posted
Maybe the motorcycle enthusiasts on the board can explain the appeal of modified pipes to me. I say this because I live in a city-ish area where the sound becomes more concentrated when a cyclist with modified pipes ROARS down the road, or ROARS when it's waiting at a stop sign.
I LIKE motorcycles. I don't mind when they roar down a road. But there's a huge difference between ROAR and roar. I mean, I live close to a fire station and sirens no longer wake me up when the engines fly by. Regular motorycles don't wake me up.
Modified pipes wake me up out of a sound sleep.
As it did this morning, several times, because it's a fantastically nice day out. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Nope, can't help you there. As I've been browsing bike ads, when the owner lists aftermarket pipes I mentally knock down the amount I'm will to pay because I'd have to pay to get the stock exhaust put back on. Assuming they still even have it and I wouldn't have to buy a new system.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
There are three primary reasons, none of which seem worth it for a bike that will get actual road use:
1.) You can do much cooler things with the look of the pipes when you don't have to fit a muffler in there. OK, some of the pipe configurations look really cool. But part of the appeal bike customization as art is that you have to be creative within the framework of a functional bike. This seems like cheating on that aspect of it.
2.) You can get better performace out of the engine. Fine for racing, but most bikes with any size to the motor can accelerate fast enough without such things.
3.) They like the noise. Hard to find anything redeeming in this one.
Basically what Dagonee said. Depending on the style of the bike, it can be done for the sake of "uniqueness". Stock pipes are always more restrictive than they need to be (in order to meet DOT, CARB,... regulations). So people replace them with aftermarket exhausts to free up otherwise restricted horsepower and torque. The same goes for cars, but this modification to a bike has more of an effect. For example, gaining 20hp on a car is nothing compared to that same gain on a bike due to weight differences. As for the sound, well, a correctly tuned exhaust system sounds beautiful and when I get mine, I won't have use for my stereo anymore. Posts: 298 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
There is another very important issue at owrk there. Loud pipes save lives.
Motorcycles are easy to overlook on the highway, and there have been a few times when I was driving when I looked in my mirror and checked my blind spot but misses a bike. The only reason I didn't move over and accidently kill them is becaue I could hear their bikes somewhere so I knew they were close to me.
Loud pipes make a bike harder to miss and helps to avoid stupid collisions with people in SUV's and cars.
posted
Bah! Loud pipes are just cool. Most bike owners think that a new pipe will gain them horsepower and a sweeter exhaust note. Some pipes do give quite a gain in horsepower and or torque, others are just for show or decibels.
But I must say in my own defense that on the few bikes and quads I have, the exhaust is stock on all of them. My dirtbike scares the hell out of me bone stock. I can't imagine going any quicker or faster.
As for Harleys and Harley clones with pipes that rival a jet engine in noise, I find them to be a bit over-the-top and unnecessary. But as for a custom exhaust for my Avalanche with an 8.1L V-8 powerplant churning out about 345HP: completely understandable, right?
posted
OK, for a second I was thinking of the Avalanche as a motorcycle because of the thread leading up to it, and my reaction was "345 HP you're gonna die!"
Although they did make a motorcycle with the Dodge Viper V10 in it. They won't sell it with a timing chain, because they don't think it's safe to ride.
posted
In Popular Mechanics a few years ago, Jay Leno reviewed a motorcycle that uses the jet turbine engine used in a Blackhawk helicopter for an engine. It got 2mpg, made a crazy racket, but was something like 900hp.
Don't ask me how they fit a jet turbine under the seat of the bike... although it was a particularly huge motorcycle.
Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003
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