Spring has sprung, and the war between Canadian municipalities and motorcycles with loud pipes is getting underway once again.
This time, it’s the city of Edmonton once again planning to do battle with lovers of noisy motorcycles. The Albertan city has seen hit-and-miss results in their ongoing attempt to cut down on the rack from open exhausts. They tried to institute a crackdown in 2013, and most of the tickets were overturned in court. No matter! In 2014, the city’s leaders threatened to increase fines. Yet the loud pipes crowd hasn’t given up; they’re still out there, saving lives, but Edmonton is planning to try to stop them once again.
According to the Edmonton Sun, police are once again talking about action against loud motorcycles, as soon as they hit the streets this season. Police told the Sun part of the plan was to get traffic officers into local neighbourhoods, letting them more effectively combat noise issues. One offense nets you a $250 fine, a second ticket gets you a $500 fine, and a third earns you a court appearance. According to the Sun, “Three-or four-cylinder bikes revved to 5,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) must be quieter than 100 decibels. Other bikes must be quieter than 96 decibels while operating at 2,000 rpm.”
Although this is largely a cash grab, I can see that the general public (me included, and yes I ride) have had enough.
Picture this: last summer, the wifey and I stopped at a picturesque spot by the water in Port Stanley. The sound of the waves was interrupted by a group of Hardley’s pulling up, some with straight pipes. Of course, they can’t just ride up, they have to stop, rev it up, move a bit, rev it up, etc., before they finally (South) park it.
Faack.
Same thing when they left.
Pretty sure I didn’t see any lives saved either…
Yes, they should crack down on other vehicular noise offenders, too, like gasoline cars and pickups with overly loud exhausts (fairly rare now that the rice-boy craze appears to have died down), diesel pickups with ridiculously loud exhausts and emissions (no, I don’t think “rolling coal” is too clever), and also heavy trucks with no mufflers.
Having said that, bikes, mostly cruisers (and largely Harleys at that), with excessively loud exhausts are some of the worst, and most visible offenders. Don’t expect any sympathy from the general public if you’re getting hassled for your straight pipes. Don’t expect any from me, either.
stupid law,motorcycles are only 4% of the population, gas powered leaf blowers lawn mowers cars with custom exhausts,we have cigar boats with v8 engines,no mufflers.
Fact- loud pipes cause global warming,climate change.
Balls and Bullshit !!!!!!
I personally had two vehicles (separate incidents)try to merge onto me when riding. My louder exhaust (not insanely loud) saved me from being crushed against the meridian. It is not ‘stupidity’ You are obviously not a rider.
Loud pipes save lives
Dumb
More stupidity.
I think they should crack down on all loud pipes if they are going to do it, trucks, cars…POLICE cars, etc…..My loud pipes and my even louder horn has saved my life countless times….Why are the police wanting to put more people in danger?……Start pulling over trucks, cars, commercial vehicles etc, then I will start taking the police force seriously, until then they are still just looking for excuses to piss off motorcycle riders. If you are going to do a job do it properly, not half assed like this!!!
Have friends that work for EPS, it’s just a money grab as they tell me.
If noise is truly the issue, motorcycles are only on the roads half the year if that; so there are no other “noisy” vehicles the other half?