Amesbury Police Chief Targets Loud Pipes

[Manik]

The Town Common of Rowley had a front page article today on nouse pollution and traffic concerns caused by motorcycles. ..

Depicted in the article is a sport bike...
The Amesbury police chief claims bikers use loud pipes to scare drivers..
Also a concern apparently is large rides, (those ones we do for good causes) that cause disruption and noise complaints. .


How do these idiots get put in a position to regulate something they know so little about?


Article is on their site this morning:

http://www.thetowncommon.com/

[ZX11D]

I feel like this article is directed more towards the Harley Types despite the picture in the article. Either way Rowley won`t get any more of my money. Thanks for posting this.

[Degsy]

Wirelessly posted

Your tax dollars at work.

[e30addict]

Shhhhhh. Don't scare the sheeple. They're busy texting you know.

[AVI8_636]

How do these idiots get put in a position to regulate something they know so little about?

Welcome to America. This is true of just about every subject.

[stoinkythepig]

How do these idiots get put in a position to regulate something they know so little about?

[/url]

How hard is it to understand loud noise? It ain't rocket surgery.

[xxaarraa]

How hard is it to understand loud noise? It ain't rocket surgery.

I agree. If your de-catted, LOUD ass bike is being regulated, don't throw a fit like you have been wronged.

Don't get me wrong, I am equally a culprit. But I don't take offense to being asked to do the right thing.

[Garandman]

I feel like this article is directed more towards the Harley Types despite the picture in the article. Either way Rowley won`t get any more of my money. Thanks for posting this.

Right on! .??

A Rowley-based small local paper interviewed the COP of Amesbury, Newburyport, and Salisbury over the noise complaints they have, which they indicate often come from "straight pipes."

So I have three questions:

1. Exactly how much money were you expecting to spend in Rowley to begin with?
2. You think it's OK to ride a motorcycle without any muffling at all?
3. Most race tracks have allowable noise limits. So they won't "get any more of your money" either?

Perhaps we should expand the conversation to the entitlement mentality of some motorcyclists who think it is quite all right to ride a motorcycle without any noise muffling whatsoever.

[xxaarraa]

Right on!

A Rowley-based small local paper interviewed the COP of Amesbury, Newburyport, and Salisbury over the noise complaints they have, which they indicate often come from "straight pipes."

So I have three questions:

1. Exactly how much money were you expecting to spend in Rowley to begin with?
2. You think it's OK to ride a motorcycle without any muffling at all?
3. Most race tracks have allowable noise limits. So they won't "get any more of your money" either?

Perhaps we should expand the conversation to the entitlement mentality of some motorcyclists who think it is quite all right to ride a motorcycle without any noise muffling whatsoever.

Completely agree with you. Some of it is classic NESR group think. Folks that hang out here seem to have a narrow version of the "truth" and everyone else is an idiot.

[Sheppo]

The issue really isn't about noise it's about profiling. When they start pulling over Fart Can Honda's and trucks with stacks, then I won't complain. Why pick a select group of people?

[Manik]

Did the people defending the article see the complaint about large rides?

Backpacks for kids? Every ride for a fallen officer/rider?

These are all being called a traffic concern. As if the 200 bikes in a row wouldn't have been replaced by a line of cars anyway if the bikes weren't there?

[oVTo]

The issue really isn't about noise it's about profiling. When they start pulling over Fart Can Honda's and trucks with stacks, then I won't complain. Why pick a select group of people?

Motorcyclists are selected because they are widely perceived to be the biggest contributor to the problem. Addressing only the most significant root cause of problem first, then tackling the smaller contributors to it later, is a standard and very reasonable problem solving approach.

If fart-can Hondas were waking everyone up at 2am all summer, or if weekend parades of hundreds of loud fart-can Hondas were common, it's a safe bet the article would have been about fart-can Hondas and this thread would have been on some fart-can Honda forum. But the general public sees it as primarily a motorcycle noise problem, so it is very rational for us to be selected as a group.

I thought the article was better written than most. The writer had obviously done a little homework by mentioning the AMA's position, and the LEO was trying to reduce the problem by reportedly working the MMA and local watering holes to encourage people to 'Throttle down in town". In other words, it sounded like he'd prefer voluntary civil behavior before cracking down with legal remedies.

