Serious question. Why ride a motorbike so fast, without being able to hear approaching traffic due to the loud noise coming from the engine.

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Drago

Legendary Member
Chap up the street with the ZZR1400 - a deep, muted rumble.

The lad with the 125 from the other end of the village makes your ears bleed.

It would seem that noise emitted is inversely proportional to performance. That being the case, why ride around effectively screaming, "look at me, I've got a slow bike"?
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
No different to being in a car with the windows wound up or the radio/in car entertainment on. Also have a look around at how many other drivers have got earphones in or headphones on, and then think about how drivers with hearing impediments manage to drive.
 

a.twiddler

Veteran
Do motorcycle helmets allow you to hear your surroundings? That's another serious question by the way as I've never worn one. Plus, not many cars make such a noise as the motorbike I heard.

Like cycle helmets, motorcycle helmets vary. A lot of it is about fit. Theoretically, more expensive helmets are designed to reduce wind noise. In reality it's a bit more random than that.

Some bikes have screens, some do not. Depending on rider height, you can have varying degrees of wind noise and buffeting with them.

Some of the worst culprits in my experience have been full enclosure helmets, with random whistling or wind roar. No wonder some riders wear ear plugs! Open face helmets I have found to be quieter which seems to be counter intuitive. Perhaps due to padding round the ears which keeps the wind out. Despite all that, I've found that at round town speeds when you are most likely to be mingling with traffic I can hear my surroundings quite well whatever the helmet.

An open face helmet is helpful here as your peripheral vision is not restricted. Primary safety, eg open face helmet increasing awareness, able to look downwards easily, ability to talk to people, helpful in avoiding accidents, vs secondary safety, eg full enclosure helmet potentially minimising damage should you have one.

Being a glasses wearer I've never liked full enclosure helmets much, but fortunately there's a middle course since flip front helmets were developed, combines the benefits of both types. Flip up for round town, flip down out of town.

If your bike is sounding a bit rattly and in need of a tune up, buying a new helmet can transform the sound of it as old padding gradually compresses and lets in sound. A new helmet is tight until it beds in, and damps down the sound. So if the noisy rider in the OP bought a new helmet, he might take a drill to his exhaust to keep what he hears to the same level while annoying even more people!
 

oxoman

Well-Known Member
Personally can't stand motorbikes as lost a few mates when I was young and had hair. However I digress, guy i see on a Harley locallt which is very noisy wears a Jerry style Army Helmet. I suspect he's either death or wears earplugs of some sort. Plenty of big penis prats driving big noisy cars as well. A few little noisy ones as well.
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
Personally can't stand motorbikes as lost a few mates when I was young and had hair. However I digress, guy i see on a Harley locallt which is very noisy wears a Jerry style Army Helmet. I suspect he's either death or wears earplugs of some sort. Plenty of big penis prats driving big noisy cars as well. A few little noisy ones as well.

Can't stand Harleys, they sound like dumper trucks are slow and handle like pigs on ice. Still the 'biker'crowd love em.
 

steveindenmark

Legendary Member
Do motorcycle helmets allow you to hear your surroundings? That's another serious question by the way as I've never worn one. Plus, not many cars make such a noise as the motorbike I heard.

A lot of riders wear ear plugs inside their helmets to reduce wind noise. So you hear very little of the surround noise. Just the same as it is in a car.

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lazybloke

Ginger biscuits and cheddar
Location
Leafy Surrey
A loud exhaust doesn't really make any difference; some would say loud pipes save lives
Some motorbike exhausts are painfully loud, and some utter *uckwit riders just cant help dropping a gear, opening the throttle and close-passing with an ear-splitting noise.

Complete idiots.
 
Well round near my patch on the roads bikers like to tour on there is no bike noisier than a supersports with a race pipe and some idiot in race leathers (the ones with is it lead pads on the knees) thinking they are some superbike 12 times world champion taking corners at speed. even if they are on the wrong side of the road. Used to always see on those roads those Think Bike signs when it should be think car windscreen or bonnet signs aimed at those biker idiots instead!

