I’m interested in getting an electric motorcycle, but something I’ve been wondering:
ICE motorcycles can be loud, and that can act as a safety feature, especially when lane splitting. I’m thinking about Los Angeles, where motorcycles regularly weave through bumper-to-bumper car traffic. The noise they make helps prevent riders from getting accidentally doored.
Do electric motorcycles have any kind of artificial noise maker to achieve the same thing? Or does anyone sell a device that does this?
Note that I’m not talking about generic speakers, because
- I don’t want to have to blast music all the time just for safety, and
- most speaker kits are pointed BACK at the driver, not FORWARD towards traffic.
Anyone know the answer?
I question the premise entirely. I’ve seen “loud pipes are safer” quoted endlessly, but never any data to back it up.
Are there already quiet scooters weaving through traffic? If so I wouldn’t be any more worried on a quiet bike.
Its not. And the sound is pointing the wrong direction for most crashes.
I’m very irritated when loud motorcycles drive by. It’s noise pollution, it’s antisocial.
Some googling came up with this chart, listing motorcycles as 4-8 times louder than cars.
This post refers to a Romanian study which found loud motorcycles are not more likely to be heard by drivers unless right next to the vehicle.
With the advent of electric motorcycles there should be regulations mandating they have the same volume ceiling as other vehicles.
They weave through slow moving city traffic, not highway traffic anywhere I’ve seen.
Weaving through fast traffic is never safe, no matter how loud you are.
That doesn’t stop people from doing it, and it also doesn’t invalidate the statement that louder is safer in that context.
Scooters and motorcycles are not and will never be the same.
Quiet scooters arent on highways and interstates- places where traffic will still back up and lane splitting is perfectly legal, even with traffic still moving.
Loud pipes really do save lives. This is an extremely valid concern
Can you show the data to back that up? The person you are replying to said, “never (seen) any data to back it up.”
https://www.autoweek.com/news/industry-news/a35952569/loud-pipes-do-not-save-lives/
That’s the only study I can find anywhere on the internet, and it is refuting your statement.
My source is I rode a bike for over a decade and several times had folks drifting into my lane that corrected when I revved my engine and they heard me because they couldn’t see me. Likewise when lane splitting when I rode in California where that was legal at the time I noticed that if I rolled up in neutral folks would try to merge in front of each other jockeying for the closest spot and nearly slam into me, but if I opened the throttle a bit as I cruised down they could hear me and wouldn’t merge right into me.
My evidence is anecdotal as I rode for years, but never published a peer reviewed research paper on the subject. Take it for what you will. The main argument in that link you posted is that it’s harder to hear the motorcycle in today’s modern cars as they block a lot of noise out. Sure seems like if you had really loud pipes they might hear you anyway, thus proving my point with their own argument. But that’s just basic logic.
So what you’re saying is, even with your loud pipes, people didn’t hear you even when they were almost on top of you, so you had to create more noise again? Sounds like your loud pipes did nothing, and you needed a decent horn.
I’ve been riding in the UK for about 15 years, and filtering is legal here. When you’re in a car, you can’t hear bikes until they’re next to you or have just passed you, and that’s including the ground shaking cruisers.
You intentionally ignored my point. I didn’t say I had overly loud pipes. I said folks were more likely to notice me when I gave it some revs while splitting/etc rather than just coasting. It’s easier to hear more noise than less noise, this is very basic. What’s also very basic is riding is a numbers game. Everything you do, you are tweeting to improve your odds of survival. So the upside of louder pipes is the possibility that more folks will hear you and notice you and possibly not run into you. That’s a big bonus. The downside is, well nothing as long as you pick ones that sound good to you. Yeah, some guy might have his windows up and his music blasting and not be able to hear you no matter how loud your pipes are. Ok? Who cares? I’m still improving my odds by getting a larger chunk of drivers to notice/hear me. Just because I can’t get 100% conversion doesn’t mean I super just give up entirely
The downside is you’re annoying everyone you drive past every day. Get a damn horn, that’s what they’re invented for.
Wouldn’t the horn have been faster, more effective, and not require you to go into neutral (by pulling the clutch)?
OK so you can ride around like a kid on a bike constantly squawking a horn every time cars are near you, always smashing that little horn button, after you upgraded it of course so people could actually hear it. Or you could have some nice sounding pipes that when you rev, folks can hear. I know what I’d rather have. If you want to ride around with your little horn go ahead, that’s your prerogative
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