Do Loud Pipes Really Save Lives?

I’ve seen it on T-shirts, patches, hats and stickers, the “loud pipes save lives” verbiage.  Back in my sport bike riding days I used to just roll my eyes, picturing some yuppie on a shiny new Harley sitting at a stoplight revving the crap out of his engine until you couldn’t hear yourself think.  I really hated those guys and pretty much considered HDs to be obnoxiously loud, under powered, stink machines for dummies with too much money.  Running my sport bike to and from work every day for years taught me a lot of things about the nature of people on the roads…that the human being while behind a steering wheel is an intellectually challenged, antisocial, borderline homicidal sociopath with a tendency to find anything in the world more interesting than actually driving.  People came over into my lane without looking on a daily occasion, using my turn signals only invited people to speed up to prevent me from getting in front of them and people in any driveway, yielding green light or stop sign at any intersection just couldn’t wait to pull out in front of me so that I would have to slam on my brakes in order to prevent buffing their roof or hood with my butt.  In fact it got so bad that I just started to anticipate it, everywhere I went and just thought it was a normal part of riding.  I wore a Joe Rocket UFO jacket with all the reflective patches and piping on it.  My Ninja was silver and orange and I was fond of loud colored accessories.  I was about as visible as Richard Simmons at a Republican political rally but it still wasn’t enough.  People drove around like I simply wasn’t there.

A couple of years later, a friend of mine finally convinced me to buy a Harley.  I didn’t have much money so I was looking for a steal when I found an XL883C, 2005 with low miles on it that I just couldn’t live without and within a couple of months I was back on the road again.  The bike was noticeably louder than my Ninja was but I still had the occasional cager pulling into my lane without looking, still had trouble at intersections (though less so) and still had people speeding up to prevent me from getting into their lane, pretty much par for the course though I did notice that it was happening less frequently.  Finally one day I got the bike rejetted and the mechanic asked me to fire it up.  I did and he made a sour face and said “that doesn’t sound right” and looked up my tailpipe (which had VTwin Mfg. slip ons with baffles).  He stood back up and said to me “you gotta pull those baffles out, your strangling your bike with those things”.  So I promptly went home and did just that.  When I fired up the bike afterwards it sounded like the end of the world was coming, huge rumbling sound but with raspy overtones that just “hurt” the ears, even still I was thrilled.  After riding around for a week or so like that I noticed not a single car came into my lane, I felt like I literally owned intersections because everyone was looking my way and that cars pulling out of parking lots and driveways yielded without any swerving, locking brakes or frantic steering on my part.  Everywhere I went people stared…then I realized it was because I had become “that guy”.  The dude with the obnoxiously loud bike revving the crap out of his engine at intersections (though I generally did not do that and still don't) so back to the mechanic I went. 

I told him I liked the attention my bike was getting, people were getting out of my way and were no longer cutting me off or stealing my lane but that the harsh, raspy, out of control exhaust note just seemed over the top.  We figured out lollipop (a type of quasi-almost-baffle-thingy) might be the answer given the narrowness of my pipes combined with their overall length (which were full length).  It worked like a charm, I still had a monstrous exhaust note, very deep and resounding but it didn’t make small kids cry every time I would ride by, maybe just run to their parents instead.  I was satisfied that cagers could hear me and therefore be aware I was in the immediate vicinity.

As I thought about it I started paying attention to my own driving habits while in a cage.  Whenever I was driving alone, listening to talk radio or even some music I could definitely hear some bikes.  Whenever listening to loud music I could still here a few bikes while riding, though it was usually those riders using the skinny, trashy and classically cool drag pipes ala Cycle Shack or the like.  Now granted I was kind of looking for motorcycles but I absolutely believe that loud pipes give you more presence. Certainly more than reflective piping on your jacket or an orange t-shirt would. 

(Cycle Shacks are a true American classic but have had some people seeing red for decades.)

So do loud pipes really save lives?  In my opinion there is no doubt, but they are still no substitute for skill and attentiveness while riding.  Cagers will still find ways to distract themselves and not everyone registers the resounding exhaust note of a v-twin with “there’s a motorcycle in my vicinity”.  In my riding years I’ve noticed men tend to note the sound of a motorcycle by looking more often than women do and that the most menacing thing on the road is an SUV driving soccer mom on the cell phone.  Trust me, you could strap a foghorn to your butt and set yourself on fire and she will still not hear or see you and she’s always out there.

Now you might already be aware of this but not everyone shares my opinion.  For example the AMA “ The [AMA] believes that few other factors contribute more to misunderstanding and prejudice against the motorcycling community than excessively noisy motorcycles".  Additionally there are writers, motorcycle journalists and other enthusiasts who believe that overly loud motorcycles raise enough public ire as to result in laws that infringe on their respective rights.  Then of course there are the “scientific” studies that look at statistics where cruisers are involved in accidents and conclude that there is no demonstrable evidence suggesting that loud pipes do/have saved lives.  Of course they discount the fact that Harleys do not have the cornering, handling, braking, acceleration or generally eye catching color schemes that our sport bike counterparts have, yet we still are on the lower side of the accident bell curve.  It also discounts the fact that (sadly) some Harley owners are older, started riding much later in life, may be less experienced seasonal riders and may wear less safety gear than your average sport bike rider (but I don't think anyone has actually studied that).  Lastly, not every cruiser style bike is loud, in fact I’d say the majority including stock HD pipes are not loud by any stretch of the imagination (think Kawasaki Vulcan VN750 for example).  

For an example of a countering viewpoint there are people like this guy: http://www.virginiawind.com/byways/loud_pipes_save_lives.asp  At one point he reasons that cars cannot hear you when it matters because your pipes are not facing forward.  It’s worth noting this guy rides a touring BMW bike and does not ride what I would consider to be a “loud” bike, probably even calls himself a “motorcycle enthusiast” and who knows...may never have actually tried a loud bike but I digress.  Without getting too much into how sound waves work, let’s just put it like this, can you hear a bass guitar being played even if you’re not standing directly in front of the speaker?  Can you hear a trumpet, even if not standing directly in front of it? Can you hear a gun go off, even if it’s not pointed at you?  Can you hear a drag racer start up, even if you’re not standing directly behind or to the side of it?  Can you hear someone yelling even if they’re not facing you? Can you hear a motorcycle coming your way, even if you’re not immediately behind them? Alright, at some point you’ve got to use some common sense. 

(Do you think you'd hear this guy coming even if not directly in front of his pipes?)

Now I understand the sense against pissing off the general public, even though I think if all bikers were to do their part politically this would be a nonstarter as concerns go.  I also understand how some motorcyclists might feel that my actions may reflect poorly on them (not that I give a rat’s derriere, especially if they are not part of a politically involved organization to protect their rights) but what I cannot understand are some of these studies performed that attempt to get people to ignore their own experience and observations.  I cannot believe that my story is entirely unique, that others have not noticed the phenomenon that I notice.  I can believe however that there are some out there, who have never tried anything other than what they “know” believing whatever they’re told (after all, how do you think Obama got elected).  So even though it’s a controversial topic and my position may not agree with everyone else out there, loud pipes, whether politically correct or not, legal or not, polite or not, definitely save lives.