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springs
climber
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:06pm PT
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Last year, the National Park Service held at two-day motorcycle noise forum in response to thousands of complaints from park visitors about motorcycle noise pollution degrading their visiting experience. Last week, I heard from a NPS official who assured me that the NPS is working, although very slowly, on writing rules that will hopefully regulate loud bikes.
Although it's not a well-known law, there are EPA noise limits that apply to most motorcycles made after 1982. It's illegal to replace the EPA noise compliant exhaust with one that isn't compliant, or to tamper with the legal muffler to make more noise.
Maine Citizens For Quiet Motorvehicles has had some success in getting effective laws enacted to help curb loud bikes and will continue to work on this problem. We have a Facebook page with a lot of information about this issue.
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local
Social climber
eldorado springs
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:10pm PT
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The key to keeping loud bikes at bay is to have rough dirt roads.
When a cruiser or sport bike rider gets to the end of the pavement on Eldorado Springs Drive and considers the potholes and dust on the road through town, they often turn around and head back out onto smooth pavement, where they're most comfortable. If they do decide to proceed through town, I suspect that they rarely come back a second time. It's just too rough a ride and too much grime on all that pretty chrome....
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apogee
climber
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:16pm PT
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"Although it's not a well-known law, there are EPA noise limits that apply to most motorcycles made after 1982. It's illegal to replace the EPA noise compliant exhaust with one that isn't compliant, or to tamper with the legal muffler to make more noise."
That's very true, but the problem isn't one of the need for laws, it's about enforcement. LEO's are waaaaaaay overburdened and spread too thin to be able to effectively respond to violators. Further, they can only cite someone if they can catch the offender in the 'act', which would require a decibel meter. That kind of equipment is not at all common amongst LEO's, and without that kind of direct evidence, they can't do much.
Which means that the rest of society gets to live with the actions of a few selfish, thoughtless individuals.
LOUD PIPES DISRUPT LIVES!
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Anastasia
climber
hanging from an ice pick and missing my mama.
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:16pm PT
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Do any of you "ride" bikes? Seriously??? I altered my bike to be louder so people would not swerve into me. I swear when I had the original muffler I had so many near misses, it was insane! Once I made it louder, people actually saw me...
This might be annoying but heck... It kept me from being dead. I know it's annoying as hell even for the rider (I hate it loud) but dang, freakin bad drivers... If you get more people to watch out for motorcycles, 99% of us would happily with great joy return to a quieter muffler.
P.S. If you really want to be in a quiet zone, then go farther into the park. Yes, use those legs God gave you. Yosemite Valley is just a very small pathetic portion of Yosemite. Stop making it seam as if it's the whole dang place.
Anastasia Sherman
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apogee
climber
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:24pm PT
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Anastasia, with all due respect, you are wrong.
There have been several noise-behavior studies that have been done on this question (mentioned waaaaay back in this thread), that debunk the concept that noise from a vehicle behind a car is significantly perceivable, or has any effect on the behavior of the driver of a car.
I trust that you believe that your noisy pipes are somehow making you safer, but in fact, it's your own defensive riding tactics that are most important.
For the record...my irritation with road motorcycles extends only to those who ride with after-market pipes, altered to maximize noise.
LOUD PIPES DISRUPT LIVES!
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Anastasia
climber
hanging from an ice pick and missing my mama.
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:29pm PT
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Apogee,
Nothing is like experience. You need try riding in LA. Use your defensive riding skills with and without loud pipes and then talk to me.
AFS
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apogee
climber
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:34pm PT
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Anastasia, I commute in and out of LA regularly, and was born and raised on So Cal freeways.
Your personal experience, while valid, is anecdotal. (Regardless, I'm glad you've managed to stay safe on those hellish freeways.) I'm open to reviewing any kind of empirical data source (preferably not one subsidized by the motorcyle lobby) that demonstrates that 'loud pipes save lives'.
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neversummer
Trad climber
30 mins. from suicide USA
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:34pm PT
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Nothing is like experience. You need try riding in LA. Use your defensive riding skills with and without loud pipes and then talk to me.
True that...
bunch of noise Nazis....
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:40pm PT
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True that...
bunch of noise Nazis....
Yeah.
The Valley needs a pistol range.
