"Losers" Safer with Loud Mufflers

[DeBenGuzzi]

My bikes don't have to be loud they just have to rumble. I love the stock harley note but its no excuse to sell my car and my bike in order to afford one. I wish the Goose rumbled a little better like it does with No pipes. if they could make a pipe that growls like nothing else or straights in the low revs and gets quiet like stock as you climb the counter I'd be on those like a fat kid on a cupcake.

[Guest TheFaz]

I don't think that loud pipes will actually warn someone that you're coming unless they're aimed forward instead of to the rear. I haven't seen anyone "individualistic" enough to do that yet...

50363[/snapback]

 

I thought I was the only one who was going to mention that. Doppler effect.

When I was a youngster at a police academy, they demonstrated the problem of relying on your siren to warn people to move out of your way. At 60 mph, in a closed car, with maybe a radio on though not loud, the instructor would come behind or along side the care, siren wailing, and ask the driver to flash his lights as soon as he heard the sound. The instructor was more ofthen than not either right on his ass or in his blind spot. Pipes are the same way. Some doofus driving, eating, radio on and talking on the phone is apt to be more startled by a sudden roaring of pipes and likely to jerk his car right into the loud piper's path. I alwys suggest to the "LPSL" crowd that they'd be better off riding with their horn taped down. Afterall, a horn is a natural sound with a learned reaction to a driver, where a sudden loud roar is not.

I have noticed in Italy they experiement with various siren sounds, trying to find the one that will overcome the Doppler effect, and have had sme success, but the sound isn't a loud, deep roar. It's a hi-hi-hi-low series followed by a hi-hi...lower.

By the way, I like my pipes on the loud-ish side, but I don't rely on them saving my life!

[Martin Barrett]

My pipes were plently loud enough when the balance pipe gasket was blown. With the bonus of a good lound bang to clear the traffic on the overrun.

 

I sure was glad when I fixed it and was back to normal. I don't want to attract any more attention to me than nessecary. I do leave my headlight on dip. But I like to depend on me being in the right gear, speed and position as opposed to depend on someone else. You only normaly hear a bike as it slides past.