Last week we told you about the plan in Nanaimo, B.C., to crack down on motorcyclists with random roadside inspections. It seems the police didn’t waste any time implementing the new program – bikers are already getting hassled by the cops. Now, some of them are using Facebook to fight back.
Fed up with what they consider to be unjust profiling, riders are starting to join a Facebook group called Boycott Naniamo, BC. Apparently spelling isn’t their strong point. But, who cares about that? This is a collection of a few dozen angry bikers (it’s an open group, but only 62 members have actually joined at this point) who are planning to strike back at the British Columbia town.
The group’s riders seem to be bothered by the public’s lack of interest in their loud pipes, but they don’t seem to be too worried about the RCMP’s plan to crack down on unsafe motorcycle helmets and unlicensed riders – at least, not yet.
Now, this isn’t a bikesploitation film – you’re not going to see a horde of angry leather-clad riders tearing around town, getting boozed up, and swinging medieval weapons at road signs. They’re smart enough to take aim at the town where it hurts: their wallets.
Whether town council likes it or not, biker tourism spreads a lot of money around, and whether or not the police likes it, their salaries are paid by town council and its constituents. So, while we don’t approve of riding around like an idiot, blasting the neighbours with a straight exhaust, and wearing an unsafe helmet, we take an even dimmer view of unwarranted and unfair harassment of motorcycles. Maybe the Facebook group is the start of a movement that will push back against motorcycle discrimination – but hopefully, bikers are also getting the message that across this country, loud pipes are losing riders their rights.
Good but the RCMP are not doing nearly enough in my opinion. Sure at first they crack down like any department does with a new policy but after a few weeks or a summer and its mostly forgotten and all the uneducated lowlifes take off their “standby” exhaust that they keep for just such cases and put back on their “im a retard who enjoys being a total jagoff to everyone within 2 miles of me” straight pipes.
Not to seem like a complete knob I agree with some of the comments on here about the coffee can exhaust on jap cars and noisy trucks using engine brakes in town (because they are too stupid to flick a switch on the dash) and that we need much more “all around” noise enforcement on cars, trucks and bikes.
I rode a mc for years and while I know they are noisier than cars when accel heavily I never found the need to damage my own hearing by replacing the factory installed pipes. It is just plain rudeness to drive around annoying everyone (esp at night) be it a car, truck or mc driver. They are all equal in my eyes and should be dealt with in the same manner. It is too bad people in South Nanaimo dont have any style and trade in those HD crap bikes for a much more appealing and better made BMW cycle.
Agreed. There are much more desirable tourist groups Nanaimo should be be attracting. Load pipes do nothing but disturb everyone around them and demonstrated the bikers ignorance.
boo hoo hoo for them. Loud pipes are just a sign of uneducated retards suffering from penis envy that annoys the shit out of everyone around them. Up the fines with each ticket as im sure they have several sets of pipes they switch back and forth with.
I live on highway 97 in Peachland BC, between Kelowna and Penticton. The roar of loud pipe motorcycles is terrible from spring to fall. Sure wish noise laws were enforced here. I have been riding for 50 years and see no benefit to noise other than to make people mad. Grrrrrrrr.
Bob
Same reason I stopped participating in the Ride For Dad.
Stop and go in first gear for several hours surrounded by open pipe bikes with their idiot posers blipping the throttle incessantly…well, you get the picture.
I send in my donation every year, and I miss the rest of the fun.
Difficult to feel indignation, sympathy, or anything other than contempt.
Beautiful area where you live Bob, my dad used to live in Osoyoos.
Cheers
I have often wondered why they have to keep twisting the throttle at idle. Are those HD bikes so poorly built they require that. I drove sport bikes for many years and always sat upright at traffic lights with my hands off the throttle. I never had the need to keep reving it at idle.
Loud pipes will save lives …… If you re-direct them forward ….
The jury has gone home long time ago ….. only some people keep bringing up the non-existing benefit and excuse to run overly noisy exhaust system on a street bike!
