Stupid people with loud motorcycles

Robert_in_NY · Nov 6, 2005

Need to vent a little. I have always had an issue with loud motorcycles. To me I see no advantage to them other then to be obnoxious. I use to ride a sport bike and the one thing I enjoyed about it was the stock pipe because of how quiet it was. Anyway, we have a few acres out here. All around us are other farms. Well, my neighbor across the street sold off their land a few years back and sold the house last year so there is only about 2 acres at most there and it is surrounded by a vineyard on three sides. Well the people who bought it came from town and now they are always having parties, have a ton of people living in the house, garage and barn and let their garbage blow onto our land. If they were a rodent we would just shoot them and take care of this nusiance but they are deemed people so we have to be "nice".

Anyway, last night they were having a party. At 11:40pm I hear a Harley start reving. He goes on a bit working the throttle (I guess Harleys must have trouble stalling as every one of them I hear at an intersection has to work the throttle to keep it running I would guess /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif). So he finally takes off and stops immediately. Now I hear a ATV screaming up and down the road so I go to the window to see what is going on. The guy on the bike lost a bolt and they are trying to find it. So I head back to bed, a few minutes later you hear the bike start up again and the guy had to play with the throttle a few more minutes before he opens her all the way up to leave. I could hear this bike thru the walls of my house well over a mile away. Then you hear the atv scream back to his house.

So besides the neighbors being idiots, why do these guys have to "tune" their bikes to be so loud. What possible purpose does it serve other then to annoy everyone else. And if they do have to "tune" their bikes this way, why don't they have the decency to not disturb the neighbors in the middle of the night. There are 6 houses clumped together here. Ours is the farthest from the rest. My other two neighbors are in their 90's. Having met these new neighbors it is making us regret not buying that house when it was forsale (we talked to the realtor but he tried to charge for the gas well that didn't go with the house). Also, these guys have a semi and like to use the farmers driveway around so they don't ruin their own driveway. He knocked down the end post on the grape row once and parks his truck and other junk on my farmer friends land (actually it is the staging area for when they load grapes). Now he bought the neigboring farm and has a new staging area so he is going to put a row of grapes up thru the driveway and block his land off from these idiots. Of course they will still run their atv's thru the vineyard and tear things up.

To be honest, these people look and act like they came out of a low budget trailer park. They became big landowners when they bought a couple acres and have to have a party every weekend. Of course, they have called the police and fire department to their place more times then I can remember in the last year. I just keep hoping one of these days the house burns down (while empty of people) and they just move back to where they came from.

The rest of the neighbors are great here, besides my two 90 year old neighbors, the rest moved here in the last few years. They all mind their own business and respect their other neighbors. We all get along fine but none of us care for these new people as they have no respect for anyone.

So now I have to go clean up more of their garbage as the wind is blowing it all over here and I don't want it in our pond. I look across at their yard and I see they set a bunch of boxes and other garbage outside last night and it will make its way over here shortly (already have one box to pick up /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif).

They really are nice people though, they have come over and talked a while. Hired me to move some dirt (then took over a year to pay but did pay without ever being asked once). Even invited us to one of the parties (we declined to go). They just lack any common sense.

Cowboyjg · Nov 6, 2005

You know there Robert....The only reason they are there is because nobody bothers them...you know..."No Rules" /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

You seem like a pretty resourceful fella... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

HGM · Nov 6, 2005

Sorry for your having to deal with trashy neighbors.

As for your initial post topic regarding pipes. I tend to like the louder pipes, though some can be obnoxious. Allot of guys put them on because they like to be noticed. I see this on Japanese bikes as well as Harley's. The actual reasoning is that as much trouble as there is getting people to notice bikes without hitting them, its difficult to not hear them if they are loud. Hence the saying "loud pipes save lives". The tone of a louder Harley is much more appealing than a sewing machine to me. I couldnt get comfortable on a quiet bike, I think I would keep trying to restart it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.. Carburated Harleys do have an issue poping through the carb on initial accel, so this is why you hear them rev at a light.

With that being said, the wanton disregard to others by reving the bike over and over just to prove its loud is rediculous. I deal with the same thing from my neighbor from time to time(not every night) as he likes to hear his sewing machine rev 12000 RPM. Although he's a nice guy,it gets old. As do the sport bike guys down the street doing 120 in front of my house. I'm expecting to have to help clean them off the road when they hit one of the many deer in this area. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif My front yard seems to be a popular place for folks to hit one.

As for your problem, good luck.. You could try a heart to heart, but in my experience, it may tick them off and you'll hear more of it. Is there a sound ordinence in your area? typically its 10pm. This may be an option, let the cops be the bad guys..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Robert_in_NY · Nov 6, 2005

I wasn't trying to make this a sport bike/cruiser discussion. I also don't care for the squids who have to put a loud can on their sport bike. But the reason they do it is because they want to show off and draw attention to themselves. I use to ride with my friend who ran a harley fat boy. Every time we go under a bridge he would have to hit his throttle just the hear himself. I think both types of riders have the idiots who want to just draw attention to themselves and have to make thier bikes as loud as possible. But even then, you don't have to open it up in the middle of the night (bikes can take off slow can't they? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif) As for safety, I was taught that you have to look at everything and everyone and treat them all as if they can't see you. If you assume they will hear your muffler over their radio or the cell phone then you will end up a stain on the road. But it is a good excuse for a loud muffler and if it does work to avoid one accident then it is worth it.

