[Froggy]

i'll do what ever to come up with reasons to convince myself
that $400 was well spent

I'll second that

[Range]

I'd have to say no, there good if your driving next to the person, but if you coming up fast from behind chances are they won't even hear you until after they've spilt thier coffee from zooming by and scaring them.

I almost pooped my pants..heading to Port Dover....lopeing around about 120km....relaxed...Haggisman FLIES past me doing about TWICE my speed....didn't hear a thing untill he was PAST me...wow...the Hindle is LOUD at those speeds

[sadrik]

I think loud pipes anger people around you and gives motorcycling a bad name. We don't need to alienate the public!

[Slim]

I have Screaming Eagle 50/50s. but then again, I also don't ride a kat.
I find my pipes have a nice sound - not too loud but a nice rumble. yup.

[Haggisman]

The Hindle has a great sound, not to loud, but you can hear it in the distance as it approaches. I have a Scorpion on my Gixxer and I love the sound even more than a Hindle.......and sorry Range it was a long straight away, couldn't resist :P

[WildKat]

i like the scorpion exhaust as well, and the devil exhaust rocks too!!


its nice to have some sound coming out, but just not too much to raise the dead and rattle the windows... and therein lies the debate , so oh well..

[The CyberPoet]

I think that for the typical driver, loud pipes don't make a difference. Either they are esconced in their own private little world (windows up, AC or heat on, radio on), or while they can hear the exhaust, they can't place it (low-frequency noises don't tend to differenciate in our hearing as to location, which is why there's normally only one subwoofer in a 5.1 surround sound system).

The real question is whether it makes you an less-safe driver in the future, after you've been exposed to those sound levels for a few years, as a result of hearing damages. Let's face it, at 90 - 95 mph, the wind noise alone runs about 108 - 120 db, depending on the helmet you're wearing. That's enough to make OSHA require hearing protection if you were exposed to that noise level at work (108 db for more than 10 minutes is considered damaging; 120 for more than a minute is considered damaging). Throw in a loud exhaust, and fail to wear really good earplugs, and you're asking for long-term hearing problems...

Now you're three or five years older than you were, and you can't hear something coming at you from the side because of hearing damages from your exhaust -- do loud pipes save lives?

Oh, and for the record, I still have the stock exhaust, but with the speeds I often travel, I'm exposed to wind noise at the level of standing next to a speaker stack at a Who concert in the early 70's... I use 32 db rubber earplugs, and it's still pretty loud. As many of you know, I have stereo speakers build into my daytime helmet, speakers rated at 108 db at max volume -- which will get droned out at 92 - 94 mph, so that's where my helmet hits 108 db in motion. And yes, I wear the earplugs even with the stereo speakers -- by cutting both the wind noises and the stereo noises evenly, the drone-out speed remains the same, but I'm not damaging my hearing (or at least not as fast). If I could find higher rated earplugs that were cheap and comfy, I'd use them.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[somainevent]

yes and no, alot of good opinions..

[Owlman]

I can't remember where I read this but there was an article in some magazine or newspaper about loud pipes. The study showed that loud pipes (or any loud noise for that matter) can actually impair people's reaction time. In short, people startled by loud pipes tend not to react as quickly or properly as they could had they not been startled. I'll try and find the article.

I'm all for aftermarket pipes as long as they are not obnoxiously loud. If they are too loud you'll just anger your neighbours and attract unwanted attention - cops among others.

[Slim]

mine sets off car alarms e'ery once in a while....

[Young]

The louder the easier for some one to hear you coming.......and some could take it as annoying !!!!

[ThAzKat]

The louder the pipe's the easier for the police to follow your sound. Better off in stealth mode when crankin it up to 120+!!

[ckoepke]

The only thing that saves lives on a motorcycle is the rider's situational awareness.

[NiteMare]

this debate goes round the world much as tidal currents do, neither will be stopped ....

loud pipes don't affect car drivers usually until you're right beside them or in front, i drive a car as well and rarely hear a bike until it's passed me (big V-twins are a different matter) ....

my fighter has dual pipes, cut down and open and to be honest i like the noise but i doubt my neighbours do, the only person i can say for definite has heard them and taken action was a local copper in his car as i was coming up behind him, i took evasive action rather than deal with any awkward questions due to seeing him pull over to the side to wait for me to pass....

V-twins sound nice (as do Meriden Triumphs) with loud pipes, screaming 4 pots (being honest) are generally just offensive

[baddkat]

The only thing that saves lives on a motorcycle is the rider's situational awareness.

I find that after I started riding (a looong time ago) I became a better driver. It wasn't until then that I realized that I was only going through the motions when shoulder checking. I drove tow truck for a while, and at every accident involving a bike the person in the cage would say " I didn't see him coming". So, it doesn't matter if they hear you coming if they can't SEE you.
Another thing is the horn, I installed PIIA sport horns on my Kat, 130Dbs and it sounds like sports car horn. I find factory horns really cheesy, even on my truck, a 2007 Dodge 2500HD MEGACAB 4X4 I added a set of PIIA horns to the factory ones to make it louder. I don't use my horn often, but when I do, I want people to hear it.