[Mr. Kurtz]

Dammit Dan, get your logic out of here.

[Garandman]

The issue really isn't about noise it's about profiling. When they start pulling over Fart Can Honda's and trucks with stacks, then I won't complain. Why pick a select group of people?

Don't know about "fart-can Hondas" but lots of WRX owners with loud aftermarket exhausts complain about getting pulled over. And the inspection stations seem to be much less willing to pass cars than bikes, probably because they remove the cats as well.

Can't remember the last time I had a bike inspected and was asked to start the engine, of six different bikes, including an HD.

[nhbubba]

I would encourage some of you to remember articles like this when you are on a group ride and peg the throttle while standing at a stop light in town while straddling a machine re-tuned for that 'race use only' exhaust you have mounted.

[Garandman]

I would encourage some of you to remember articles like this when you are on a group ride and peg the throttle while standing at a stop light in town while straddling a machine re-tuned for that 'race use only' exhaust you have mounted.

Know someone on the PD in Nashua. He said they will stand there at a stop light with the sound meter in their hands - right out in the open. And cruiser dudes will ride up to the light and start revving the engine. It's really hard to get a noise ticket, but it can be done.

[SVRACER01]

its MA own fault for coming up with such a stupid and impossible way of testing the Db level of a motorcycle exhaust.
i can make my bike quieter or louder at 45mph just by picking a different gear.
no shop has any way of knowing how that particular rider rides. i can ride a straight pipe HD through downtown portsmouth at 3 am and barely be noticed

[FirstDuc-1098]

Dammit Dan, get your logic out of here.

Yea!!! How are we going to get a mob going with this random logic getting thrown in

[Tricky Mike]

i can ride a straight pipe HD through downtown portsmouth at 3 am and barely be noticed

I'd notice.

[RandyO]

even more obnoxious than loud exhaust imho are stereo systems in cars that send of earth tremors as they drive by, I can't hear the music, but I can feel the vibration

[SVRACER01]

I'd notice.

[SRTie4k]

I don't think I have ever heard a car stereo louder than a straight pipe Harley. And loud Harley's are 100x more prevalent in my town than loud car stereos, despite being a college town.

[oVTo]

its MA own fault for coming up with such a stupid and impossible way of testing the Db level of a motorcycle exhaust.
i can make my bike quieter or louder at 45mph just by picking a different gear.
no shop has any way of knowing how that particular rider rides. i can ride a straight pipe HD through downtown portsmouth at 3 am and barely be noticed

MA and a few other states use that test method or something similar. It's based on an old SAE recommended model. The 'new' SAE test (J2825) is the one NH adopted this year - testing at 20" from exhaust at a 45 degree angle and specific rpm levels based on engine configuration.

MA probably should update the regulation to the new test method, but I doubt it would be enforced any more often than the old one. So why bother?

I guess a good indicator might be - NH has new test method. Is it ever enforced?

[gixxer72]

I would encourage some of you to remember articles like this when you are on a group ride and peg the throttle while standing at a stop light in town while straddling a machine re-tuned for that 'race use only' exhaust you have mounted.

I live at the corner of a 4 way intersection. We have every obnoxious noise maker from fart can Hondas and Subarus, to micro-phallus truck drivers, straight pipe Harleys and whitekidswhowanttobeblack blasting their shit music.

But, the best one of all was a few weekends ago. I hear a sportbike revving at the stop sign so I look out and see an old 90's ZX7 with a squid and his girlfriend on back. He has a helmet, she does not. Both in shorts and T shirts. He is not moving, just revving. Finally he goes to take off, stalls the bike and falls over in the road. I call to my wife to check this dumb shit out - he stands up, throws his helmet on the ground and starts screaming at the girl. His helmet is rolling down the hill so he stops yelling to chase after it. The little dickbag couldn't even pick the bike up without her help and there was no fucking way I was going to offer assistance after listening to his piece of shit Muzzy for the last 30 seconds. It was hilarious, much needed humor to what would otherwise be just another fucking noisemaker.

[jasnmar]

I guess a good indicator might be - NH has new test method. Is it ever enforced?

I got checked recently during my inspection. I was at the dB the limits @ 5k RPM, but the inspector said at isn't over, so it wasn't a problem.

I haven't been bothered by any LEO's about it.