Mufflers generally point backward, so, by the time you hear the motorcycle, it's already going past.
As a motorcycle rider, I don't like loud pipes because it gives non-riders a bad image of riders, and more reason to make rules against them.
Some neighborhoods, condo associations and other municipalities have banned motorcycles, primarily due to noise issues.
I did a search and here are some of the hits that came up:
http://www.canyonlakemotorcycleclub.com/
http://www.noisefree.org/motorcycles/loudpipes.html
http://www.mrf.org/articles/1998/chicago.html
http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=606
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...55C0A960958260
Here is a quote from the first link:
Quote:
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WHY ARE MOTORCYCLES PROHIBITED IN OUR COMMUNITY? The three reasons for the ban is noise, noise, and noise.
...The irritating noise that most residents associate with motorcycles being loud occurs when an illegal after-market exhaust pipe that exceeds state law has been installed. Harley-Davidson motorcycles with legal exhaust pipes are not loud. Patrol officers used them within Canyon Lake to enforce school bus violations and there were no complaints about their noise (only their presence). The noise issue would also be easy to enforce--cycles that exceed state standards would not be able to operate within the community.
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A noise study showed that a single loud motorcycle traveling through Paris in the middle of the night would be heard by 200,000 people. That's a lot of people to irritate just so you can have loud pipes.