More good publicity... NOT.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/dorset/3694245.stm

 

On the other hand you have to concede that the one police officer they
quote has a point in saying that people should be riding within their
capabilities...

 

Timo Geusch said:

Quite - the bad publicity is down to the gits who ride beyond their
abilities and crash. The old bill and the 'safety' lobby are always
going to cash in on stuff like this, and (as bikers generally) we
continue to give them the ammunition to snipe at bikers until we are
legislated off the roads.

 

"Simon Atkinson <> " <>

Careful, a bit too much like common sense.

Now, throw in something about the offense caused by loud pipes and I'm
completely aligned.

 

said:

Now you've got me started.

I can understand the need for louder pipes in racing where every 0.1bhp
can make a difference. On the road, if your bike doesn't make enough
power, buy a bigger/faster/more powerful one. It's not difficult.

I happen to think that most modern bike exhausts are a bit mingy
sounding, a quiet but more basso profundo note would be nicer, but
obviously isn't all that popular with buyers as the manufacturers will
only sell bike that (within the confines of the law) make a noise that
the punters like.

Having a quiet exhaust (IMHO) is a good way to get away with a bit more
hoonery than you could with a loud pipe - a quiet bike 'sounds' 10 mph
slower than a noisy one anytime.

 

"Simon Atkinson wrote:

(Snip)

The problem is that up to the point where they crash I expect that they
believe that they *are* riding within their capabilities. Why would they do
otherwise?

 

Kevin Lambert said:

Because they are underskilled and undertrained fuckwits? They must know
that they are fuckwits.

 

Oh, hell, I'll bite.

I put an Akrapovic full titanium race system on my CBR. The reasons
were thus: it looked nicer, it was better quality, and it got rid of
the enormous flat-spot in the middle of the rev-range (the one created
so the bike met emissions levels, etc).

If the legislation was a bit better, the standard system could have
passed the tests without fucking up the power delivery; if Honda had
designed an exhaust that looked pleasing to the eye, and if they'd
made it look like it was made of out something a bit better than an
old filing cabinet - I'd have had no need to replace it.

It wasn't about "power". If it was, I'd have bought a
bigger/faster/more powerful bike.

hth

 

Ben Blaney said:

I wasn't fishing really...

If you could have got an exhaust that met the noise regs, and at the
same time reduced the flat spot and looked nice, would you have chosed
that?

I suppose, I am trying to say, how much did the better
(louder/throatier) sound influence your decision?

Did you consider other options at all? Power Commander (to help reduce
the flat sopt) and standard can for example?

It does.

I would like a nice throaty sounding exhaust, but do too many miles to
ponce about with rectification tickets and don't like to attract too
much attention.

Also the Pan isn't really the sort of bike for that sort of
shennanigans. A lot more power on the Pan is released by sorting the
air box restrictions.

 

snip

Nah, you're letting logic and reason mislead you again.
If that was the case then, given that DoT's (or was it ROSPA's) recent
statistics ...... well alright some bundle of lies cited by our local paper
...... showed 2 in 3 fatal RTAs in the region was down to the old and feeble
inadvertently topping themselves and using a cage to do it, the target would
be the old and feeble.
Not a bit of it.
Well except that refreshing bit toward the end of last week about the old
loon given 6 points and a hefty fine for fkn up the rural Dundee area roads
by driving at 5, that's 5, mph for ages!

But that's a one-off.

The real reason they pick on Bikes is they're Bikes.
Traditional, handy political pariah group scape-goat.

Lots of people are either afraid of or jealous. So its obligatory to
pick-on us.

And when I see the antics of the 50cc scooter mob and the Gillera DNfknAs I
gotta admit I don't wonder that so many cage drivers hate us (all two
wheelers are the same to a moron) and I do wonder how come half their riders
survive a fortnight.


