We listened, now kindly naff off...

[Motu]

From the VIRM - ''the exhaust system or silencer is so constructed or adapted that it can be readily interferred with'',that's under rejection by the way,not what you are allowd.

[Mongoose]

Some smart cookie will invent an electronic valve, that works similar to supertrapp mufflers, thus allowing instantaneous adjustment of noise levels produced.

"No officer, wasn't me, that horribly loud bike went the other way......"

What do ya reckon?...... Coldkiwi ?

Americans had these years ago for hot rods and years ago it was illegal to fit them in NZ. A solinoid operated a dump cap at the end of the collectors, cool idea I thought but the NZ Gov of the day thought not.

[vifferman]

Some smart cookie will invent an electronic valve, that works similar to supertrapp mufflers, thus allowing instantaneous adjustment of noise levels produced.

"No officer, wasn't me, that horribly loud bike went the other way......"

What do ya reckon?...... Coldkiwi ?

Motorcycle Exhaust Specialists had a sports zorst that had an adjustable baffle in it, that I think operated via an allen key. Basically a disk-shaped baffle that either went across the muffler or parallel to the exhaust flow, I think. I enquired about it last year and they assured me it was legal, but ....??

[Bob]

Like that is really practical - toot the horn everyone time you come up behind a vehicle and before entering intersections to let them know you're there - hey why not hardwire the thing so it is on constantly ?? .

You've never ridden in Spain then! They DO sound their horns at every intersection!

Seriously, I use my horn a lot. On the main road and see someone starting to roll out from a side turning? They get a toot. Same on a rounabout if someone doesn't look like they've seen me. Reason for horn - at least in the UK regs, is to warn other road users of your presence. Which is how I use it.

I just wish more people over here would realise a horn is to issue a warning, not to abuse someone/let your mate know you have arrived at his house/support England (sorry, Eng-Er-Land) before they get knocked out of whichever kicking a ball contest they scraped into the finals of...

But - innocent question - why do you need to make a loud noise coming up BEHIND a vehicle? If you're behind them, then you can see where they are, surely, and set yourself up for any manouvres in good time?

I don't think you're talking filtering - but I've had the situation where man in van got impatient and threw the wheel round, as I was about to start heading past. So I pulled in the clutch a little - still meant I was on my way fast enough to get round, but it also moved the volume of the exhaust note up into the heavens!

And that is on a stock exhaust system. Even with OE kit, if I need to make a loud noise, I can do it with ease.

How would they know it doesn't meet relevant reg's ? There is no objective analysis being carried out at the moment. Bikes are also getting WOF's even though they would not meet noise reg's.

Sorry, think this comes down to difference in regulations - and possibly my awareness of how things work in NZ. Over here in the UK, your end can is marked up with an approved standard for road use. If it doesn't have it, then it isn't road legal. Get pulled here and it is one of the first things that is inspected, after road tax disc.

Do you guys have to have your bikes checked over once a year, like our MOT? Anyone who fits a non-road-use can (I don't like using the term "illegal" - but the police do) here has to keep the OE one, so they can put it back on again for the MOT! Not a road legal can, MOT fail, can't get insurance or use the bike on the road.

As far as invalidating your insurance - what effect does a louder pipe have in being a factor in an accident (or fire and theft) ?

Louder pipes would not invalidate insurance - I've had insurance paid out despite not even having a warrant.

Again, possibly a difference in interpretation between UK and NZ. Have an accident and run anything not road legal - and especially if you fitted a non-legal piece of equipment to the bike without informing them - and an insurer is perfectly entitled to reject your claim. Of course, if you do inform them that you are fitting an item of equipment that is only valid for use on a track, then they will inform you that your bike is no longer valid for use on the road, so it is for track use only. Which probably invalidates your insurance only Sir, as it states quite clearly in the small print that you need special track insurance...

And I'm not making any of this up, honestly.


Another innocent question - how do they test sound levels there? In the EU, there is a specific rev rate at which they test - offhand I think it is 5,500 revs. So guess where there is a little dip in power? You guessed it...

