The element of surprise

[kreinke]

Disclaimer: This is not a rant about Harleys or import guys with performance exhausts. If anyone is offended don't take it personally.

Yeah I like loud bikes. I particularily love the badass sounds of sporting twins like Ducatis, KTM LC-8's, SV1000's, RC51's, etc.

Yeah, I'm guilty. When I had my F650 I really didn't like the sound of it. The airbox glugged and honked like a Canadian goose and the exhaust note was so quiet the bike sounded more like a Singer sewing machine at a stop light than a motorcycle.

I went and invested $250 ina slip-on Supertrapp and really liked it.

"BRRAAAAAAAAAAAp BRAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaP" Then down shiftting....
"Buuurbleburble Pop Pop"

Sounded pretty cool.

Three months later I traded the bike on my R1150R. I immediately started looking at cat-eliminators and pipes.

Then I realized something.

I really really liked the growl of the airbox. Twist the grip and it sounds to me an awful lot like the growl they dub in movies when a black panther is stalking its prey. Getting a louder exhaust would spoil that. My R1150 just has that quiet "walk softly but carry a big stick" persona that would be spoiled by "BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!"

Ride behind a guy one a K-bike or 'Wing and I swear those bikes are so smooth and quiet all you hear is their final drives whining.

Then this summer I was filling up at Kwik Trip in Mauston and a guy on a cruiser came up and complimented me on my bike. "Man I've heard Beemers are real smooth. Is that true? You passed us back there and we didn't even hear you go by!"

A revelation!

It is all too common to have a loud bike and attract attention but it seems that quiet has more "WOW!" factor when you blow someone's doors off and they didn't even hear you coming.

Makes life easier with the neighbors too.

 

[belquar]

Best parts of Airshows are the sneak passes and watching the crowd jump whne they get buzzed at 700knots and 200 ft. from behind. They never see it coming.

 

[braddog]

I can go either way on this one...

Quiet is good, but sometimes loud is fun.

I like quiet in my motorcycles, but a nice piped V8 is fun to rap off.

I remember when a buddy passed me on the way to work one morning. I was going about 65 down the highway, very early morning, hardly any traffic. He went flying by me like I was standing still, I didn't hear a thing. He was in a 944 Turbo. Kind of cool, actually. Even cooler on a motorcycle, IMHO.

I also remember driving my dad's '75 F250 with the 390, 4-barrel, headers, and cherry bomb's. God, that was fun to make noise with!