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John Moosie
climber
Beautiful California
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Jun 16, 2011 - 02:45pm PT
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I'm going to start a new business. Renting temporary muffler attachments at all national park gates. Maybe I will even design a throw away model. Like single use gun noise suppressors. It could be like bear boxes. You either bring your own, as in a quiet motorcycle, or you rent one at the gate.
And if you don't like riding a quiet bike because you don't think its safe, then don't ride one. I love motorcycles, but I hate the noise in the park.
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neversummer
Trad climber
30 mins. from suicide USA
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Jun 16, 2011 - 03:01pm PT
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Yeah.
The Valley needs a pistol range.
only if .50 cal's are available for rental...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jun 16, 2011 - 03:02pm PT
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Laguna Beach had a cop who was on a mission for a couple of years to rein in those hogs.
He rolled with a decibel meter and was truly swelling the city's coffers.
Unfortunately, he was also swelling the complaint basket and I believe he
either got poop-canned or told to stand down.
Whatever happened to that hackneyed line of bs I've been smacked with:
"Justice is blind"? I think it must also be deaf.
If there are laws in place enforce them dammit!
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Latitute 33
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Jun 16, 2011 - 03:24pm PT
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Laguna Beach was responding to complaints from residents that were tired of out of town Harley posers creating gratuitous noise. An ordinance was passed in 2005 and is still on the books (requiring compliance with State vehicle code noise standards).
Many of the noisy motorcycles do not comply with State law and as someone stated above, it is an enforcement resource issue.
Laguna Beach City Ord.
7.25.140 Motor vehicles.
The use of any motor vehicle in such a condition as to create excessive, impulsive or intrusive noises is prohibited. The discharge into the open air of the exhaust of any internal combustion engine, stationary or mounted on wheels, motorboat or motor vehicle, including motor cycle, whether or not discharged through a muffler or other similar device, that creates excessive, unusual, impulsive or intrusive noise is prohibited. Motor vehicles shall comply with the noise regulations of the California Vehicle Code, as amended. (Ord. 1448 § 1 (part), 2005).
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Jun 16, 2011 - 03:37pm PT
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neversummer, I was being facetious.
Horse droppings never bothered me. Lets go back to the old days. No motors at all. Perhaps a carriage concession.
Only human and animal powered transport.
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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Jun 16, 2011 - 03:44pm PT
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Anastasia, while I sympathize with your desire to stay safe, it doesn't seem to me that the loud Harley riders are any safer than the quieter sport bike riders.
And frequently the behavior of Harley riders disproves the idea that this is for safety. They rev their engines when stopped, just because they like being loud.
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Jun 16, 2011 - 03:52pm PT
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Yes Anastasis, I do ride bikes.
I ride a modern Honda with a very quiet motor, and I ride an old British bike with a somewhat loud exhaust.
So I understand what you are saying about being seen and heard on a motorcycle.
The problem really is the Harley owners though isn't it, along with some Jap bike squids?
They both pull the stock exhausts off and put on less restrictive aftermarkets.
And they don't do it for more horsepower, they do it mostly to be cool, to be seen
and heard not so much in a "safety" sort of way, but for the same reason the 20 year old in the car next to you has the rap music cranked way up, see ME, hear ME, I am COOL.
edit:+1 on SteveP's comment!
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corniss chopper
climber
breaking the speed of gravity
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Jun 16, 2011 - 03:55pm PT
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Standing on top of Starr King on a calm day we could here their ugly roar
from the Glacier Pt Rd. It went on and on then stopped for a half hour then repeated as the club was leaving. We had obviously not gone far enough from the road.
I'd be in favor of entrance kiosk folks being authorized to deny entry to loud bikes. A hand held sound level meter and the biker instructed to rev his engine to a cruising RPM. Simple. Fast. I'd think job satisfaction would go way up too.
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BuddhaStalin
climber
Truckee, CA
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Jun 16, 2011 - 03:55pm PT
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Dont get me started. I live near Reno, home of Street Vibrations end of Sept. It will be louder in all of the surrounding areas, including Yosemite and all of 395 while theyre here. At least they seem to behave better when not in Reno at the hub.
....all the while, its illegal for me to have an upgraded exhaust at a fraction of the dB levels on my WRX....and I dont free-rev my WRX
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BuddhaStalin
climber
Truckee, CA
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Jun 16, 2011 - 04:03pm PT
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Metal's for pussies, I'm a steady stream of empty beer cans and powerslides. I get a wide berth.
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