Just wondered if you have a similar thing over there.

[NordieBoy]

Do you guys have to have your bikes checked over once a year, like our MOT?

6 monthly.

[merv]

6 monthly.

Actually its annually until the bike (or a car too) is 6 years old and 6 monthly after that. So you can get 7 years out of the annuals basically and when that last check done at just before your 6 years was up expires then your next WOF only lasts 6 months.

[Coldkiwi]

Another innocent question - how do they test sound levels there? In the EU, there is a specific rev rate at which they test - offhand I think it is 5,500 revs. So guess where there is a little dip in power? You guessed it...

Just wondered if you have a similar thing over there.

ahh, therein lies the problem. Until last year, nothing! There was a huge spate of publicised boy racer activity that generally involved high noise levels in suburban streets that got the politicians smelling votes. This seemed to lead into some very hurried draft legislation that was some of the most poorly researched acoustic advice I have ever seen and got manifested on the road as some police guidelines calling for VERY low limits when measured behind a vehicle at 3-4000 rpm. There were masses of illogical statements and holes in the guidelines and a blanket statement in the draft rules all of a sudden stating that 'exhausts shall be no louder than standard'.

This whole drama is due to a knee jerk response from vote seeking politicians and idiot police HQ trying to appear proactive. I rang the Police technical centre who do all the calibration/scientific anything that the cops need and they said they hadn't even been asked about these guidelines. in the same way, the guy writing the guidelines got his (apparently only) advice from a professor in early childhood hearing (no, I'm not making this up either!!).
From reading the international BS and ISO standards on the subject, I can only assume they decided it was too hard to do it properly and would instead issue instructions to HP officers like ' it is not necessary to have a sound level meter to determine whether the exhaust in question is appropriate or not'.


gee whiz.. I mean, I'll have what he's smoking!!

Deano, yeah, an instant baffle is quite possible but as Motu says, that sort of easily alterable adjustment is a no-no.

[Skyryder]

I'm with Dangerouse and his lot on this. There is nothing better than to give some wanker who has just cut you off, pulled out in front, or in some other way scared the shit out of you by there careless driving, a good old fashoined rev up and scare the shit out of them. Beats giving them the finger and safer too. I am patiently waiting for the day when I can purchase a pair of window shattering mufflers if for no other reason as a means to get my own back on crazy cagers and blast them off the road.

Skyryder

[Bob]

There is nothing better than to give some wanker who has just cut you off, pulled out in front, or in some other way scared the shit out of you by there careless driving, a good old fashoined rev up and scare the shit out of them.

Skyryder

This may amaze - given that I sound like I'm very much from the "why noisy cans" set - but I agree with you. Got undertaken the other day by some fool... so when the lights changed, I rolled up alongside, sat right by their window and... revved the bike to max revs whilst glaring at them (odd benefit of contact lenses - it seems my eyes can cope with getting dry, so I can go ages without blinking - very disconcerting to others). Obviously worked, as they kept shifting their gaze ANYWHERE but me.

But that said, I did it with a stock system on the bike - and it was still damned noisy!

I've also had someone go to suddenly dart down a side turning and pull out on me - whipped in clutch, revved engine to the heavens - so I still accellerated past, but put up a huge amount of noise (which stopped them in their tracks). Same bike, same OE system.

Guess what I'm trying to say here is you can still make a hell of a lot of noise if you want to (and once you're up at the top of the rev range even the quietest system is gonna put out some decibels), but in town having a quiet OE system means we're not getting singled out as "Those nasty bikers making lots of noise and being anti-social" - followed by more legislation by some bike-hating politico to restrict us even more.

Slight change of subject, but aiming in the same rough territory - speed limits in villages. If I see it is a 30mph limit, I slow to 29mph until signed to increase speed. Because I know at 30, my bike is p.d. quiet. By and large, it is usually car drivers here that ignore the town/village limits. Which was brilliantly proven. A village complained about all the nasty bikers screaming through their village at high speeds and making a noise. So they were given a speed camera and shown how to use it (they couldn't prosecute or book anyone themselves, but pass the details on to police for action to be taken).

