The End For Loud Motorcycle Exhausts?

Watch the full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFpvv8ghAq0

Rob https://www.youtube.com/@motobob and Tim https://www.youtube.com/@RarefiedRoad discuss a recent news story of criminal charges brought against a company selling loud car exhausts and what this might mean for motorcycles.

Number one then is this one on MCN tin it might be the end of loud exhaust so there’s a company that does car mods in Yorkshire or something yeah in Wakefield and they just got prosecuted I believe for offering a remap for cars that’s called their pop and bang remap software

Upgrade so basically I think what that probably does is adds a little bit of fuel almost runs with too much fuel so that there’s unburnt fuel the exo system and that’s where it that’s where you get the after fire isn’t it and the after pops is is when that stuff just um

Ignites cuz the exo system is hot and it does sound cool it makes your car sound like a rally car basically but this is like a huge moment probably because there’s so many companies that exist that are purely there to make your vehicle you know massively in the biking

World sound better but louder but maybe less sociable so do you think this is like yeah that’s a polite way of put yeah what’s your stance on here are you a loud exhaust fan or are you a stock exhaust kind of guy nowadays I used to

Get or quite like a loud exhaust and I used to want my car to have a loud exhaust when I first passed of course everyone does and I wanted it to sound like a rally car and the same with bikes to a degree but I’ll be honest it was

The just the second bike that I had that had a a ridiculous like a cheap exhaust it was a Bay Wolf exhaust on a Honda horn it and I absolutely hated it because you’d be sitting on like for most of what we’re doing it’s like 4050 but sustained speed right and it would

Just bore its way into your ear so you needed earplugs um and it just W me up a little bit it was great when you were on song you know if you actually you know um doing something a bit more Dynamic it was not bad but uh it was too loud and

Then I have changed exhaust on loads of them I think my favorite sound was like the V7 which actually wasn’t that kind of abusive to your ears because it was a little bit lower in the register which usually sounds a bit better but I’ve gotten to the point where to be honest I

Don’t really care about the exhaust I want to hear something cuz I want that does it’s just it’s a full sort of experience and it does feel lacking if you can’t hear what the bike’s doing it helps you control it a little bit as well because you know what you’re doing

With the revs it encourages you a little bit more as well you sort of feel like you’re going faster so I get wanting a noise but I think we’ve talked about this before I prefer it coming from the front like the airbox as opposed to the exhaust where it’s behind your ear you

Don’t really hear it and that’s just for everyone else to annoy them so I’d prer to have some sort of encouragement from the bike but probably from the front yeah like the mt9 we were talking about that at motorcycle live it’s got the grills now in the top of the tank that

Were previously on the mt10 and so yeah legally it’s still within the limits at the exhaust but in terms of the riding experience hopefully it’s a bit more exciting cuz it’s just piping it into your face yeah and I think I’m probably in a similar mind set

To you now I used to have a really loud bike then I had a a slightly less loud one and then now I’m sort of enjoying bikes that are a reasonable volume level um but just have like you say the right tomra and depth and growl to them yes um

But it doesn’t Neary necessarily have to be super loud and I think that might be a change in the sort of riding I’m doing as well because like you say if you’re doing steady miles or Motorway stuff it does become a bit irritating it sort of

Makes me think of um jackqueline HDE who fitted I had a Indian as a long termer and it has a button where you can switch between so it’s closed by default but then you hit the button on the bars and it opens a valve and that makes it a bit

Louder um but it’s got me thinking like if this company are now unable to legally sell something that just boost the noise on cars like is everybody open to potential legal problems like Jackel and Hyde like the the kind of UK companies like delovic or Black Widow

And even kind of major manufacturers I think are very cautious of this now like they don’t you know often exhaust say race only or track only yeah um and anything that you do get that’s aftermarket or like an accessory sorry from an official manufacturer tends to be pretty quiet

Now and it’s mainly for looks and then the other thing that I’ve seen as well you know Triumph a couple years back with the Trident they didn’t even offer an accessory exhaust they said they couldn’t they couldn’t find any performance benefits to offer to the customer like it wasn’t worth developing

Something is kind of a ripoff to charge a grand for a nice looking pipe but then recently they’ve come back with a partnership with a covich and so the tiger 900 for example and probably some of the other newer bikes you can get um an accessory pipe now which is been you

Know out of their range for a while but now they’re really emphasizing the looks I think and also the weight loss um if you build out of titanium and carbon you can probably shave off a kilogram or two which is pretty significant you know so

Maybe this is it mate and also like what about individuals now I know in theot already they measure the sort of sound level quite casually oh but I wonder if it’s going this way and you’ll end up getting in trouble I would say I’m conflicted on it um because I don’t

Think I’ve not noticed it’s a huge problem to be honest like it’s we’ve gotten this far with it being as loud as it is and there is a restriction at the moment you can’t go above a certain amount right legally at least they could still pull you over and go you exhaust

Is too loud or like you say going through an mot or you know when they’re passing them through these things so yeah one point is that manufacturers you’re right like the they not there’s no performance uh benefit to sticking on aftermarket exhaust so the performance benefits like you’re saying from Triumph

Is that it’s a little bit lighter and you know so there is something at least that justifies going for it or it looks better it’s smaller whatever it might be but yeah I think they I think that well I’m pretty confident they’re going to take it too far and just say no noise

From any vehicle which uh at some point hopefully that’s way off in the distance cuz I think that’s unnecessary to be honest because Vehicles make noise and if they didn’t make noise you’d step out into the street more I mean like that’s what happens with electric cars anyway

Maybe yeah and also like the other thing that is a bit sad about it for me I get it look I get like when there’s a really loud bike going past I’m just like uh you doesn’t need to be that loud but the flip side is sort of um one of the

Things I love about motorcycling is all the little different interesting subcultures that people can get into and like the Retro kind of custom scene that sort of um centers around the bike shed and that kind of vibe and then you’ve also got like custom cruisers they tend

To be quite loud and that sort of thing and also to some extent like sports bikes they do sound good with a bit more of a rasp to them and it just feels a bit like if people can’t spend their free time doing stuff like modifying their bike to make something they’re

Really passionate about and proud of I’m probably being a bit like is everybody you’re a bit dramatic but it’s like what what are you meant to spend your time doing it feels a little bit like a sanitization of people’s lives if they’re not allowed to just Express themselves doing things

That they really enjoy that’s kind of the downside for me massively yeah uh but I think you’re right there is there’s a balance isn’t there there definitely is a balance and you’re right I think sanitization is a good word to use on that one um and I think at a

Certain point you’re going to be taking it too far and I think they probably will at some point much like they have with the speed limits down to 20 in Wales which oh mate I don’t know if we got time to get into that like that’s another article yeah