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Comment by Eavolution | Hacker News Reader

My 1200 petrol car is so quiet you can't actually hear the engine from within the car, and there's no sound damping under the bonnet (no top engine cover, no padding on the bonnet itself despite the mounting there for it), so petrol cars can absolutely be quiet.

I think the thing with motorbikes is everything is so much more exposed, and they rev higher in general, so the sound thing is probably a harder problem.

I am actually of the belief that motorbikes and scooters should be encouraged in cities, because they are a lot smaller, and more efficient in general than cars (so long as you don't have a massive bike), and take up a lot less space when parking. Do most people really need a 1.5 tonne car to go to work as opposed to a 200kg bike?

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> I think the thing with motorbikes is everything is so much more exposed, and they rev higher in general, so the sound thing is probably a harder problem.

Meh. Some have figured a way to make them quiet. Most "touring" bikes are very reasonable. I'm thinking BMW K16s, Honda Goldwings, Yamaha FJRs. With stock pipes, of course. Hell, even my VFR1200 is very quiet with the stock pipe, which closes a flap below 5000 RPM. When idling at a traffic light, if there's a car around, I can't hear the bike.

Fellow VFR1200 driver here.

You inspired me to exchange my Akrapovič (came with the bike when I bought it) to the stock pipe (which also came with the bike).

> motorbikes and scooters should be encouraged in cities

I find that their exhaust smells much worse though, especially scooters.

Older two stroke scooters are obnoxious, but modern 4 stroke engines are very common now. They're quiet and run pretty clean.

>They're quiet and run pretty clean

Source?

I live in Paris, a few meters from the busiest crossroad of the city, and my experience with scooters (even the best 4 stroke ones) is very, very different.

It’s a great theory, but it has a problem. There are quiet motorcycles. For example, BMW motorcycles are quiet.

[BMW made a cruiser bike for a few years. They were trying to move into Harley’s market segment. In order to get the “right” sound they had to detune the engine, resulting in a massive decrease in horsepower.]

BMW is still making a cruiser, the R 18. I personally find it nicer (and not as antisocially loud) than a Harley bagger.

https://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/en/models/heritage/r18-b.html

> My 1200 petrol car is so quiet you can't actually hear the engine from within the ca

Because your car is actually insulated from that noise. Look at every car review ever and there is a section about noise isolation.

Furthermore the sound is also dependent on the length of exhaust - your average car exhausts is longer than a whole bike and for example previously mentioned BMWs wriggle it around the whole engine back and forth just for that reason. This comes at the price of weight and thus handling/fuel efficiency and actual pollution.

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