The myth of Loud Pipes saves lives?
…Or how I came to feel that you don't need to be annoying to be safe.
This is a response post to "Big Ben's" comments to my loud pipes do not save lives rant.
So lets look at the truth about loud pipes and what help they might have on rider safety.
1. Pipes point out to the rear (in 99.9% of motorcycles, except for a few choppers made my OCC, but I digress), and as such most of the noise goes rearwards. So in my informal study of loud motorcycles, in general it is the people behind you that are hearing you. Unfortunately, the fact is that the Hurt report shows 76.8% of all accident hazards are straight ahead of motorcycle accident. While only 3.2% are coming from behind the motorcycle. If you want the loud pipe to help you out, you are going to have to point the pipe facing forward and not out the back. At this time, I can?t find any exhaust systems that you can buy that do that. - Info on www.motorbyte.com
2. Loud pipes do send enough noise that it is harder to hear when riding. I know this because I have recently raced a loud piped motorcycle. The volume was so high, I could not hear anything but the noise of the exhaust. In defense I was wearing earplugs to keep the noise down.
- But many states have laws against the rider using earplugs on the street. Seems they feel you should be able to hear the horns of other cars (when you are doing something stupid), and the siren of the emergency vehicle coming up behind you (that you can?t see due to the horrible mirrors on many sport bikes). I think hearing important warning sounds helps you out from time to time. - Info on ama website
3. Do you enjoy the super loud base of cars and SUV?s that feel you should enjoy their base-centric music? I personally find those people to be very annoying and when my windows are rattling (Just like a straight piped V-Twin), I am not really thinking I should drive safe around that jerk. Actually the opposite happens, as I am trying to get away from the noise while fantasying about running the person off the road to get ride of them.
- If loud pipes save lives, then loud car stereo?s that produce 150db at 5hz reproduction capability should be the safest thing on the road. - Info at US Department of Justice (PDF)
4. Noise causes fatigue, our friends at OSHA have documented this fact time and time again. To the point that there are charts to limit workers exposure to noise in relation to safety jobs. Beyond the fact that your average 110db noise environment should be limited to 1hr per day to avoid hearing loss, excess noise causes a person to fatigue earlier and make more mistakes.
- Who wants to make mistakes or even worse not be able to hear that lovely 110db exhaust after a few hundred hours of exposure. Other benefits of exposure to loud noise are
- Increases blood pressure
- Negative cardiovascular effects such as changing the way the heart beats
- Increases breathing rate
- Disturbs digestion
- Can cause an upset stomach or ulcer
- Makes it difficult to sleep, even after the noise stops
- Intensifies the effects of factors like drugs, alcohol, aging and carbon monoxide
Info at asha
In the end, I am happy if you want to drive around with an exhaust system that is ?Illegal? and an annoyance to the general pubic. It also makes motorcyclists appear to be insensitive to people around them and helps you avoid hearing other cars horn?s and emergency vehicles.
But I dont have to support it, like it or even sit around quietly and let you be a jerk. Since you have the right to be a Jerk and annoy the public, I can be a jerk and let you know that what you say is BS.
Ok, please now give me some proof (not just personal opinion) that louder motorcycle exhaust systems improve rider safety due to the sound alone.