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Comment by mianos | Hacker News Reader

As a biker, there is sure a lot of peer pressure to have a louder bike. My s1k has the factory msport straight through akro muffler and a valve system that opens the larger exit, also bypassing the baffles in the 'lunchbox' underneath, at 7k. Meaning it's very quiet until it's being asked to go very fast.

Replacing the cats and lunchbox with headers gives under 1hp on a 220hp bike.

But, every meetup, multiple people are asking "when are you getting a proper exhaust system". Which is basically louder for no other reason but being loud.

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Thank you. As a biker I really dislike bikes made lout just to be made loud.

No, it doesn't save lives, most serious accidents are being t-boned on the junction, the car failing to yield to the biker with priority, biker losing control over the machine, or biker being reckless.

Most of it (at least in the UK) is attributed to ineffective observation, which in case of the bikers means education (training) and better visibility (special lights, bright coloured jacket and helmet).

Not a deafening ride.

> As a biker, there is sure a lot of peer pressure to have a louder bike.

I'm amused by vehicles which are very noisy when barely doing anything. Really, almost all cars today have more acceleration than can be used outside racing. Most SUVs and pickup trucks today have better 0-60 times than 1960s muscle cars.

In normal operation today, the power train is not working very hard. Many pickup trucks now have fake engine noise in the cabin generated by the audio system. Not just electrics; gas engine vehicles too. Ford has been doing this since 2015, and most customers do not know it.

South Park did a pretty great episode on this topic. IIRC, they had Emmanuel Lewis “officially” change the definition of a word in Websters’ Dictionary!

I’m a classic car owner, I get the same thing from some people in that scene. I have kept my car exhaust at stock specs and it’s just the right level of loud for what the car is. IMO the cars should be as loud as how powerful they are. You can’t have a 455+ ci engine and expect it to be quiet, and the smaller the exhaust the harder it is for the engine to breathe. It’s a balance that has to be done right.

I guess this explains why in Japan very few of the motorcycles are loud. It's something I was surprised by when moving here from the US. It seems like in the US most (or perhaps many more) riders are being deliberately antisocial?

A lot of the sports bikes I see around my area are operated by 18 year olds. Who at 18 in this country are being perfectly upstanding members of society? There’s always some stupidity in that phase of life. I wouldn’t put too much thought into it.

It's entirely possible to be mischievous or a prankster without being an asshole.

Yeah, but a lot of the loudest are grey-haired men reclined on Harleys, alternating idling and revving in the middle of residential neighborhoods at all hours of day and night.

As covered in SouthPark 'documentary' noted above. Worth a watch.

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