The Quebec government is going to look into the loud pipes issue.
Or is that, listen into the issue?
For the next three years, the Quebec government is running a pilot project where they’re going to be checking the noise levels of mopeds, scooters and motorcycles. According to their press release, they’ll be using sound level meters “provided by the SAAQ and used by peace officers who have received the required training.”
If any two-wheeler is over a sound level based on Transport Canada manufacturing standards, they’ll receive a ticket between $100 and $200. If the rider refuses to co-operate with a sound check, they can be fined $200-$300. Reportedly, the testing procedure will be done in French, the official language of the Quebec government.
Why the crackdown? According to the government, loud pipes can be a “source of distraction for road users and disturb the peace and tranquility of residents.” So, next time you see a loud-piped cruiser out saving lives, thank the rider for their service, but remind them noise comes at a price (apparently, between $100 and $200 in Quebec).
5 years.. now.. should they give ticket already and get rid of those pipe?
My house is situated ride before a long uphill that starts a beautiful ride into a the country of the outskirts of my city. The issue I see and you can crucify me for saying it as I has numerous sport bike with race exhausts and a triumph t120 and the whine of the sport bike ilouder than stock…no doubt.
I have spent thousands of dollars lightening my bike weight and the pipe adds to performance. The hill that I referred to is also used by the Harley enthusiasts and the reason for pipes does seem to be different as adding chrome and the heaviest metals doesn’t seem that performance is the main reason for the pipe especially since removal of a baffle out a stock pipe is done purely to be noticed. Unfortunately being noticed is affecting us all because it’s noticed for the wrong reason. Now I’m not saying sportbikes are not also a problem with squids in the downtown on rev-limiters I just taking about the professionals by day, SOA riders with neoprene skeleton masks in the summer no less throttling through the downtown that are going to screw it all up!
Did anyone ever consider the amount of money poured into the local economy by touring bikers?
Nothing screams louder than “stay out of Quebec”
I have a Harley with Screamin’ Eagle pipes that sounds nice but i don’t find it excessively loud but i am not going to chance a ticket regardless – i can find lots of places to cruise around in Ontario or US that will appreciate the summer tourist dollars
Did you ever consider the people who live in the neighbourhoods that these bikes are cruising through, and how they have to listen to that horrible noise at all hours of the day during riding season?
Good.. then dont come here, We dont need loud pipe ass.. that need to be notice.. and wear a harley t-shirts so everyone knows they own a harley.. Grow up and think of the popuplation that dont want to be disturbed by loud pipe in a neirghboorhood
Nice post thanks to share this all information here….
Why they apply this pilot project only to motorcycle??? I hear and see a lot of car and truck and train and airplane and so one that make as much if not more noise then motorcycle. To me it is a discrimination against motorcyclist. AGAIN!!!!
Truth is nothing it changed here except the methodology is now more scientific. The previous “test” was jamming a coat hanger in your tailpipe. If it passed through, regardless of volume and or EPA markings, you failed and you got ticketed. Ask me how I know. Now they are going to use decibel meters.
Publicizing the issue and targeting riders specifically is indicative of the viscious attitude Quebec has towards motorcyclists in general. We still pay over 1100$ a year to register arbitrarily determined “high risk” bikes on top of our regular insurance – over 550$ if you are lucky enough to be riding what they deem a standard low risk bike.
Again Gubmints use the actions of a few to make it bad for the many … and make a tax grab in the process. While I don’t condone the Decibel Cowboys (regardless of what type of Bike they Ride), I do feel that motorcyclists generally are being unfairly targeted as the main culprits of noise pollution, when clearly there are, as has already been pointed out, other and sometimes worse generators of un-wanted noise on our roadways and in our neighborhoods. Target ALL noise pollution if it is in fact noise pollution that is the problem … singling out motorcycles is hypocritical …
Finally a market for that huge inventory of discarded stock Harley Mufflers. And many here thought I was crazy for hoarding all that chrome. :)))
I could never figure out why a loud pipe on a bike or car, that you hear for maybe 5-10 seconds as it passes by ypur home, can “disturb the peace and tranquility of residents”, while your next-door neighbor (or his lawn-service guy) can run a noisey mower for an hour or more, but no-one seems to mind.
Noisy mowers early on a weekend morning have been the cause of neighbourhood wars all bloody well over the place. Don’t know what area you’re from, but various municipalities around North America have legislation to strictly control the times that mowing is allowed. Why? It’s not because nobody cared.
As for the loud pipes, I remember having a sleepless night with my daughter once when she was horribly sick. Not more than 15 minutes after she finally fell asleep, some window-rattling @$$h@t rode by and awoke her, setting off another 6 hours of grief. I would have gleefully gone for severe bodily harm that day. Sometimes, 5-10 seconds make all the difference in the world.
It’s more than a few seconds when a group of motorcycles with loud pipes pass by, not to mention the added volume when the sound of multiple vehicles is combined.
The sound of lawn mowers early in the morning is also an unwelcome disturbance, and should not be used to justify loud pipes.
Around here, when a loud bike (mostly Harleys) pass by – it sounds like the world is coming to an end. It isn’t unusual for car alarms to be going off from parked cars down the street. Neighbourhood lawn mowers don’t have that kind of effect. Their sound is much more tolerable.
It’s not the one bike that goes by the house for 5-10 seconds, it’s the parades of bikes that come through all day, every day during riding season.
I support cracking down on excessive noise, in general, although I don’t know why the crackdown should be limited to bikes – there are plenty of rice-boys with fart cans on their crapmobiles, muscle cars and pickups with Flowmasters and the like, and heavy trucks (semis, mostly) with no mufflers, all of which produce excessive noise and disturb the peace. I’d like to see all of these, along with the straight-pipe morons and race-can idiots, brought to heel. Actually, I don’t know what happened in recent years, because in my youth (in the 80s) having an excessively loud car would get you hassled by the cops repeatedly. Straight-piped cruisers used to be pretty much only ridden by the truly antisocial (1%ers and wannabes, not a bunch of RUBs in pirate garb).