Excessive noise?

[myvice]

Read an interesting article in the latest MTA newsletter.
To keep it brief, any one caught with an excessively noisy vehicle can (will) be fined $250 and lose 10 demerit points.
I didn’t think noisy cars or bikes where so deadly, how many points do you lose for failing to indicate? Or running a red light?

[degrom]

None... LOL!!!

[Swoop]

And the enforcers don't even have to use noise measuring equipment... They just use their earometers. How do you contest that?

I wonder if the enforcement people have their "earometers" calibrated regularly, or if they simply turn their hearing aid up when testing marginal cages...

[Kyle]

Actully this very subject was on the news just the other night, tv3 news.
The cops are being/have been supplied with decibel meters so they dont have to use there less acurate ear-o-meter anymore. For cars its 92db or 94db or something, who cares about cars. But for bikes its 100db, because they have shorter exhaust pipes and naturally will be louder i guess. After hearing that i tested my mates bike and mine with a cellphone db meter and his stock standard ktm525 pipe scored 112 easy and my arrow race can on cbr600 got 114, and i thought it was fairly quiet really. They used a harley for the news clip and mentioned standard would pass but most owners buy louder pipes and they wouldnt pass. But i suspect its directed toward the race boy cars more then us riders, and the demerits part fits that as they get wofs and then fit loud systems afterwards in alot of cases.

[RantyDave]

But i suspect its directed toward the race boy cars more then us riders

Pfft! A bit optimistic. Anything where the "righteous disco boys" can be equipped with a machine that says yes or no fairly quickly turns into a source of revenue. What I would like to know is how I'm supposed to know if my can is too loud? It doesn't, for instance, say "race only" on it....

Dave

[rwh]

Actully this very subject was on the news just the other night, tv3 news.
The cops are being/have been supplied with decibel meters so they dont have to use there less acurate ear-o-meter anymore. For cars its 92db or 94db or something, who cares about cars. But for bikes its 100db, because they have shorter exhaust pipes and naturally will be louder i guess.

Did they mention what distance this is to be measured from, and in what direction? As I understand it, noise readings are completely meaningless otherwise.

Richard

[Kyle]

Test it, many car audio places will have a DB meters they could check it for you, newer cellphones with lots of extras have DB meters on them, it doesnt matter if it says not for road use if its under 100db because most cans are made not in NZ.
Hell yes im optimistic, but seriously i dont know about raceboys in your part of the country, but here in Hamilton we get a gathering of about oh i dunno 100-200 cars every friday and saturday doing "laps" till about 4am and you can honestly hear them hooning from anywhere in the city. bikes are generally just loud for a short period of time as they blast through or past and are in the eye or ear of joe public and jim copper for less time. However in saying that i always cruise in sleath mode when i see a cop.

[Kyle]

Did they mention what distance this is to be measured from, and in what direction? As I understand it, noise readings are completely meaningless otherwise.

Richard

actully funny you mentioned that because that was the one fact they did leave out, however i believe the reading is ment to be taken at 1 meter from the end of the pipe. angle i would assume would be straight at it.

[oldguy]

I notice a sticker on the frame of my bike which had something to do with the db level of the bike, @ 4500rpm the db level was 90db. i think that would be for the stock pipes. as it is fitted with yoshi's. I know she would be in the hundees easy.

[Kyle]

yeah those stock vtr1000 pipes are ultra quite. Most stock pipes have a baffle inside them which directs the air backwards and through the packing, where all race pipes are straight through. A quick and easy test is poke something long down and pipe, a stock pipe you should hit a block off point about halfway down the muffler, unless someones done the old "ram a sharpened spike thru the baffle trick" which basically turns a stock muffler into a freeflow race can, poor mans trick.

[Jantar]

After hearing that i tested my mates bike and mine with a cellphone db meter and his stock standard ktm525 pipe scored 112 easy and my arrow race can on cbr600 got 114,

When I first read your figures I guessed something had to be seriously wrong. 114 db is sufficient to casue partial deafness in minutes, and is only 6 db away from the threshold of pain. ie where actual physical harm can occur. However you then go on to say

i believe the reading is ment to be taken at 1 meter from the end of the pipe. angle i would assume would be straight at it.

If you have the sound meter directly behind, and in line with the exhaust pipe then you are not only measuring sound, but also pressure pulses from within the exhaust system.

Sound measurtements should be at a set distance, but at right angles to the direction of motion, ie alonside the bike, not behind it, and at half to 2/3 revs. I'm not sure of the official distance, but 1 meter would be far too close as any bystander would never be that close and in most bikes there is more than one meter from engine to exhaust exit. I believe 5 meters would be more realistic to get a true reading. Maybe Spud or SD can give us the official directive.

[Kyle]

Not 1 meter? but it sounds so cool at 13,000rpm at one meter, and all that black carbon stuff on my face makes me look so cool.. But seriously, ok you have a good point there, though i really cant see mr plod standing back 5 meters to test it. hopefully one of our resident men in blue can clarify.

[Lou Girardin]

There's already been a thread on this.
But the fact is that people in the bike industry have been involved in this, and far more bikes will pass the test than you may think. A debaffled Harley passed. So did a sprotbike with a aftermarket can.
I don't think the cops will be using cellphone Db meters, an ear-o-meter would be more accurate.

[Motu]

I went through all that with my Smith the Dick Db meter a few years ago....all reported on here.There are so many background noises it's impossible to get any reading unless you are in a controlled setting...and bikes and diesels make so much engine noise that the meter is overpowered by them.This is what the new system is all about.

So what are they doing at AMPS Lou? Your building should be isolated enough for background noises - but do these new meters have a filter to take out higher frequency noises like tappets and diesel knock?

[Lou Girardin]

So what are they doing at AMPS Lou? Your building should be isolated enough for background noises - but do these new meters have a filter to take out higher frequency noises like tappets and diesel knock?

We're not an approved noise testing location. I don't know who is.