This doesn’t deserve to be downvoted. The statement is correct. I have a permanently destroyed right foot and ankle because someone made a left turn from the right lane just outside the Holland Tunnel in NJ back in 2004. The driver “didn’t see me” before making the illegal turn and planting his Mercedes horizontally across my lane as he slowed to enter the gas station driveway. I laid my quiet 800cc bike down and plowed into his car at 40mph, crushing my right leg between the bike and his driver side door. I now have 4 toes, limited mobility, and near constant pain with every step I take. After that I put straight pipes on my bike and had countless other situations where a car would start to change lanes into me and then move back when I gunned the engine to let them know I was there. Loud pipes save lives. Car drivers are often oblivious of their surroundings or distracted by their phones or music. When they check their blind spot the brain is looking for car or truck shapes and ignores motorcycle shapes as it quickly assesses the clearance of the lane. I’ve had people look right at me and then change lanes into me. I’ve kicked cars and cabs from my motorcycle as they are pushing me off the road. 100% of accidents where a car hit a bike use the excuse of not seeing the motorcyclist. I’ll make sure they can hear me too.
Sorry for your accident. Just wanted to share my contrary experience.
A motorcycle with loud pipes filtering right passed me fast in a two lane road while I was on the left lane, I was in my car. I am a former enduro rider myself and don't react when I hear a loud one, but the driver in front panicked as he was most probably didn't see him coming from his mirror, did a hard left, came dangerously close to barriers and did a hard right to correct, hit the motorcycle pushing him to the right lane. Motorcycle barely fit the space there and luckily didn't crash, but it was all happened on a very straight road with no one was turning or doing any movement, just straight driving.
After 15 years, I have enough confidence that being muffled or not does not make any difference to safety, people hearing the thunder but not seeing the source is equally lethal to a rider. I'd rather have proper training, constant wearing full body armored motorcycle clothes and a much lighter/cooler riding attitude (not saying you didn't have / do any of this).
Have the roads gotten more dangerous in the past 15 years?
Also the issue people have with loud exhaust is not that it draws attention on the highway; it's that people use it as a tool to be obnoxious. When I lived in a small town I would regularly get woken up at 2am by some shmuck opening up on main street. The entire town would be woken up. I had the urge to chase them down. It's not good for anyone.
And that's the real reason. These toddler narcissists are out to make it known to the world that here rides a badass, not that there is someone who drives responsibly and whose life depends on the volume of their exhaust. It's pathetic.
I have neighbors, friends, and family who ride motorcycles either for the speed or for the sound. They're mostly reasonable about it. But the thing about loud machines is that they are loud for everyone, who didn't get to choose whether to listen to that engine at 2AM.
The comparison to toddlers is apt because we expect adults to be aware of the effects their actions have on others, and take steps to mitigate them in social reciprocity.
I'm sorry to hear that, but it's unlikely to improbable that "bike wasn't loud enough" was the cause there.
Throwing away the idea that people in cars don't impede their own hearing with radio stations and music; sound produced by engines is not fantastically directional to hear and mostly trails behind bikes (due to that being the location of the exhaust).
It sounds equivalent to driving your car around with the horn constantly pressed for safety. Why not get a horn or something for your bike? Or wouldn’t that sound as cool?