--
Nidge
ZX6R J2 Stunning in zit yellow. KX 125 MX 'I'm snot green -fly ME'. A few
bits of CB500S in Norwegian Parrot blue. BOTAFOT#63

'Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand'.
Homer (Simpson).

 

Champ said:

Maybe not fifteen years, but it's a while since I had anything too
noisy.

Aye... We can sit here in our comfy cardigans and not need to rush
around...

 

I just love to make you happy, though.

I honestly don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. If not, it would out of
stubborn-ness. I don't see the Max Power boys having noise
restrictions, and so on. And if there are, they're not enforced. So
**** the police, I'll have one too. As you know, I don't mind obeying
good laws - but I don't give a **** about breaking bad ones.

I can't separate the sound from the power. If there was a noisy one
that didn't remove the flat-spot, I wouldn't have had it - but it's
all irrelevant because sound = power, as a basic rule.

It wasn't a fuel-injected bike.

Well, I had that CBR for three years after getting the race system,
and never got pulled, and never got a rectification notice. Ditto the
Bandit, though it was never on the road long enough between crashes.

 

Nidge said:

I think this is wrong...

This is the reason, but some of the 50cc scooter mob never grow up.

 

Ben Blaney said:

You're such a darling...

I agree with all that - especially about the tossers with the bean can
exhausts on shitbox novas and the like. They seem to have less trouble
at MOT time too. Ged knows why.

I think I'd rather get a record for failing to get an ID card than for
failing to abate a noisy exhaust though.

While that is true, like all things, there are degrees of both possible.

Good point. Although (I believe) that many non-injected bikes suffer in
the midrange as the timing is retarded to quieten the engine for the
noise tests. Would a PC (of some sort) not sort out the timing?

That's good really. I am the sort that would be pulled as I rode off my
driveway. I suppose it's all down to luck and how much Ged loves you...

I also go to work at an ungodly hour each morning, and don't want to
piss off my neighbours too much.

 

Hmmmm! I retire this year and I've never yet been stopped by the police
on my bike. Car, yes, but bike never. So what have I been doing
right/wrong for the last nigh on 50 years? It's not just being on a
bike, or being a tosser on a bike, but being a total, unobservant tosser
on a bike.

--
Dave Remove my gerbil for email replies.

Bike's are bosh, PC's are pointless, and the 1990's are nuts!
Bikes are great, PCs are super, and the 1990s are the time to be!
Save the apostrophe! Get 'em right! If in doubt, leave 'em out!!

 

"Simon Atkinson <> " <>

Exactly.

And get pulled over with a loud pipe, small number plate, dark visor
etc. and you've immediately failed the attitude test.

Oh, but it does give you a good chance to moan that "it's not fair, look
at what the Nova Boys get away with" etc. etc. etc.

 

Well, I got pulled with a loud pipe, a dark visor, jeans and trainers
- pulled for 107mph over 3.5 miles (including stopping and giving way
at a roundabout).

I must have passed the attitude test, because I got away with a
bollocking.

Or maybe it was the full-sized numberplate.

I know the game well enough not to pull that one out of the bag at the
crucial moment!

 

The noisiest bike I own has standard pipes.

The Promotives on the Blackbird have put *several* pedestrians back on
the pavement over the years.

"If it saves just one life..."

I have been pulled for speeding on it, and the officer concerned never
mentioned them, except to point out that the noise drew his attention
to me in the first place. The fact that this was in the Limehouse Link
probably didn't help.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..64741../..15361.../..3157./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17
'^' RBR-Visited:14 Pts: 270 Miles:1248

 

I think [1] that this is the one that pisses them off more than
anything.

It's the perceived intention behind it, I reckon.

[1] On no evidence whatsoever, just a feeling.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..64741../..15361.../..3157./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17
'^' RBR-Visited:14 Pts: 270 Miles:1248

 

Andy Bonwick said:

Old fucker over the road looks on it as his civic duty to check the tax
disc of every parked car he sees.