Result? No bikes caught - just the villagers own cars!

The scheme was quietly dropped...

[loosebruce]

How long have bikes been around with "loud" exhausts? How long have boy racers been around with "loud" exhausts, not as long as bikes have been that's for sure, all these laws and crap really only have started when the boy racer problem became a problem, all the laws are really aimed at the boy racer's themselves it just so happen's to inculde bikes in it as well, i don't really think the police round these parts would give a toss if his or her's twin or four was toooo loud, beside's like WT said bikes fitted with aftermarket exhausts are mainly only loud when given stick, and if you're giving a any bike stick in 50kph area's well you really deserve to get nicked. There's a couple of guys down my street one on a yoshi edtion gixxer 1100, beautiful bike that it is, a guy accross the road with a 996 with carbon termi's and me with my TL (even though i have factory pipes on at the mo) but none of us are worse than the fag with skyline across the road with his straight pipe that thinks it's cool to floor it whenever he leaves home at whatever time he leaves or the stupid amount of revs he use's to drive into the garage, senseless, that is the problem, that is who the police will target, not us. For sure there will be some anal cops who live to ping you everything but what can you do? The last few time i've uhhh stopped for the police they haven't even bothered checking my reg or wof, they don't even mention the near bald super corsa's on the back tyre or that i didn't have mirrors fitted at the time, when bikers become as bigger wankers as boy racers it will be time to worry, and that aint going to happen.
Thats my five cents worth anyway.
As for the rest of you on the loud pipes save lives saga

[moko]

First off to clear up a couple of differences here that seem to be causing confusion,and to show the kind of half-arsed laws we`ve got that you might well be lumbered with.Every bike sold in Europe has to have a stamp to show it`s been tested by an official body for noise and pollution standards,anything else is illegal to run and fit.BUT Triumph,Aprilia,Harley and a couple of others will sell you "Not for road use" pipes,your dealer will fit these on from new forgetting that by doing so he is actually breaking the law by supplying a machine that is by our legal definition un-roadworthy.I`ve yet to hear of any dealer being prosecuted for this but it`s the law and they regularly break it.Then there`s the warranty which states in black and white that use of non-standard parts invalidates it,a minor detail these dealers dont point out and in truth the manufacturers seem to play the game as long as their own illegal exhausts are used and not someone else`s(!!).So you`ve got your illegal bike and you get stopped,well here it gets really good because except at specifically targetted places it`s highly un-likely that the police will have anything to measure the noise.I know plenty of people that have been stopped and the cop`s not looked at the exhaust despite booking them for other offences,other times a switched on Cop will check for the stamp and most likely outcome is a ticket telling you to present yourself and the bike at the specified cop-shop wearing a legal exhaust.If you dont/cant then you`re nicked.As Bob says non-stamped exhaust(and you can get legal aftermarket stuff quite easily) and it`s a straight M.O.T. failure,bikes over a certain age are exempt as the regs aren`t retrospective.stupid situation here is that many swap pipes for the M.O.T. then back again.Also insurance companies are now really hot about being told absolutely everything about the bike,anything non-standard no matter what has to be declared or your insurance is void,and if you tell them your exhaust isn`t stamped they wont insure you in the first place because according to the law it`s therefore not roadworthy.Insurance here is compulsory and you`re in deep shit if you get caught without it.My insurance cover is conditional on my bike being as stated and complying with all vehicle laws,most companies do this now.This gives the Police an added weapon should they choose a Draconian clampdown(which is far from the case)because they could easily sit by the side of any popular roadside in Summer and get literally hundreds of bikers off the road in one swoop.The most recent laws covered pollution and noise,the bikes it took out were ironically such bad-boy stuff as the Diversions and CB500`s of this world.As with the noise most cops dont carry any kind of pollution meters either so I sit behind a Taxi beching out black smoke from a busted exhaust kind of wondering why my bike is considered offensive in any way.Really stupid bit was typical EU law,dirt-bikes were exempt so Yamaha had to pull the XT600,considered a road bike and failing the tests as such,and sell the TT600 instead,considered a dirt bike and therefore totally legal
Personally I dont see why people feel the need to draw attention to themselves,particularly if they speed as well,surely makes it more likely that you`ll get nicked if a cop 2 miles down the road hears you coming and has plenty of time to get ready for your appearance,he`ll just sit and wait while you let him know your e.t.a by the racket getting closer.I know all too many people who condemn all bikers because their experiences have been of packs of open-piped dorks screaming through their village at way over the speed limit rattling all the windows,they tar us all with the same brush and we get zero sympathy from them when it comes to complaints about "stupid legislation"I like to hear a bit of a bark myself but it`s the bloke`s who take things to extremes that will get everyone legislated against in the end,I`ve mentioned before the V-twin rider who several hundred people would gladly kick the crap out of if they caught him during one of his midnight "flypasts" round these parts.He`s the one they hear,he`s the one that wakes the kids up,sets off the car alarms and pisses everyone else.I ride a bike and I`m one of the ones gets my ears bent and told bikes are noisy and anti-social when mine is neither.Knowing governments as I do I`d say you`ve not got long before some kind of legislation,the original point of this post,if I`ve got it right is that the Govt are playing at consultation while it looks as if they`ve pretty much made their minds up,anyone who`s worked in British industry will be well aware of that one,we get "consultation" over work practice changes,consists of manager saying what they`re thinking about doing followed by a notice going up 3 weeks later saying that the changes have been brought in,bloody farce as they`ve already made up their minds what they`re going to do prior to any so-called consultation and it`s just going through the motions.

