University research into loud pipes “myth”

[Skub]

Simple solution: anyone who wants a loud pipe on their bike, install it so that it's pointed at their head.

[Horse]

Simple solution: anyone who wants a loud pipe on their bike, install it so that it's pointed at their head.

Although, to be fair, it wouldn't have been great for the guy in the video posted recently, getting the Kwak exhaust glowing red

[Yorick]

Hands up anybody who's been in a dyno room with big engine on full noise?


Fuck leccy bikes

[Horse]

Hands up anybody who's been in a dyno room with big engine on full noise?
Fuck leccy bikes

In the videos I've seen, they're always wearing ear defenders, so obviously don't want to hear the appalling noise

[The Spin Doctor]

If loud pipes don't draw attention, why do folk moan about loud pipes.

Because they attract the wrong kind of attention, specifically they piss off the person down the road or - if you are really stupid - next door.

A twat with a Harley lived over the road and used to start his bike up at 10pm and leave it running on his straight through pipes for five minutes to warm up before his Friday night ride to the pub.

I heard the shouting match over his pipes one night after a neighbour stormed over the road and explained in no uncertain terms that he's spent two hours getting his kid to sleep and the twat had just woken him up again.

[The Spin Doctor]

Loud pipes DIDN'T save a life in this recent fatal crash...

Brief description of circumstances: two lanes... rider following two cars in the right-hand lane... first car indicated to turn right into the petrol station... the defendant moved over to the left-hand lane...

"But by then Mr Peake was already there on his motorcycle."

[Prosecuting] Mr Straw said: "This was 9.30pm at night but it was July so it was still light.

"Mr Peake had his front light on and the reason I say his bike was high-powered is because it was loud.

"He was there to be heard, his presence was obvious."

Clearly it wasn't.

The rider was punted sideways into a wall and killed.

As an aside, interesting how prosecuting council conflates 'high-powered' with 'loud'.

[Rockburner]

As an aside, interesting how prosecuting council conflates 'high-powered' with 'loud'.

But isn't that what we all believe? Louder = more powerful. It's the lie that's sold virtually every exhaust modification since 1905.

[GuzziPaul]

A loud pipe may save a pedestrians life. I have a loud exhaust on one bike and standard on another. The loud pipe canbe used as a "horn" if a pull the clutching in and give a bit od a rev to get peoples attention. The quieter exhaust is better for stealth speed. I also have a hybrid car, when it is in electric mode around town and housing estates, on most journeys someone will step out or be suprised when I appear. I certainly have to use the horn morein the car to warn pedestrians I am around.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Electric cars have to make a sound below 12mph for that very reason now. Its a sort of generic scifi like whirr/hum, its even modulated so it rises in pitch as you go faster.

Unless you're looking out for it you probably wouldn't even twig that it's a fake sound.

[iansoady]

The loud pipe canbe used as a "horn" if a pull the clutching in and give a bit od a rev to get peoples attention.

And what, pray, is the objection to using the actual horn? Which is, after all, what it's there for.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I've got a petrol car that is so quiet at walking pace people have walked in front of it, I have to be really careful driving near pedestrians as they will just step out in front of it.

[Skub]

Electric cars have to make a sound below 12mph for that very reason now. Its a sort of generic scifi like whirr/hum, its even modulated so it rises in pitch as you go faster.

Unless you're looking out for it you probably wouldn't even twig that it's a fake sound.

It makes my teeth itch.....

[Yorick]

My Husky has a lovely sound from the big spanny.

But we can go 4 or 5 hours without seeing anybody to unleash it on.

[The Spin Doctor]

The loud pipe canbe used as a "horn" if a pull the clutching in and give a bit od a rev to get peoples attention.

And what, pray, is the objection to using the actual horn? Which is, after all, what it's there for.

Which was my first thought too!

[Skub]

The loud pipe canbe used as a "horn" if a pull the clutching in and give a bit od a rev to get peoples attention.

And what, pray, is the objection to using the actual horn? Which is, after all, what it's there for.

Nitrous button innit.

[Dodgy69]

There also great bird scarers.

[Rockburner]

The loud pipe canbe used as a "horn" if a pull the clutching in and give a bit od a rev to get peoples attention.

And what, pray, is the objection to using the actual horn? Which is, after all, what it's there for.

Nitrous button innit.

Anyone else here remember Dave the Bunny's story about that?

[The Spin Doctor]

A loud pipe may save a pedestrians life. I have a loud exhaust on one bike and standard on another. The loud pipe canbe used as a "horn" if a pull the clutching in and give a bit od a rev to get peoples attention. The quieter exhaust is better for stealth speed. I also have a hybrid car, when it is in electric mode around town and housing estates, on most journeys someone will step out or be suprised when I appear. I certainly have to use the horn morein the car to warn pedestrians I am around.

I've been thinking about this...

1) by pulling in the clutch, you lose some control over the machine - you've no longer got the (considerable in the case of a Guzzi) engine braking that comes from shutting the throttle.
2) by dropping a rev bomb, you're also putting your right hand in a place where you can't instantly use the front brake if you need it - you have to shut the throttle first, then get fingers on the brake and apply

It's a lose-lose situation as far as I can see. I'd be setting up the brakes by rolling the throttle off and taking the slack out of the lever and using the horn. That way I've got both the BRAKES under instant control and the AUDIBLE WARNING as I need it - a short toot as a mild warning, and a longer blast if I think the pedestrian's about to do something very daft.

And you also rely on the assumption that a pedestrian actually makes the link 'revving bike engine = don't step out'.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The last bit is the key.

Why the hell would you use an engine as a horn? How many people are gonna connect "revving engine" and "you're in danger" in the split second available?

Compare that to the horn, which we're all pretty psychologically hard wired to associate with being alarmed.

[The Spin Doctor]

As an aside, interesting how prosecuting council conflates 'high-powered' with 'loud'.

But isn't that what we all believe? Louder = more powerful. It's the lie that's sold virtually every exhaust modification since 1905.

Errrr. No.

My observation is that it's what owners want OTHER people to believe!

To be fair and if magazine tests are to be believed, right into the 80s a 'race exhaust' did liberate some extra power and was certainly a lot lighter. Some of the magazine tests showed 10% gains.

I had a Seeley exhaust (they weren't called cans back then) on my 400-4 and I was amazed at how light it was compared with the OE silencer. Whether the bike was any quicker, I don't know, but it made a nice sound - it was fruity rather than loud. And well-made two-stroke spannies certainly liberated quite a bit of power even if the three-into-one jobs on KHs and GT triples certainly didn't. The Allspeed on the Team Fiendish AR50 Endurance Racing Moped (plus some porting) really did work - we got that 50cc bike up to a top speed of over 60 mph!

But pretty much since noise reg's required bikes to be watercooled to reduce mechanical racket from the motor itself and required better exhaust design too, aftermarket exhausts appear to have done little to boost power. The last test I read was talking in terms of a couple of percentage points max. The average rider's not even going to feel that.