Alberta’s war on motorcycle noise is heating up, with the latest battleground taking shape in Rocky View County.
Last year, Edmonton made headlines by cracking down on loud pipes. They recently lost a high-profile court case over one of the noise tickets when a judge ruled their tests too unreliable to make the charges stick.


But, that loss hasn’t deterred Albertans in their desire for peace and quiet; instead, there’s news now that Rocky View County is looking into their own noise laws, after a survey showed residents are fed up with noisy bikes and trucks.
The Calgary Herald says county officials have a proposed bylaw to be reviewed by a public committee next week; if they approve it, the bylaw will need three council readings to pass. A county official says they already have the necessary testing equipment to enforce the law, should it pass. 

And what about Edmonton?
Instead of rolling over in defeat after their loss in court, the oil capital of Canada is ramping up its fight on motorcycle noise. The Metro newspaper says town council received a report this week saying residents found the war on noise effective, despite the court loss.
So, police in Edmonton are going to work even harder on the issue this summer. Instead of ticketing bikes at roadblocks as they did last summer, they’ll actively search out offenders on the streets. Officials are hoping this will quieten down loud neighbourhoods like Whyte Ave. – and we bet that extra ticket revenue will probably come in handy, too.
One of the knocks against other jurisdictions has been that the noise by-laws targetted motorcycles, singling them out over four wheeled vehicles. I note that Rocky View specifically mentions trucks, as well as bikes. As long as the regulation is applied to all road users, I don’t have a real problem with it.
RF
In the eighties I was pulled over many times on my BSA Firebird (the Firebird had unique mufflers to the other A65 bikes,no baffles) “what’s the problem officer” That exhaust is way to loud, “stock exhaust officer” No way, “Yup” OK carry on! Never went further than that. Mind you this was in the Banff, Canmore area!
I hate the racket from all the offenders as much as anybody, but I can understand why somebody wants to modify their bike. I expect the cops aren’t going to give you any grief unless you’re making too much noise and THEY hear it. Or if you’re just being a jerk. Even then, based on my interactions with cops I doubt they’ll pay attention to every noisy bike etc., they likely feel they have bigger/easier fish to fry.
If those who like such things had restricted themselves to pipes that only added a moderate amount of throatiness or rumble, we probably wouldn’t be seeing this backlash against loud bikes today. Unfortunately, there is a minority of riders (maybe a majority of cruiser types?) who love to make as much noise as possible, for whatever reason. Well, the chickens have come home to roost, and while I may in theory regret this loss of freedom, as someone who has generally found the OEM exhaust system just fine, I’m not too worried about it. The people who will be really hurt are those who run classic (or just plain old) bikes for which replacement OEM exhaust parts are no longer available.
Now, if we can just them to do something about the idiots with big pickup trucks (gas or diesel) who feel the need to run very loud exhaust systems (same mentality as the straight pipe cruiser morons, I suspect), muscle cars (not that common really) and jerks with boom-box stereo system in their riced-up fart-canned econoboxes, and we’ll be getting somewhere. Then I’ll just need to move out from under the flight path to Hamilton International airport.
OMG how old are you guys ? yeah sure we do not need neighbor waking pipes but a bit of a rumble is OK. Guess next will be to ban motorcycle speakers that play music – or will it be only rock music to be banned ?
good stuff, get rid of the noise machines, let peace and quiet rule..
noisy chimneys only impress curb monkeys!! make it like california, OEM pipes only..
Next they are going to take fighting out of hockey … where is our civilization headed? … toward civilization? :grin