NPR on Biker Persecution in AZ

[hovmaven]

I've never quite understood the concept of leaf blowers. They just take the crap from here and blow it over there:headscratch: Then they come back next week and blow the crap from over there back here:bash:
 
Now if they were leaf sucker uppers we'd be onto something!:)

Probably not much of a fall season in So Cal. . ..

[TBone]

Yet another controversial noisemaker that more and more towns are cracking down on is...the LEAF BLOWER! I'm sick and tired of listening to those things—run by people who are too damn lazy to use a rake (and who end up using about as much time making noise as they would with a rake).
 
Grrrrr.....
 
Scott

I'm right with you! I thought I was a little over the top in my annoyance with all the noise pollution. It's good to know it's not just me! I wish my town would start enforcing noise ordinances. I remember when my kids were small how the cruisers with the open pipes would make them cry. That pissed me off to no end.

[SlakeMoth]

Link to NPR article and audio

[county]

Ashland, MS has a sign at their city limits that says "No Loud Music"
 
So what if it's discrimination?  There's no law I'm aware of that says you can't discriminate against motorcycles.  
 
If these guys are enforcing some kinda national standard, good on em, I don't care to have to listen to them Screaming Eagles myself, whether on a Harley or a Blackbird.   Those guys can limit violations by simply slowing down and avoiding all that revving they are so proud of.
 
A responsible rider will limit himself to only offending the populace with his speed.

[jsanford]

The citizens of Carefree don't seem to like all the bikers' loud pipes, so they passed an 80dB noise ordinance, with fines of up to $750. The cops in Carefree measure it with microphones on the roof of their patrol cars. The ordinance is posted by signs that show a motorcycle. One biker says this is discrimination.

I'd agree. The Big Ol' Jacked-up pickup with loud exhaust rumbling down Cave Creek road at 35mph over the speed limit is just as much to blame for any noise that I can remember.

[Uncle Bob]

I'd agree. The Big Ol' Jacked-up pickup with loud exhaust rumbling down Cave Creek road at 35mph over the speed limit is just as much to blame for any noise that I can remember.

lets be realistic, what percentage of cars/trucks are overly loud vs bikes?   I have never been to cave creek, but if its anything like most other places, especially when the bike crowd has a lot of harley's, its not too common to see harley's with stock exhaust

When its that high of a percentage for a group, it will definitely get way more attention.

[R1150RTMark]

When its that high of a percentage for a group, it will definitely get way more attention.

Ditto.  It's the whole impetus behind communities' efforts to ban motorcycles outright.

[noside]

Newburyport, MA and Portsmouth, NH have very strict noise ordinances. It's what happens when you have people living in areas frequented by loud vehicles of any kind. I have zero sympathy for anyone who gets caught, whether it's a biker, a 2Fast2Furious idiot with one of those Hot Wheels cars or a sub-woofer on 4 wheels. The good thing is, my bike goes faster that all of their vehicles so if they find out who I am, a twist of the throttle should get me out of trouble.    

[Windblown]

Enforcing noise regulations: +1, Good on them as long as it is equally applied.
 
Putting a pic of a motorcycle on the warning sign.  An unnecessary dig.  IMHO they shot themselves in the foot with that one.
 
Banning a motorcycle from traveling on any road maintained with state or federal funds: Completely unconstitutional unless the state itself, or the feds (if a federal highway) has banned them.
 
As with most things, gross excess often becomes the catalyst for action. Blatant disregard for anothers right to peaceful existance is a perfect example.

[cbsnbiker]

So what if it's discrimination? There's no law I'm aware of that says you can't discriminate against motorcycles.

Actually, there are codes in Federal TEA legislation and elsewhere that specifically ban discriminating against motorcycles in a number of contexts, both big and small. As I understand it:
 
Big:
 
- they can't be banned from any public road that was built or is maintained using any Federal subsidies (effectively, that means any public road, period);
 
- they must be accepted as qualified for any HOV lane for any public road that was built or is maintained using any Federal subsidies (again, effectively, that means any public road, period);
 
Small:
 
- headlight modulators cannot be banned by any state or local code, since they are specifically authorized by DOT code or statute--so if you ever get a ticket for using a headlight modulator, plead not guilty and bring the appropriate DOT statute with you to show to the judge.
 
Now, bringing this message back onto topic, there are also specific laws regulating sound emission from vehicles, not just motorcycles. The high levels of noise emitted by a relatively small percentage of motorcycle riders threatens the rights of all of us on a number of levels, many of which have been at least mentioned in this thread.

[Dcnblues]

I say bravo! Bonus points if they're nailing "tuner cars" and loud stereos too.
 
This is going to start happening in more and more place, just watch. The public is sick of it, and is starting to realize they don't have to be subjected to knuckledraggers who equate decibels with penis size.

The thing I've been waiting for is a variable baffle aftermarket exhaust.  We've got little servos that can vary the height of airbox stacks, but we can't have an exhaust can with a 'quiet' mode?

Or, maybe we just go back to the 80's and have the aftermarket people offer, as they used to, either 'street' or 'race' baffles.  (I know there are some that probably do, but I couldn't find any such options for the exhaust I bought for the busa)...

