[Prowler]

Originally Posted by corvus corax

A few months ago when I was about to fall asleep, out of the blue a royal enfield with a hollow exhaust passed by, that too at wide open throttle.

I confess - I was one of them in the distant past. I had a RE Bullet motorcycle with an open core exhaust and a mat behind it which amplified the sound. You switch to second gear and pull the throttle wide open for a second and it would wake the dead.
There was a middle aged chap who lived in a narrow street through which I would ride exactly at 11.00 pm in the night after my office ( Yes late night work started even in that era). For 2 days I was away on a tour. When I returned he came to me and told me this:
"I used to curse you every day for the last 6 months because you disturbed my sleep. Suddenly for the last 2 days I didn't hear your motorcycle and I became worried about you, again spoiling my sleep. Are you all right ?"

I shifted my daily routine away from his street. He also told me I would be directly responsible for an increase in population in that street.

[Romeo_Mike]

Me reading the news report headline while my eyes suddenly drift to the image - Owner of loud BMW blah blah blah... Look at the camber on that thing!

Clearly the guy has intentions to have a lot of sideways fun with the car .

But I totally agree that one man's fun shouldn't come at the cost of discomfort to others. Also, I don't see why BMW's name needed to be dragged in this .

[am1m]

Originally Posted by Romeo_Mike

Also, I don't see why BMW's name needed to be dragged in this

Yep, that's unfair, the car brand has nothing to do with the noise. But from an editorial perspective, using the car brand will grab more eyeballs (clicks on the headline) and memory retention than just saying "loud car". If it had involved someone famous or a higher value car brand, that would have been even better from an editorial point of view.

Either way, branding works. In this case slightly negatively for the car brand, but works for the content provider. But unlikely that the car brand will raise any sort of issue over it- that would result in the article getting even more eyeballs! (Streisand effect.)

[FloatingCanvas]

Originally Posted by Raghu M

Even at speeds of 20kmph or lower, the noise is too much and causes irritation. I find it extremely disturbing. I know there are die hard fans for the exhaust sound but personally I hate it. (No intention of hurting anyone or trying to create a controversy).

Personally, I find that most of the new gen Royal Enfield bikes have a pretty mellow stock exhaust note unless revved hard. The problem is that a very large percentage of the bikes have after market exhuasts which produce the overly loud and deep rumbling sounds which can get tiring real fast. Some of them that have a deep rumble are still tolerable for a while but others just make a huge racket like there's some issue with the engine.

This practice is clearly illegal and from what I've heard from a friend of mine who has a loud exhaust on his RE, it carries a min fine of Rs. 4k and can require a court appearance. He ends up bribing the cops and when that doesn't pan out, they've seized the exhuast. He just came home and fixed the stock one for a while before upgrading (?) to a louder one.

[OrangeCar]

Story reminds me of those days a few years ago.. when a neighbor used a Royal Enfield and had it's exhaust modified to produce that loud thunder sound! Everyday at 7 AM he used to rev it high, to warm the engine up. And zoom past the by-lane. Every single day. It only made me hate Royal Enfield as bikes and formed an opinion that people who ride them are obnoxious people.

A couple years later, that guy moved out. Thankfully.

So glad the Supreme Court has mandated no modifications to vehicles rule. Of course, it doesn't get enforced very well.

And RE has been making brilliant bikes, so I do drool over them these days.

But every time I see (I mean, hear) a modified exhaust from an RE - I search for missiles to launch at it.

[Aravind_M92]

As far as people claim enjoying the noise, there’s a limit of tolerance. At points it becomes a huge nuisance too! It goes to the general modern saying, ‘if you want to hate a song, just set it as your alarm tone’. Loud well tuned exhausts occasionally are enjoyable, but not on a daily basis. If this were to happen in India, the first targets would be all those Bult’s with those obnoxious mufflers.
Out of topic, I hope something turns up for all those people who think Those bright Headlamps does any good.

[astrodex]

This is an opportune thread. Something similar happened in our society about 6 months ago. Ours is a dead end lane that cule-de-saces to about 20 houses. For about a month we have been having a modified sport bike blow past up and down in full throttle. This was when the covid restrictions had come down and everyone was on the road.

We had tried talking to the guys family but to no avail, we were more worried about speed than sound. And it was getting irritating and frustrating but then things took an interesting turn. We have these senior citizens who go for a walk everyday. They keep walking shoulder to shoulder up and down the road chit chatting with anyone who talks to them. One of the days they didn't yield for the guy and kinda made him stop on the road. I don't know the exact turn of events but one of the uncles took the key of the bike right out and threw it into the bushes. The guy was obviously mad but the the old chaps claimed the uncle has some hearing problem and loud noises agitate him. They then 'helped' search for the key for about an hour before they found it and gave it back to the guy.

I've never seen him go over 20 kms since in our neighborhood. It's like a script from a movie and I'm not sure if they did it on purpose or not. I still grin when I see the burly dude tip toe on his bike until he turns out into the highway.

[nerdgalore]

I have always hated REs with loud after market exhausts and could not understand why people would do that unnecessarily. Don't we have enough blaring horns on roads. I recently purchased Honda CB350 that has a somewhat loud sound and unconsciously try to keep the revs low in city so not to disturb others.

[100Rabh]

Originally Posted by Romeo_Mike

Also, I don't see why BMW's name needed to be dragged in this .

I don't have any ownership experience of BMW, and none of my contacts have one, so based on my knowledge through internet I got to know that BMW drivers have been stereotyped and have reputation of being bad drivers. For fun, you can type "Why BMW drivers are" on the search bar and see what Google has to offer to complete the sentence, you can search "BMW drivers are" on YouTube and see the result. So maybe the author decided to go with the flow and dragged BMW's name based on the stereotype.

[giri1.8]

Originally Posted by Starfire

On a lighter note:

I would say "Having a loud exhaust is like passing wind, make sure no one is around you when you want to enjoy it".