BTW that is one nice Enfield upthread. Now that is one bike I like!! A nice, classic cafe racer / cruiser is about right. Even as a non-biker indeed anti biker due to experiences round here, that bike is to be appreciated.

There was a TV show on Quest or DMAX I think where this Welsh garage turns ICE classic cars into EVs with a custom conversion. Well they did a classic motorbike once and turned it into an electric motorbike that was actually pretty capable. Plus quiet!!! IMO this is the way forwards with motorbikes. That and limited to a slower acceleration and speed if at all possible. Then you only need rider aids as interfering as car ones so when it detects them going round the wrong side of a bend it cuts out or throws them over the hedge or something. All safely of course!!! :whistle:
 

Vapin' Joe

Formerly known as Smokin Joe
Being a glasses wearer I've never liked full enclosure helmets much, but fortunately there's a middle course since flip front helmets were developed, combines the benefits of both types. Flip up for round town, flip down out of town.
The best thing that happened to helmets. I hate the claustrophobic feeling of of a conventional full face and before flip up fronts I stuck to an open face. I've heard people talk about face plants, but I've never heard of an actual incident, so if they do happen I think they are extremely rare. They don't seem to bother cyclists descending cols at 60mph.
 
Some motorbike exhausts are painfully loud, and some utter *uckwit riders just cant help dropping a gear, opening the throttle and close-passing with an ear-splitting noise.

Complete idiots.

Those are probably illegal race pipes or road legal (technically) pipes that are actually not very acoustic in normal use but they meet stupidly easy to beat road legal tests.

As to the rider level of idiocy there are a few indicators. If you add enough of them together you get a good organ donor candidate! Supersport bike, race pipe way too noisy, Race leathers with extra points for those pads on the knees that the racers on superbikes have to brush the tarmac with on the bends. Add all of them together as they park up you can bet they are idiots when moving. Check out Devils Bridge area the weekend before or after IoM TT weeks. You will see plenty and if driving the other way to them round those bends up there is actually scary at times.

Still I do hope they all get home safely. My cousin had a high speed bike accident and was very lucky to survive but then he was definiitely an idiot on a bike from late teens onwards. He was expected to die so they flew him home in an air ambulance so he could die near his mum. He survived but it is a very good reason as to why I do not liike bikes personally as a mode of transport and leisure. I prefer a bicycle because whilst still vulnerable it is much harder to reach the speeds where you are a danger to yourself like motorbikes.

PS My grandad was always against his sons or daughter getting bikes so they never did. However he had one when young, a BSA. I think that convinced him to be against it for his kids.
 
One piece of advise I read about riding bikes, dress for the ride not the weather. That was accompanied by two cartoons of two bikers who had come off their bike. The one with leathers had torn leathers but unharmed. The other was in shorts and t-shirt with their bones showing where they came off!!
 

a.twiddler

Veteran
The best thing that happened to helmets. I hate the claustrophobic feeling of of a conventional full face and before flip up fronts I stuck to an open face. I've heard people talk about face plants, but I've never heard of an actual incident, so if they do happen I think they are extremely rare. They don't seem to bother cyclists descending cols at 60mph.
Early flip front helmets tended to be clunky, draughty things but they're better designed nowadays.

Never experienced a faceplant myself, or seen or known anyone who experienced one, but someone always brings it up if I talk about open face helmets. An urban myth? Something that other people think you shouldn't wear with no personal experience of of the subject, much like non cyclists insisting on helmet wearing though they don't cycle themselves? It's like there's a basic human urge to tell others what's best for them. (Surely not!)

One effect of wearing an open helmet is that you ride more slowly than if you had a full enclosure helmet. Risk compensation, or whatever it might be. You can smell the flowers, listen to the birds as you chug around town while keeping an eye out for inattentive road users and other hazards.

I'm not surprised that cruiser dudes favour them as they roll slowly by emitting tractor like noises, giving others the chance to to enjoy the work that went into polishing all that chrome.

Me, I'm not into chrome, but I can appreciate the appeal. But then, I just like motorbikes.
 
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