If only somebody would make motorcycles less noisy.. I dream of the day where there are neither mosquitos nor motorcycle noise. Two most annoying things during the summer.
There's an annoyingly persistent group of motorcycle enthusiasts that enjoys making as much noise as possible. They actively dislike electric motorcycles because they're not obnoxiously loud.
Then there are also the people that think they need to be loud to be noticed. That has been debunked, but that doesn't stop people from feeling a false sense of safety and sabotaging their vehicle's sound deadening regardless.
There are plenty of rules regarding the noise these things are allowed to make, but until law enforcement actually enforces those laws, nothing will change. That's with the unreasonably high legal noise limit.
I live next to a main road in London. As technology progresses, cars have gotten quieter, but for some reason motorcycles feel like they're becoming louder.
When I go read a book in the park, it's all very nice and quiet until a motorcycle arrives
When I want to sleep with the window open, if I hear any noise it's due to these motorbikes doing races at night.
If I was dictator for a year and didn't have policing resources to enforce noise control, I would just ban non-electric motorbikes
Current electric motorcycles can already be pretty silent, to the detriment of pedestrians. Some have added artificial noises because of this, like ones already used in cars.
I can totally understand that bikers like to hear the engine and exhaust of their bike but physics and the design of motorcycles is not very accommodating to that.
My bike has the manufacturers default 94db idle exhaust.
It is 94db because anything louder than that is not allowed on certain nice Austrian roads, so the manufacturer set it to 94.
While driving i hear the wind noise on the helmet, the airbox, the drive train and a bit of the engine. I usually wear ear protection.
To be clear 94db is a lot and it is way more if you pull on the gas and i don't have one of those stupid valve controlled exhausts.
I am always astonished how freaking loud that thing is, when i hear it's exhaust echoing over open fields or while going through a tunnel at full tilt.
It just comes down to physics, the exhaust points not at the biker, so the noise is directed into the environment.
There is no engine bay covering the engine and gearbox so that is comparatively loud, also chaindrives are rather noisy as well.
For the exhaust to compete it must be incredibly loud, which of course is obnoxious.
Some modern (sports) cars play engine sounds via the stereo system, maybe someone can build something similar for bikers.
