Where to find loudness of bike?

[Blazerdolf]

I still havent got myself into bikes, but I am curious on how to see how loud is some bike is.. so that during the use I could know if the custom slip-ons wouldnt make them unbearably loud..

For example harleys are way too loud for my liking...

Cant find any information on how loud are some bikes.. Where is such information? Doesnt manufacturer put it somewhere?

thanks

[ThatDippyTwat]

No.

How many combinations of can and bike are there? No way a manufacturer can test all possible permutations.

I'd suggest getting a license, and a bike *before* even thinking about pissing about with the exhaust.

Even then, changing the exhaust may well mean re-jetting a carb. It may even take the bike beyond the limits if any EFI systems, bike, intake and can dependant. if it's a 125, don't bother.
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'98 VFR800 (touring) - '12 VFR800 Crosrunner (Commuting) - '01 KDX220 (Big Green Antisocial Machine)

[stevo as b4]

No std road legal bike is offensive to cause a nuisance that's all you need to know really. And that a road legal replacement exhaust is 99% of the time the same, although many of them reduce bikes performance below std levels or they can do if poorly designed.

If you bike does not have an exhaust valve like EXUP or a noise fiddling butterfly valve, and your exhaust pipe/silencer shows clear daylight when you hold it up and look down it, then it means the bike will probably be fairly loud. It varies though depending on the cylinder size, and engine configuration and or the rpm the engine runs to.

[johnsmith222]

Normally the offensive bikes are those which have had aftermarket exhausts fitted.

I had a race can on my 9R, but found it pretty annoying tbh. Also pretty sure it's to blame for me getting caught speeding at stupid speeds in court.

Much prefer the stock exhaust on it. Also it seems more powerful with the stock exhaust on as likely wasn't set up for the replacement by the previous owner.

[bigdom86]

hard to determine but generally the shorter and straighter the pipe the louder the bike will be (after market exhausts)

[Teflon-Mike]

Legal-Loudness used to be, and aught still be, in the UK Construction & Use Regulations.

It used to be 103dB otmh, and at one point, and istr was bizarely actually lower than the sustained dB limit for industrial noise without ear defenders! A-N-D C&U referenced BS standards and exhausts had to be marked with the dB and BS they complied with.... precursor the the mobile phone laws when driving, which was adequately covered by driving without due-care and attention, gave plod an easy tugg to do you for having non-marked can rather than having to actually gather evidence it was too noisy... but that law was thankfully chucked into touch by successive EE harmonisation.

It is rather academic too, British-Standard Noise test was quite convoluted and I believe that C&U regs still based on the test procedure, which call for the noise readings to be taken at so many meters range in a straight ride-by of the meter at constant throttle and more than so many rpm.

Way-back-When, Mallory Park race track were in constant contention with the 'Residence Committee' of the new housing estate in Kirby Mallory Village...

It was a protracted debate in local rags, and talk about bludy NIMBIES! At one point one of the residents was calling for US style 'Realtor-Disclosure' laws, grumbling that no-one had told them when they bought the house that there was a race track just behind their back fence! Jeez! I mean, its not like it isn't clearly marked on an OS map, and I would have thought that the brown 'Tourist' signs on every road into the village saying "Race Track" MIGHT have just been a BIT of a clue...... but still!

There were from memory four or five or more noise measuring 'teams' looked into it. And from memory, Local Council set up their equipment as they would for 'rowdy neighbors' or a noisy factory, and it was probably that study that resulted in my noting the fact that then UK exhaust noise limits were actually lower than for a factory without ear defenders! ACU, who are based just down the road in Rugby, I think actually bought their own dB measuring rig, based on the contention, and prediction it would become a common quibble, and tests were done at 'Scrutineering'... Plod, tried not top get involved, then insisted they could only measure noisy bikes outside the race track, and promised to enforce road-law outside the track, and did set up a couple of road-side checks on occasion. Then there were a couple of noise tests done by the clubs organizing events at the track as well as independent studies commissioned by the Residents Committee... All rather a farce, and a storm of knitted sweaters around a tea-pot, I think!

But, was interesting that some-one managed to under-mine all the 'official' tests by pointing out that none of them were done with any real regard to the BS standards, and that they were taking measurements inches away from the exhaust on a bike at rest, rather than at meters away from a bike moving, and things, and that a bog-stock street-bike 'failed' tests if done 'wrong'.

Incidentally, The Yamaha FZR1000 EXUP, came into production circa 1989, istr, at about the hight of the Mallory controversy, and it was observed at the time, that it was incredibly co-incident that for all Yamaha's press blurb about the harmonic 'tuning' of this exhaust valve having effect on improving high rev power whilst maintaining low rpm power, that it conveniently stayed closed until just beyond the revs stipulated by the noise tests!

And that's about the size of it; dB readings are pretty much academic; and whether any-one complains or not, has bog all to do with actually how loud an engine may be, but as you hintimate, whether they LIKE the noise....

Poll groups continually show that more people like the noise of a V8 than they do an inline 4, whilst a big four-stroke single tends to be less offensive than a small two-stroke one, etc.

When it comes to end cans....... well they used to be called, 'the silencer'... and that's pretty much what they do, or not.

The tone the motor makes is very much set by the displacement, then the cam timing, then the revs, and the throttle opening and the load on the engine, NOT the plumbing... that just effects how much of the noise gets damped.

A-N-D whether the thing sounds any better with an after-market can will remain a mater of personal opinion, not scientific measurement!

When it comes to it, and here and now is you need a bike and licence to ride it before this becomes in anyway pertinant, reason you cant find any meaningful data is that there isn't any! As Mallory debacle suggests, its nie on impossible to get any meaningful empirical test results, even of the dB limit, whilst personal taste would be like trying to compile a table of how salty chips should be!
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[ZRX61]

Mate does noise testing for aircraft at a local base. Used his decibel meter on my ZRX11: 143.7Db.
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[grr666]

^^^
I'd love to know how loud the Spacker is. It has a very naughty exhaust. Makes me LOL IRL every time I ride the thing.
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[Blazerdolf]

Thanks for some answers.. I guess its not gonna be simple to get used to.

I went to shop, put some ear plugs, put the bike helmet for the first time in my life and it was so awkward. It almost made me feel unsafe as if ears helps in riding a bike lol..

I wonder how long it takes to get used to all this stuff..

[grr666]

I need tweezers to get my earplugs out, they're rammed in that far. I use these foam ones typically used for shooting. -30db
Can still hear the bike perfectly well, and the SENA kit in my mic'd lid. In fact I've just bought another triple pack. Those key ring things are handy.
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Ste wrote: Avatars are fine, it's signatures that need turning off.

[stevo as b4]

Fuck me, as in another thread it sounds like riding or learning to ride a motorbike in 2018 is alot harder and more of an ordeal than it was 20years ago? Why is that? Were we ignorant cave men then or is it the pressures on the modern man far greater than it was then?

Maybe I did it all wrong? I thought that getting used to the noise of an engine, wearing ear plugs, choosing routes and working out where you are and how to get from A-B, as well as how to start a bike with no electric starter was all routine?

As for shock horror it raining while getting the bike out or during our rides, well maybe we should of stopped and had a counciling session or two to come to terms with the horrific ordeal we had to go through?

I don't blame OP and others for their views and concerns, but it's a real eye opener for when all these Millenials come through and want to do something extremely tricky like ride a motorbike. Maybe they should invent an App to make it easier or let their smart phone do the riding for them?

Motorbikes? It sounds like it's much to hard and difficult. Maybe they should do something easier like climb to the summit of Mount Everest?

[grr666]

[MCN]