The American Spectator

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Menace to Society

8.21.06 @ 12:01AM

HARLEY NOISEMAKERS
Re: Lawrence Henry's Perspective:

Having been a citizen of Wyoming for 65 of my 66 years, I have often read articles about my beloved State, but the article by Mr. Henry (from Massachusetts, yet) is one of the best and most accurate. When one first sees the Teton mountains, they literally take the breath away. After seeing them a few hundred times, they only inspire awe. And these mountains are only a taste of all the beautiful places there are in Wyoming. So many judge the State by the trip across on Interstate 80. This is desert area, still interesting though a little monotonous. One needs to travel the northern parts to see magnificent mountains, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone and Teton Parks, the Wind River and Big Horn mountain ranges. Come visit us...you are always welcome. The loud motorcycles are mostly a temporary thing in mid-summer while so many pass through the State to and from the huge Sturgis, South Dakota, rally.
-- Steve York
Riverton, Wyoming

In a recent Forbes interview, the CEO of Harley-Davidson was asked why his bikes are so loud. He replied that they are not, at least not when they leave the factory. He explained that all manufacturers have to comply with the same federal regulations restricting the noise level of their products, and that it is only after Harleys leave the factory that owners (and perhaps some dealers) modify and otherwise mess with the exhaust systems to produce the so-called Harley rumble.

Regardless of whether the rumble is built-in or added-on, most of the non-riding public would likely agree that ear-splitting bikes, and particularly Harleys, are a nuisance...or rather the people who ride them are. Oh sure, it's a blast to watch several hundred of them in a parade. But other than that, sorry, there's no excuse for, or reason to tolerate, the cacophony such bikes create, especially when there are more and more of them on the road each year.

It simply shouldn't be this way, and the fix is simple enough: when such bikes are brought in for annual safety inspections, fail them. Cars with missing or malfunctioning mufflers are failed, so why shouldn't the same apply to motorcycles? Devices to measure decibel levels are cheap, so cost is no excuse.

I used to ride a 1989 Honda CB650. It was a beautiful bike, with all the power anybody but a crazy man could want, and it was nearly as quiet as a Rolls Royce. The only reason I eventually sold it was because the roads were just getting too crowded and way too crazy for my interests in self-preservation.

Harley riders are always quick to talk about the romance of riding down a country road on a beautiful day, of experiencing a sense of oneness not just with the road, but with the whole environment. I understand, I've been there; I loved it, and I miss it. And I would assert that the Zen-like calm experienced in such activity is greater, more pure, and in all ways more enjoyable, when much of the overall sensation is not being blocked-out by an overpowering, sense-killing racket.

But whether these Harley riders can be brought to appreciate the beauty and sense of a bike that hums rather than roars is immaterial. The rest of us simply shouldn't have to put up with such hell-raising hogs.
-- C. Vail

The bumper sticker should read "Loud pipes draw attention" because that's what the whole biker mentality is all about. Why else would you dress in such a fashion and drive a gaudy $20,000 bike if you don't crave attention? Loud pipes are merely a bonus to the "look at me!" factor. It's the same reason the teenagers around here put those "fart can" exhaust pipes on their ancient Toyotas while the thumping subwoofer in the hatch shakes every bolt in the car loose and rattles the dishes in my kitchen whenever they drive by.

Ask the biker who lives a few blocks west of me why he as a pair of angel wings (not an actual angel - just the wings) tattooed on his forehead. I am by no means an expert on these things, but I would think this just might limit his employment opportunities somewhat... I would ask him myself, but I'm afraid to go near the bar he hangs out in since one of his buddies was killed in that big shootout with the 2nd district police a few weeks back.

Yeah, I know... "Most bikers are normal, hard-working people." But the rest of them all seem to live in my neighborhood.
-- Todd Stoffer
Cleveland, Ohio

I grew up in a small town rural Midwestern area with pretty much unlimited freedom to ride motorcycles at will from age eleven until I left for college. With this extensive early experience, in my later teen years I raced motorcycles quite successfully and I have also done a cross-country motorcycle ride or two. I also recently returned from a two family vacation in Colorado where the main activity was seeing how many Fourteeners (14,000 foot peaks) we could climb. Me? Close, but none. My early teen step-kids and their friends? A few. From this perspective I could not agree more about the overgrown adolescents on their Harleys with their loud pipes who were also streaming through and contaminating the wonderful two-lane mountain roads and roadside bars of Colorado.

For this you can thank one of the lesser moments of the late great Ronald Reagan in signing one of the most stupid trade protection laws of all time. I am referring to the tariff law giving Harley Davidson and their at the time poorly engineered and unwanted relics a new lease on life by granting them by a wide margin of advantage over their foreign rivals. The motorcycle world has never been the same. With all due respect to late Malcolm Forbes, the result is all the pseudo tough guy characters playing dress-up (most by the way who don't know how to ride), clogging our highways and disturbing our peace. I haven't ridden in a long time but give me a brilliantly engineered and quiet BMW or even a newly re-engineered remake of those British classics like a Norton or Triumph any day over the Harley.
-- Tom Fry
St. Louis, Missouri

Harleys are manufactured to meet the same EPA noise standards as every other motorcycle and left stock they are an irritant to no one except perhaps Joan Claybrook. So they don't need a "different exhaust system" but merely need to be left alone. The owners of the loud bikes chose for them to be loud and pay approximately $500 to be so. I ride a Harley and it's quiet.
-- Scott Forrest
Anchorage, Alaska

WAFFEN GRASS
Re: Jacob Laksin's Shattered Grass:

Letter to the Editor

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