[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

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:


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.

WHAT HE SAID.

Loud pipes may be good for attracting attention from the car next to you if you are driving at an identical speed, but they have to be really loud and then that invokes the "just pisses people off and makes them hate bikes more principle", so it sort of negates the effect.