What Am I Missing?

[Ah Pook]

Loud pipes-saves lives
Helmet-hermetically sealed from all drafts and sounds
Stereo-cranking the worst of the '80s muzak-???

Help me out here. I am not a biker but do like bikes. Is this just a way of being MORE annoying?

[mcantar18c]

Loud pipes DO save lives.
The point of a helmet is to protect your head from things you don't want touching it. This includes asphalt, car windshields, bugs, and wind.
Radios on bikes are dumb.

[TFOGGER]

Loud pipes annoy people, but at least they notice you while being annoying. That being said, my bikes all have quiet exhaust.

If I choose to enjoy music on the bike, I have speakers in my helmet that don't interfere with my ability to hear outside sounds. Thus, I don't annoy those around me with my questionable choice in music.

[Byte Stryke]

Loud pipes DO save lives.

I had an incident a few months ago...

Loud Pipes save lives, Right up until you get some dumbfuck revving his shit outside of your window at 0230.
Then you get arrested and your Harley impounded because you wanted to be cool

That tow driver was a complete dick with his bike too.
The guy Locked his Bike when he got arrested and took his keys.
So the Tow driver laid it on its side and winched it up onto the truck... dragging it the whole way.


edit: Be careful with your "loud Pipes" as many municipalities have enacted noise ordinances and will impound your bike and cite you if you cannot "repair the condition" on the spot.

[Zundfolge]

What has always annoyed me is that the noise laws don't seem to apply to Harleys.

Back in my high school days I remember getting a lecture by some cop because I had headers and straight pipes on my '69 Mustang. He actually had to stop his lecture as some loud hog rode by.

I called him on his hypocrisy ... he reminded me that he was the law and I should just shut up (I was 17 so I shut up).

[Ronin13]

Loud pipes may save lives, but I'm tempted to plug the INSANELY Loud pipes with extra large potatoes sometimes. I can understand it's "cool" but if it's so loud that car alarms go off from 200 ft away then you're just being obnoxious.

[Ah Pook]

Loud pipes DO save lives.
The point of a helmet is to protect your head from things you don't want touching it. This includes asphalt, car windshields, bugs, and wind.
Radios on bikes are dumb.

The humor is lost on you.

Funny how this turned into a pipe thread and not a loud crappy music thread.

Multiply all the crotch rocket noise and the V twin rumble by about eleventysevenbillion, it's not nearly as much fun to listen to. But that is a different thread.

My favs are the head to toe Harley gear riders that come through on stock Hondas.

[rondog]

Riding Harleys used to be a lot more fun back in the days when it wasn't "socially acceptable" like it is now. If you wanted a chopper, you built one, wasn't any such thing as "checkbook choppers". And no self-respecting doctor, dentist, lawyer or executive would be caught dead on one. And Harley-Davidson clothing? Unheard of! Sure different nowadays.

I will say that radios on bikes are nice to have when you're parked somewhere at camp, or taking a break, etc. But I have no use for them when riding, or folks that blast them while they're riding.

[Ronin13]

I apologize to any harley riders right here and now... however when it comes to Harley's
1) 80% of them are a**holes. I ride by, give the courtesy wave and I'm usually ignored because most think they're better than me because I ride a "rice rocket"
2) 75% of them are mid-life crisis sufferers who are about as badass as an overweight 7 year old on his big wheel, you're not SoS or HA, take off the cut and go back to driving a econovan...
3) Hate to tell you, but past college age biker "babes" are fugly, they're all strung out on meth and look like they did adult film in the 1970's (when in fact most weren't even born yet, but meth is a helluva drug).
4) The small amount that aren't posers, but still not in a gang, and aren't d-bags that think they're so damn cool I like, especially if they're the patriot guard riders. But in my riding experience I've seen way more Harley riders that should be processed out of this country along with the people who lay with animals, pedophiles, and whoever is making sure that Justin Beiber kid still makes music.
End of rant.

[Mazin]

Live to ride
ride to live

Whip it, whip it good.

The thing about most harley riders today is that most dont grasp the true purpose to riding. Most get a bike and gear just to try to act like they can relate to the last sons of anarchy episode. They put maybe a hundred miles in that bike that they spend more time cleaning then riding and think they are super jo biker when the tow the bikes up to sturgis. I love to ride, the feeling of the bike and road few truly understand, the thought of not being able to get back on a bike hurts like hell, for few its a passion. I will attest though you are the lowest member of the food chain when your on the road, people just dont look for motorcyclist. Im all about safty but the fact is the loud pipes just are annoying i think that if you want to improve your safety on the road you need to be defensive at all times. Save your money on those loud ass pipesthat say "hey look at me im a tool", and invest in some training like the total control school or some abate classes. This is not only for harley riders but it goes for sportbike as well even more so. You can do all the performance and cosmetic upgrades you want but if you dont know how to ride safe your just another squid waiting to be windshield smudges.