.

Or they just drive around with their high beams on all the time. That happens, too.

I know a guy who does this. Was a passenger in his truck at night and pretty quickly noticed he was blinding everyone. "Dude, you have your high beams on!" "Yea, they're brighter so I can see better." "You're supposed to turn them to low when other cars are coming." He looked at me like I had antlers growing out of my head. It never occurred to him to give even a single shit about everyone else on the road. Total "Main Character" syndrome.

Two of my friends rode motorcycles and did this on purpose because “it’s more annoying so people see me coming” and I’ve never been able to convince them it’s dangerous because you’re basically blinding people…

Edit: also in the Netherlands there is no periodic technical check required for motorcycles

I 100% agree. My bike is pretty quiet.

Modifying any vehicle just to make it louder seems really, really rude to me.

The reason exhausts are loud is that there is detonation happening inside the exhaust. This happens when you increase the fuel-air mixture above what the cylinders will support for combustion and often gives slightly (maybe 10%) better performance of the car, for the cost of much lower lifetime of many components (not just the cylinders), and of course making enough noise to wake the dead.

There's plenty of motorcyclists who do the same though.

Even though what you describe has, for some reason, become much more common lately, many exhausts are just loud for no good reason. Think Harleys or even the Yamaha TMax with the Akrapovic exhaust. They don't have the "pop-pop-pop" sound related to detonations, but are still absurdly loud.

> There's plenty of motorcyclists who do the same though.

What's funny is that in my neck of the woods, it's motorcycles with bad aftermarket pipes that had been making that noise for a long time. So now, whenever I hear a car making that noise, instead of associating it with some "big mean engine" as their owners probably hope, I associate it with some overworked 600cc.

> Even though what you describe has, for some reason, become much more common lately, many exhausts are just loud for no good reason.

Not only that, they deliberately put speakers on the electric Harley's so the morons driving them could feel like "real men".

Honestly, if you want to make noise while looking ridiculous, just get a tuba and parade around the block!

What do you mean by speakers? As in for the radio? I've noticed that, too, but, fortunately, where I live they aren't that common yet.

What is common, though, is people on bicycles and kick scooters carrying a loud-ass speaker blasting random music. Reminds me of boomboxes in old American movies. Fortunately, that doesn't carry as far as the exhaust, so it's not a problem while I'm in my apartment, only when walking down the street.

No, by speakers I mean the audio output devices they've installed that replicate the noise effects of a gas engine, on an otherwise whisper-quiet electric Harley. Pointless, expensive features to keep clowns happy with their "outlaw" motorcyclist image.

Wow. I'd heard about some cars using the stereo to blast "fake" engine noise inside when they switched to smaller, quieter engines, but never for bikes.

They're staying true to their mission: make the most efficient machine to convert fuel into noise!

Maybe some friendly neighborhood hacker can find a way to change all those sound tracks to Nyan Cat?

> What do you mean by speakers? As in for the radio?

for the engine, so their electric motorcycle can still be loud and annoying -- evidently the whirring noise isn't "manly" enough for harley to sell

https://www.rideapart.com/news/316258/harley-livewire-custom...

A lot of motorcyclists just like the noise and they pass it off as a safety device (because they’re assholes).

"It's imperative to my safety that everyone wake up at 2AM to know I'm here"

Yeah the whole thing makes no sense. “I ride my motorcycle based on the assumption that people can hear me.” — no safe rider ever

In the US especially it seems to be the trend. I've ridden elsewhere where the problem seems to be less present (but not non-existent).

They pass it off as safety to make up for their lack of skill. It's honestly appalling the low amount of skill/practice needed to get a bike here in the states.

Some people optimize for the noise, and not performance, for the same reason people stick racing decals and put a spoiler on a car that doesn't really need it.

Heck, some people will literally drill a hole in the exhaust to get that noise, for absolutely no performance benefit whatsoever.

I don’t know about that. I have an older sport quad ATV. Loud AF with custom exhaust the last owner installed. I have full control of the fuel delivery with the carb mixture/jetting/etc, and there is no nothing other than preventing backfiring/popping that has any effect on the noise. I even tried repacking the “muffler” with new stuffing—- didn’t help.

Most newer bikes barring maybe Harleys come stock with exhausts that aren't monstrously loud because of regulations (though some have ways around that).

Problem is most peoples first course of action is to modify it to sound louder/"better". You'll often see this as the first complaint people have about bikes in motorcycle review videos.

My current bike is a newer CBR650R, mand it sounds relatively tame. But some people complain about that.

An older vehicle I may not fault as much, but you also have people revving to redline for no probable reason.

100 yards is amateur hour when it comes to disrespectful motorcycle owners. Harleys where I live can be heard miles down the country roads.

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