[Uncle Bob]

The thing I've been waiting for is a variable baffle aftermarket exhaust. We've got little servos that can vary the height of airbox stacks, but we can't have an exhaust can with a 'quiet' mode?

there's exhaust bypass valves in the turbo world that do the same thing.  For a turbo, you don't need any baffling after the bypass, but you'd probably want one for a non-turbo

[Dcnblues]

Yet another controversial noisemaker that more and more towns are cracking down on is...the LEAF BLOWER! I'm sick and tired of listening to those things—run by people who are too damn lazy to use a rake (and who end up using about as much time making noise as they would with a rake).
 
Grrrrr.....
 
Scott

Me too.  I hate those things with a passion.  They're up there on the list of things our species needs to be embarrassed about.  "Alien anthropologist Mork, with report #23 on the human species:  Not only do these people STILL chop down trees to wipe their asses with, they use gasoline powered two stroke motors to blow LEAVES off the sidewalk.  Incomprehensible..."

My other theory (lost on the old board now) applies to shrivel dick straight pipe types and Mexican leaf blowers: People without power in society will always take and use whatever power they find.  Even if it's only to annoy.  Homeless types will get in the habbit of walking in front of urban traffic.  They realize they have the power to stop the car.  It's about the only power they have.  They use it.

Illegal immigrants work crap jobs for peanut pay.  But they can annoy the hell out of rich white neighborhoods by dragging out the job.  It's about the only power they have.  They use it.

Same deal with straight pipe Harley morons.  But the straight pipers aren't necessarily just about power.  It's also about identity.  Being a 'biker' is about the only sense of identity they have.  If there's nothing else going on in their lives, they hang on to that identity and exagerate it.  Loud pipes are the tool with which they do so.  "Loud Pipes" don't save lives, and they don't just scream "TINY PECKER," they also scream "I DON'T HAVE A LIFE," "PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO ME," and "IF I WERE SOCIALLY IMPOTENT, COULD I CAUSE THIS MUCH DISTURBANCE?"

[DredheadV2.0]

If they're enforcing a noise ordinance against ALL things over 80dB, then cool.  I find loud exhausts irritating, but as another has said - subwoofers kill me.  At 3AM, I get Mexican oompah music and bad House music from cars cruising by which sets up a standing wave in my bedroom windows, causing (no lie) my entire apartment to shudder.  

I hardly hear the cruiser pipes anymore.  The ambulances... I sleep through them.  But shitgoddam, them subs make me stabby.

[sagerat]

What the heck is a "recreational motorcyclist"?  
 
Article uses the term, but never defines it.  Sorry, I just found it amusing.
 
+1 on Carefree for the loud pipes ban.

[atadaskew]

Carefree and Cavecreek are both very nice, well to do communities.  There are about 4 bars in Cavecreek that, as has been noted, you have to ride through Carefree to get to (unless you want to do the back route via dirt roads).  On weekend there are literally hundreds of Harleys passing through.  Imagine you lived there, every freakin weekend your windows ae being rattled all day and into the night.  After a long work week....
Now if it was sweet sweet unfettered Ducati or Goot-sie music, well that would be different

[goto]

One thing to note is that the speed limit through much of Carefree is 35mph (which seems WAY to slow for the conditions), which can't be much above idle for most V-twins and well below the power band on other bikes.  So to get caught you have to be OBNOXIOUS.

The only places I have seen the Police cars with the mics has been on one of the 35mph stretches (x3)and across the street from one of the bars(x1) (also on a 35mph).

[joema]

Enforcing noise regulations: +1, Good on them as long as it is equally applied.
 Putting a pic of a motorcycle on the warning sign.  An unnecessary dig.  IMHO they shot themselves in the foot with that one...

Yes, the problem is with "selective enforcement". That has long been a legal no-no: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement

Now if every commercial truck, subwoofer-equipped car, and tuner car is equally targeted, the law would be more difficult to challenge.

I've seen (and heard) many commercial dump trucks with rusted out mufflers that are loud as any straight-pipe Harley. They also often have broken/missing brake lights and turn signals, no mud flaps, and no tarp covering the load -- trailing a plume of gravel, sand and debris like a comet.

[Bodhi]

I don't have a problem with an evenly-enforced noise pollution law. That's what local government's role is supposed to be. A community should be able to define itself as pro-growth, a tourist-center, a business mecca or a sleepy, quiet place.

[steve.ski]

Sitting at the Satisfied Frog in CC can be deafening. Many of the H-D guys just fire up their bikes as they leave and rev them to the moon. I suppose in the "biker community" this identifies you as a good rider or something.

Noise is the NUMBER ONE enemy of motorcycling. Street and Off Road. Changes are coming, and although many will be pissed, I can't say I disagree with them.

Now, all that said, there is definitely a case for discrimination here fi motorcycles are the only machines being tested. My neighbor's Ford F350 Diesel is WAY louder than my VFR800. Same goes for my other neighbor's stereo, the leaf blowers, every lawnmower in existence, and TONS of other machines we come in contact with every day. If it's noise that's the problem, then there are literally HUNDREDS of industries that will be effected.

Chicago is considering similar bans on Michigan Avenue, a motorcycle ban was passed in Florida, Laguna Beach, CA has serious noise ordinances, and where I live there's a battle going on for the rights of motorcyclists.

The biggest threat comes from Homeowner's Associations. They can make literally any rule they want, and if you want to change it prepare for an incredibly costly court battle.

This is the time to wise up and get QUIET! Sadly, I don't think our "loud pipes save lives" friends will agree...