We have tried to talk to them also but it does no good. They will tell you what you want to hear and they might be quiet for a couple weeks but then they go back to normal. I don't charge any of my neighbors for helping them out either. I learned to drive tractors working for my neighbor when I was little on his fruit farm. Would mow my other neighbors yard for her. My other neighbor has been offered to use any of our tractors if he wants as he is always working on his property but like us he would rather not use someone else equipment as it avoids any trouble if something should break so he rents or hires to have the work done. I have spread some gravel for him and didn't charge so he got even and gave my parents the money to give me when they saw me. This neighbor across the road asked me to move a pile of dirt to where he wanted to build a little rock garden. Normally I wouldn't have charged him but he had to tell me where to put each bucket full of dirt. Every load he would be there inching me forward until it was in the perfect spot. He had already explained the project to me and showed me what he wanted but then had to treat me like a simpleton as I guess I couldn't put a bucket of dirt in a big circle between two trees like he wanted without his help. The only other time I had to help him is when he had his semi stuck in the snow and needed me to pull him out. Other then that I try to avoid them.

There is no sound ban of any sort here. This is a farm area and it is not uncommon to hear tractors running early in the morning to late at night. During harvest the tractors run at all times of day and night. But the guy who runs his harley across from us is a lot louder then my neighbors Korvan harvesting grapes with two tender tractors running next to it.

PhilNH5 · Nov 6, 2005

Manchester NH has a loud motorcycle and car law. But it has no teeth. The officer would have to measure the noise with a claibrated db meter. Which apparently they don't have.

I have heard the "Loud pipes save lives" But in NH they don't need to wear a helmut. The safety issue looses all credibility if you fail to put a helmut on.

Phil

HGM · Nov 6, 2005

The helmet is a different story altogether. Everyone has their own opinion of it too.....

I too agree that there are idiots everywhere... Too bad these bad apples are out there. Maybe you could rent one of those grand opening lights that light up the sky. When they get out of hand, point it at their house and blaze away /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. If its close enough, the house may spontaneously combust /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Freds · Nov 6, 2005

A friend of mine that used to live in the city used to make jokes about riding his bike home after second shift and setting off car alarms.... I never did see the humor in that.
Your situation seems a little "frivolous", too. Starting up and riding off is one thing, just another sound you need to get used to, but purposly wanting to hear a bike (or car, tractor, anything) while running it in one spot at that time of night is a bit different. I'd play dumb next time you see them and ask if they got their bike fixed. When they say, Huh?, you can tell them that it woke you up one night when they were trying to "keep it going". /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Garbage, though... /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif I think the new neighbor that moved across the street from me started some kind of home or something. I thought it was just a couple and their daughter, but after 6 months they have a regular rotation of 6-7 vehicles, 5-6 adults and a slew of young kids. We don't even have a Dairy Queen that close to us and I'm picking their bags out of my yard and shrubs. Also, candy wrappers, junk food bags and similar snack garbage. It ticks me off, too. I'm hoping I get the winter off.

I know there are those on the board that feel country livin' means putting up with your surroundings, even if they aren't nature induced, but some thing just show a lack of respect to me.

RobertN · Nov 6, 2005

There are goof balls everywhere, and in every sort.

I took the loud pipe off of my Hog. It ran really well with it. Well, it ran really well at high rpm; I actually lost power on the bottom end, where I do most of my riding.

Interestingly, in the case of a Harley, the stock headers with a mild exhaust tip works best with a stock to pretty wild motor. It isn't until you want top end and a big cubic inch motor that louder free flowing pipes are of benefit.

I have stock header on mine again, with mild tips. Runs better thruogh the entire rpm range, although it is a little off at redline. A couple of magazines did tests on this a few years ago. Stock header was better on the dyno too.

It is interesting that, to get more flow out of a 1 or 2 cylinder bike, they tend to get loud real fast. Even on something like a single cylinder 4-stroke dirt bike. More cylinders increase the exhaust impulses, which works better in the muffler. I understand what happens, but am not good at the theory part.

So, if you take a Hog, or one of the other brands of twin cylinder bikes, they will get loud as you increase performance. Unfortunately a couple of other things come in to the mix. There's the folks who want to show off. And there's the folks who don't undertand that that loud free flow pipe is actually hurting thier performance.

One thing about Hogs is people like to dink with them. They are pretty easy to build up. But, most guys don't jet and tune right. Thier bikes run poorer, and load up at an idle or low rpm. That's part of having to clear them out. The other part is, yes, they just like to hear thier bike...

The folks you have would be annoying no matter what they rode or drove. You hit the nail on the head; they don't respect you and the other neighbors.

Dargo · Nov 6, 2005

I raced motocross for several years and almost always had a street bike or two around. After having several Narley's, I can honestly say I just don't get the noise thing. I never saw the need to run straight loud pipes. To me, a loud Narley sounds like an old tractor with a bad miss. My dad still has his Harley but after hearing so many loud bikes lately, he also has grown to hate the sound of a loud Harley.

I think people running straight pipes on a Harley have some serious issues with being rude. Rude people are hard to deal with. In general, they are the first people to complain if someone is rude to them. I seem to associate those people as people who were picked on early in life and now have a chip on their shoulder and a complex. In defense of Harley Davidson, after owning several new Harleys, none came with loud pipes. It's the people, not the company.