[scumdog]

A couple of points: H-Ds in Aussie run smaller rear sprockets (or did the last I heard) to get the revs down for the mandatory "drive-past" test to comply with the ogre "ADR" sound level, I kid you not! hence the even more mediocre performance, also had a air restricter in the intake, use to be a large washer type thingy, people were taking these out to increase performance but the side effect was increase induction noise so the restricter became cast as part of the intake!

As to the official stamp on the muffler as moko was mentioning, hell for generations now the cheap buggers (most 'bike riders) have been gutting the core, noise level is up but the can/muffler looks stock

[NordieBoy]

As to the official stamp on the muffler as moko was mentioning, hell for generations now the cheap buggers (most 'bike riders) have been gutting the core, noise level is up but the can/muffler looks stock

The old "Stick the crowbar down the pipe" trick.

[NordieBoy]

Actually its annually until the bike (or a car too) is 6 years old and 6 monthly after that. So you can get 7 years out of the annuals basically and when that last check done at just before your 6 years was up expires then your next WOF only lasts 6 months.

I didn't know that but 2 of my bikes are 11 years old and one is 25.

[moko]

A couple of points: H-Ds in Aussie run smaller rear sprockets (or did the last I heard) to get the revs down for the mandatory "drive-past" test to comply with the ogre "ADR" sound level, I kid you not! As to the official stamp on the muffler as moko was mentioning, hell for generations now the cheap buggers (most 'bike riders) have been gutting the core, noise level is up but the can/muffler looks stock

HD arent alone with that kind of thing,Japs used to have really high 5th or 6th gears to get through similar tests on some bikes,the old XT600 would trash it`s gearbox if riders lugged around in it`s ridiculously high top at low revs,though it was fine for a short run past for example some guy with a noise meter.Later models still had the high top gear but beefed-up boxes,something I dug up on an XT forum when someone asked the resident guru why a trail bike was geared for a theoretical 112 m.p.h.Apparently some models have flat spots at the relevent revs as well to get through the tests,all of which makes them pretty pointless really but then I think newer tests cover a wider range of revs,what killed of a lot of "old favourites"
And as for gutting exhausts,I once ran an XS650 with zero silencing,totally gutted standard "silencers",now tampering with your exhausts in any way is illegal and a failure.