Saskatchewan, a province already known for being unfriendly to motorcyclists, will see life become even more difficult for some riders when Saskatoon’s loud pipe law comes into effect in a few weeks.
Over the past few years, motorcyclists in Saskatchewan have had plenty to complain about, with stratospheric hikes in rates from the provincial insurance body, SGI. Now they’re about to get hassled on another front.
Although it was passed months ago, the Saskatoon loud pipes law will finally come into effect this June, after a year’s grace period. The city government originally passed a bylaw in 2014 that placed a decibel limit on motorcycle exhausts. Now, the law comes into full effect on June 1.
Before that date, the police are offering three free clinics that allow riders to have their bike checked out for bylaw compliance. The free clinics are April 25 and May 10 at Redline Harley-Davidson, at 1 PM, and on May 30 at the Taylor Street MD Ambulance location at 1 PM. Riders at the clinics won’t be ticketed for non-compliant machines, and the police will also “offer riders advice on how to bring their machines up to community and industry standards,” says the CBC. Does that mean they’re going to preach a sermon against ape hanger handlebars, or give a lecture on licence plate orientation? It’s hard to say …
It’s also hard to say how long the Saskatoon bylaw will last. Every spring, municipalities across the country roll these anti-noise bylaws out after enraged citizens complain about riders rolling around town with open pipes. Some places pass the laws and keep ’em in place (see: Quebec City’s ban on bikes in the Old City). Other places (see: Bathurst, New Brunswick) pass the law and end up having to change things down the road, when it backfires for one reason or another.
Despite the hit-and-miss results of the laws, here’s no question that anti-loud-pipe sentiment has spread across the country in recent years. While the crowd espousing loud pipes are still spouting the same lines about saving lives, soon we’ll be at a point where almost all Canadian cities have loud pipe bans, leaving riders reliant on their bike’s horn if they want to be heard.
Good. I’m sick of the whole household being woken up in the middle of the night by idiots roaring through the city streets rattling windows with straight pipes. And I live a couple blocks from a hospital too. No respect given by riders on that one. Also tired of having to cover my child’s ears when out for walks when one of these cool guys on a chopper roars off from a stop sign or a light. There’s having the nice throaty rumble of a stock bike exhaust and then there is being a jerk and modifying things to be even louder. It’s too bad far too many riders do not know the difference. But hey enjoy the ban fellas you earned it!
we might as well make it illegal to drive. Any bit of rusted out exhaust pipes will cause loud exhaust. Ban salting the roads, while we’re at it ban winter. Actually lets just eliminate roads so we cant break any laws.
There are loud pipes and then there’s just stupid.
Lots of sport bikes here in BC with amazingly loud exhausts, LOTS AND LOTS of Harleys with the same thing, and cars and pickups with outrageous exhausts.
Honestly, it’s written in the highway code (or some such document) that you can’t actually legally modify your exhaust system… time to crack down on the extreme violators.
This is only the beginning. Municipalities across the country are looking to silence the loud pipe fools.
The sooner the better. Shut those damn noisy machines up now!
If I felt I had to ride around with straight pipes like too many cruisers anywhere I’d pick a different pass time.
Bikes are targeted because 90% of harleys and 80% of sport bikes have obnoxious pipes while only 5% of trucks are intentionally loud. I made up the stats but I’m sure they aren’t that far off.
I agree, but I hope it applies to all vehicles. We even have boats here with through hull exhaust that I can hear roaring from an easy 10 miles away. Totally ignorant to fellow citizens.
Loud pipes only piss everyone off. They do not save anything. They aren’t as loud as a siren and no on e can hear those. So it’s a moot point and only for jerks who want to roar around like losers. I hope the law comes to all provinces and we can finally get those jerks off the road or in compliance.
loud horns don’t save lives,only loud pipes do.
David. Seriously? But a decent horn.
That’s a whole other debate….
I hope they have hired more medical staff to deal with the increase in injured riders.
LoudPipesSaveLives.com
Just as long as the law applies for those it was intended, oped piped cruisers and sportbike riders with all baffling and packing removed from their slip on. If an overzealous RCMP officer decides he doesn’t like my Yoshimura exhaust because it isn’t factory I will be ticked.
All it takes is someone who knows how to run a sound meter to get the ricerburner cars with the fartbomb mufflers, the b*dass cruiser guys with the open pipes, and the squids on the sportbikes in line. The rules are there, but like a lot of legislation it takes a will to enforce. Kinda like stopping at stop signs… 🙁
Why only motorcycles? I find the morons driving the trucks with smoke stacks far more irritating, and cleary intentionally so.
the loud pipe idiots brought this on themselves.
Rick, while the research on the efficacy of loud pipes adding to safety is equivocal, it’s as ignorant to call them idiots as it is for motorcyclists to call all car drivers idiots, especially the ones who turn left I front of them at intersections.
Good for Saskatoon. Loud pipes don’t save lives they wake my kids up at night. I would like to see it target other vehicles as well.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a bigger push for this sooner. Even Saskatoon with a few dozen bikes is finding it so annoying that they have to pass laws.