White bikers on loud harleys now make more noise than boom boom cars that rattle car parts

So tired of people trying to impress me with noise. The biker stereos are pretty damn loud.

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Do you mean the exhaust of the Harley or the load music being played on some Harleys??

Straight pipes are one thing but you can hear the music blaring from 2 blocks away!

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I am hoping that you are referring to those A55#0le5 who have open pipes on their Harleys, but also have a stereo and then have to crank the stereo up so that is louder than the bikeā€¦ I will not ride with them. Admittedly, I am addicted to the sound of a Harley and the beat of its engineā€¦ I have friends who Bluetooth their stereo with earbuds but that is downright dangerous, I can be riding right alongside, screaming at the top of my lungs, blowing my horn, and unless they see me waving, they are oblivious to whatā€™s going onā€¦

I like my bike loud, the bike has ā€œmufflersā€ that were tuned to give it more power, but the increase in power was not worth the decrease in that sweet thump of the engine, so I pulled out the bafflesā€¦ I also run the carb rich with an oversize main jet so the bike ā€œbarksā€ (itā€™s not a backfire, you would have to hear itā€¦)

My '84 Ironhead Sporty never had a stereo, never willā€¦

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I love the sound of a Harley no matter the exhaust, the bigger the cubes the better the sound (V8ā€™s also), but I agree that the music is too much when trying to drown out the exhaust with loud musicā€¦

But color has nothing to do with Harley riding Bikers and or loud musicā€¦ At least not down here in the Southā€¦

I agree, loud engine/exhaust and not music drowning out the sweet sounding exhaustā€¦

Nice ride BTWā€¦

My Hot Rod has 3 gauges in place of a Head unit, NO radio speakers or anythingā€¦ Before I put this engine and all the mods to it, it had a very loud stereo system and sounded greatā€¦ But now the radio looks like thisā€¦
You can see the old radio ground strap hanging down below the ashtrayā€¦ lol


And here is one half (right side shown) of my 21/2" exhaust, bolts to the long tube headers and comes out in front of the back tiresā€¦ It is deep and very loudā€¦ I can set off car alarms from the harmonics of the exhaustā€¦

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Just anectotal observation.

Not in middle Tn areaā€¦ lol
When I worked on Broadway , we used to have the toy runs ride past us as well as other events and just beautiful sunny day get together ridersā€¦ And it was pretty much either orā€¦

Nice ride, great color. I painted my first motorcycle, a Honda, a similar color.

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That plus the choice of music is questionable for public exposure. There are kids riding in other cars next to some bonehead blasting that cr@p. My neighbor used to go by at 6 in the morning on weekends. He kept the exhaust noise to a minimum but you could still hear his music blaring at unreal volume levels. Fortunately, he got rid of his motorcycle.

I never saw the need for music when riding. To this day, I have never wanted tunes blaring away going down the road. I enjoy the sounds, smells and wind in my face too much to need musicā€¦

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IMO itā€™s part if the outlaw persona that some riders want to project. Do they wear helmets? If so, are they certified or something to just meet a helmet requirement? I had two helmets. One was 3/4 coverage and the other was full coverage. I preferred the full coverage helmet because of the additional face protection.

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50 mph bumblebees and rocks kicked up by trucks can spoil your day!

Full face helmets are good!

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I wear glasses and still used goggles to prevent bug-eyes.

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Most people donā€™t protect their hearing, especially bike riders, so by middle age they wind up with cumulative hearing loss, itā€™s too late for them.

At this point, they probably donā€™t mean to be obnoxious, they just are genuinely trying to hear the radio.

Itā€™s pretty easy to identify people who are like this you just engage them in normal conversation and notice how loud they talk.

I didnā€™t wear hearing protection besides the helmet. My Honda CB400F was pretty quiet.

Been to Bike Week in Laconia NH several times over the years. The noise can be deafening.

Back in the late '90s, a local (unaffiliated) bike shop in San Angelo, TX., had a thriving side-business selling counterfeit helmet certifications (DOT, Snell, etcā€¦). They also sold those ā€œthingsā€ called Coconut Helmets with the fake certifications. The local authorities were in no position to do anything since they had what appeared to be genuine certifications on them. I convinced the folks in Base Safety on the Air Force Base I was on to not allow Air Force members to wear them, even off-duty, and even the civilian employees were not allowed to wear them while operating a motorcycle on-base.

(Yean, I know, Iā€™m a Kill-Joyā€¦)

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Helmet sticker: ā€œIf you think my pipes are too loud, youā€™re too old!ā€

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Nope, if someone thinks I want to listen to their loud pipes, theyā€™re, well the list of adjectives/nouns is VERY longā€¦letā€™s start with ā€˜mistakenā€™.

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Itā€™s probably loud enough to violate the local noise ordinance. The problem I expect is that many police-folk ride motorcycles, so feel part of a sort of big public motorcycle club, & tend to give other motorcycle riders a pass. Iā€™m sympathetic to your plight, but I doubt there is anything you can do about it beyond perhaps contacting whoever enforces your localeā€™s noise ordinance. That might be effective if it happens in the same location at the same time.

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I think the police are busy enough without worrying about a db meter.

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