So the loud pipe bikers will boycott Nanaimo? I am sure they will be missed. Maybe they should extend their boycott to the rest of Canada, teach everybody not to mess with them.
Say goodbye to the Nanaimo toy run, I’m sure the kid’s won’t notice what the biker’s do. By the way, city buses are louder than the majority of bikes, let’s ban those too.
Good god you are right. I used to live right on East Broadway in East Van and the HD’s were noisy esp if they were taking off at the green light but they take a second to those Translink double length buses that run up and down East Broadway. When their turbo kicks in and stays reving for 10 or 15 seconds it is almost as loud as a jet on the tarmac at YVR reving up to take off. It is almost painful to the ears and yet those are 100% legal. They should not be legal but you cant screw with translink as they are like an untouchable God in Metro.
The jury may still be out as to whether loud pipes actually do save lives, but one thing is for certain: loud pipes really annoy most people. They annoy me, and I’ve been a motorcycle enthusiast for 30 years. The souped-up Civics with the coffee can exhausts are loud, but big V-twin cruisers with straight pipes and crotch rockets with “racing mufflers” are obnoxious. Motorcyclists need to realize that we are in the minority and are often looked down upon by non-motorcyclists. Loud pipes simply widen the rift. Motorcycles are already banned in many communities and campgrounds because of the loud pipe issue. Riding, like driving, is a privilege, and one that can be taken away from us. So, smarten the f#@% up and keep the stock pipes on before more communities ban us from riding there.
Bob, I would substitute Bad for Dumb and then I’m in total agreement with you.
I live on a four lane, main north south route, just north of the 401 in Toronto. Yeah, Yeah, I think it’s a hole too, but that’s not the point… The constant traffic, almost bumper to bumper, a good 12-14hrs a day, also a main truck route, only has one constant irritant.
Yes, I here the loud pipe dumbass, and the rocket ronnie rice rocket launch from the lights every time… Rednecks in pickups and big trucks working hard to get going from the lights or using the jake brake (in light mode), and they are not all that bad… The worst, most irritating is the ‘Boom Boom Boom, BBBBRRRARAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappPPPPPP, Boom Boom, Tissss Tisss Tisss Boom Boom Boom’ that drowns all that other stuff out.
I’m really tempted to find or build a sound or electromagnetic pulse gun that does in speakers or electronics that make all that noise…
I like the music cranked a bit sometimes too, but rattling my windows, drowning out the radio in the kitchen, and the traffic on the street is a little much…
Make the rules apply to ALL vehicles.
The truth is that you will always get more attention from the police on a motorcycle. Accept it. Noise bylaws should be enforced equally among all vehicles, but as a motorcylist the loudest bikes I encoutered on a 22,000k trip last summer were in BC. I think that some have an exhaust that seems to amplify the sound out there. I am pissed that some campgrounds require me to agree not to start my bike until after 8:00am before giving me a campspot. All because some wanabe badasses needed attention early in the morning. Serious bikers have become the victims of the insensitive noisy few.
If they would make the bylaws equal across the board, they wouldn’t have these problems…yes, bikers have the reputation with the straightpipe Harley’s and the free flowing exhaust on the super sport bikes, but what about the kids with the coffee can exhaust on their Honda Civic, or the trucks with the glass packs & diesel trucks belching black crap …
But I guess it is easier to “crack down on those bad bikers…”, than it is to catch and prove someone is texting or talking on a cell phone while driving (laws that already exist, but aren’t enforced)…I mean really, shouldn’t public safety come before pestering a guy on a bike?? even if he does have loud exhaust…it’s annoying, but not unsafe…
Later.
As someone who does live on Vancouver Island, I second the above comment. I’m running stock mufflers on my ’07 Dyna, but still feel the cops will just hassle me, and any fellow riders. My friends and I are just shopping elsewhere. Good-bye Nanaimo.