My husband is living proof. Our main form of recreation is taking nice, long rides on our Harleys. It's cheap and it's fun. Sadly, there are a lot of complete idiots that we share the roads with and one of them almost killed my husband today.

We're on a four-lane road. I'm following Hubby, maybe 20 feet behind him and to his right. His Sportster 883 Low is dead stock except for the modification that turns the turn signals into auxiliary stop lights. My Dyna Super Glide isn't, it has the stop light mod and also the Screamin' Eagle Stage-1 air kit, the bios remap for 6200 rpm max, and Screamin' Eagle Street Performance mufflers. I can idle through parking lots and trip car alarms.

To Hubby's left is this maroon Toyota being driven by a middle-aged soccer mom with a support-your-local-cheerleader magnetic sticker on the rear fender. She starts drifting over into Hubby, and he never even saw it coming. I panicked and fumbled for the horn with my left thumb. In doing so I inadvertently dropped my right wrist, causing the ol' TC96 to loudly and authoritatively clear its throat. That cheerleader mom's head whipped around with this horrified look on her face and she zipped it back over into her own lane.

That Stage-1 upgrade just paid for itself in spades. I'll never own another bike without loud pipes.

Miao, Cat

Cat, the more I learn about you, the more I think that the word "cool" in the dictionary is going to be accompanied by a picture of you. You rock.

Holy Crap!

Good thinhg you had your head on a swivel Cat!

-Skater

Geez Cat, I'm glad your hubby is alright.

Yeah, you have to be open and obvious when you ride a bike. Be as loud and as clear and as obvious as you can be.

Even that doesn't protect you. Idiots are what they are. Cars crash into cars all the time. The difference is a car has a steel cage around it. Bikes don't. The pavement is very unforgiving to human flesh.

Get Dear Hubby a Stebel Compact Nautilus horn.
At 135 dB at 6 feet, it will peel paint off the car next to you.

I know that I might get run over by one of the types of people, but they will go deaf trying it...

Glad it turned out well!!!

I'm sorry, I really don't see how one incident is enough to have every motorcycle running around at 250+ decibel levels.

Why not just figure out a way to attach a small air compressor to a freon style horn? Possibly a constant tone police siren?

I rode bike for a number of years, and saw the loudest of Harleys run off the road - and the quietest of motorcycles do a-okay.

The "loud pipes saves lives" theory is why many apartment complexes and locations ban motorcycles of any type. It becomes an arms race of noise, and if basic motorcycle safety requires the necessity of rattling every window in the neighborhood, we need to rethink things in a very serious way.

I love you, Cat, but I don't want you ripping through my neighborhood on your bike.

Glasspacks...the mating call of McLennan County.

pfunk

Sorry to be critical, but should he not have been driving beside the car in the first place? When I took a motorcycle class back when I rode that was hammered into us a lot, don't drive beside something. Let off and let the car move more forward so you can see it better.

(rofl) Everyone's a critic. Except PFunk and JCathcart.

Hubby wasn't aware of that Toyota because it was coming up behind him and he was next to the front fender, so a horn wouldn't have saved him, he didn't realize she was there. I think the driver was on her cell phone.

As for horns, mine's plenty loud. But I accidentally zapped the throttle before my fumbly thumb managed to hit the button. I know what I saw, and I thank God for those SP mufflers because they saved my husband's life.

I also wear bright Day-Glo vermilion gloves and vest. And they've kept me alive at least twice because I'm visible.

Miao, Cat

Yeah, a motorcyclist shouldn't be beside any vehicle. Either let off to let it pass, or accelerate to be in front of it. I read that whenever you overtake or find yourself beside a vehicle, "alarms" should be going off in your head and you should take steps to get out of that "situation."

Granted that the car wasn't beside the lead biker, but was approaching from behind, then that cager is nuts for approaching a vehicle then drifting into it. If they were side-by-side, or if the biker were in the blind spot, then that's an excuse, but if the biker was in front? No way.

Glad you're husband is alright, Cat, but pardon me if I don't subscribe to the "loud pipes saves lives" idea. A damn loud horn is ideal though, and was one of my first "mods" to my now-sold motorcycle.

Well...these are 50-state street legal; they pass EPA decibel regs even in California. I'm not sorry I have them. I like the sound they make. Like an airplane motor. Heh.

Miao, Cat

that's a cool story Cat, I love a loud Harley!!

I have a similar story with another Camry driver.
I was coming up next to him, slowly passing, then as I came up beside him he started to wander over into my lane. A good handful of throttle let him know I was there and he stopped coming over.
Oh yeah, my bike is a Honda VTR1000 Firestorm with the muffler gutted so it's A BIT LOUD!
I have to do long trips with ear plugs in, so I can hear at the other end.
http://www.billzilla.org/mybike.html

Loud bikes FTW!!!

Its easy to say that you shouldn't let other cars get beside you, but have you ever rode on the interstate with rush-hour traffic? Kiss that idea goodbye. You always ride in a pack.
So, you use your SA and watch for people around you that are eating, talking on phone, looking in backseat, etc and avoid them.
Cover the levers, and move your thumb near the horn. Prepare to drop a gear and roll throttle.

My current pipes are quiet, and get little attention. That's ok. But the horn will call Soccer Mom in the Tahoe to throw her phone in the rear seat in shock.

You have to be on your game when riding these days.
Friday morning I left the house thinking about family issues, and started to turn left into oncoming traffic. Locking up the rear tire is not fun. You can't ride with your head up your butt. I've commuted 1700 miles on my bike since i got it in November.

I gave up riding. So many automobile drivers haven't a clue what it takes to ride a bike. With urban and suburban developement making roads more crowded and drivers more antagonized I found it safer to just sell the bike. I can't tell you how many people have pulled out in front of me from a side street or parking lot without looking, or worse - caring.


Glad the hubby is okay, Cat.

I don't mind Loud pipes on a motorcycle. What I can't stand is people that put huge mufflers on imports or really any car. Please, shut the f#&$*# engine off so I can get some sleep.... Maybe its a hispanic thing, but there are so so many of them here in New Mexico.

Good for you Cat. My Harley has healthy sounding pipes too.

Glad it turned out well.

Glad it turned out well, and as long as it's street legal, any sound is fine by me.

Shows a principal problem with Cruisers though - when I drive, I'm always at the front, even in city traffic. It only takes one red light to sneak ahead of the colums and run off with much better accel than any car, to repeat the same thing at the next red light.

If you're caught "swimming" inside a bunch of cars, it's ugly.

I am glad it worked out for you. I worry about blind spots in cars a lot. I drive defensively because of that. I either speed up when I am next to another car or slow down to try to avoid those spots. I think it's why it would terrify me on a motorcycle.

I do my best to check when I move into the left lane, but I still fear that someone is in that blind spot and it's a timing thing where they move opposite from when I am checking.

Back in the days of kick starts and spark controls a sure way to get someone's attention was to retard the spark, flood the gutted pipes and crank the spark back to normal. The backfire and flames would wake up anyone not paying attention.