kids yellow bike helmet image
concerned
I don't get it. Most bikers with loud pipes wear black outfits and eggshell thin helmets. If they are so concerned with being safe and being noticed on the roads, who don't they wear something more visible and use adequate helmets?
Answer
Loud Pipe Don't Save Lives.
Anyone believing this myth is kidding themselves.
I ride the quietest motorcycle made. 2001 1800 Honda Goldwing. I wear one of those dreaded full face helmets. You know, the one that limits peripheral vision and prevents you from hearing the cars around you (common arguments against full face helmets). I wear E.A.R. Taperfit 2 earplugs with a NRR of 32dB. Conventional wisdom would lead you to believe I wouldn't hear a thing during a ride. Conventional wisdom is dead wrong. The helmet and especially the ear plugs kills all the "white" noise, namely the wind. The wind that some riders strongly believe is the vital part of riding. Feeling the wind in the hair and on the face. I am here to tell you, they are dead wrong. That wind in the hair also means wind noise in the ears. Noise is fatiguing and can and will cause loss of hearing and can produce tinnitus aka ringing in the ears. All that noise compounded with a loud engine and exhaust system prevents a rider from hearing traffic around you. I am able to hear what is happening around me just fine. Has saved me a time or two. Better defense is to ride defensively and wear the safety gear.
I find it interesting that the people that believe loud pipes save lives and full face helmets prevent you from hearing traffic.......... Quite a contradiction. They want to hear the traffic, so they don't wear a full face helmet or any helmet at all. They want to hear traffic so they make their motorcycle as loud a possible. I don't get it.
Note for you loud pipes save lives believers. While driving a car I observe a motorcycle in my rear view mirror. That whole speed of light thing. 1/2 to 2 miles away depending on traffic and hills. Motorcycle will overtake me. No problems, I am aware of their presence. Bike get closer. Bike is a Harley. Again no problem, but now I am into experiment mode. When can I hear the bike? By the time I hear the V-Twin thru straight pipes, it is in the danger zone. While we pass safely and legally, the bike is so close before I hear it, if I were day dreaming and changed lanes, the hapless rider would have almost no time or space to maneuver. Not good for the safety of the rider.
No my fellow riders, a little loud is OK as long as you wear hearing protection. Believing loud pipes enclose you in a force field of protection will give you a false sense of security. My Goldwing is yellow, helmet is yellow, as is my jacket. Most visible bike on the road. And I still ride KNOWING someone is not going to see me. I never forget that for one second. A false sense of security will get you killed.
This is my beliefs and I am sticking to them.
Loud Pipe Don't Save Lives.
Anyone believing this myth is kidding themselves.
I ride the quietest motorcycle made. 2001 1800 Honda Goldwing. I wear one of those dreaded full face helmets. You know, the one that limits peripheral vision and prevents you from hearing the cars around you (common arguments against full face helmets). I wear E.A.R. Taperfit 2 earplugs with a NRR of 32dB. Conventional wisdom would lead you to believe I wouldn't hear a thing during a ride. Conventional wisdom is dead wrong. The helmet and especially the ear plugs kills all the "white" noise, namely the wind. The wind that some riders strongly believe is the vital part of riding. Feeling the wind in the hair and on the face. I am here to tell you, they are dead wrong. That wind in the hair also means wind noise in the ears. Noise is fatiguing and can and will cause loss of hearing and can produce tinnitus aka ringing in the ears. All that noise compounded with a loud engine and exhaust system prevents a rider from hearing traffic around you. I am able to hear what is happening around me just fine. Has saved me a time or two. Better defense is to ride defensively and wear the safety gear.
I find it interesting that the people that believe loud pipes save lives and full face helmets prevent you from hearing traffic.......... Quite a contradiction. They want to hear the traffic, so they don't wear a full face helmet or any helmet at all. They want to hear traffic so they make their motorcycle as loud a possible. I don't get it.
Note for you loud pipes save lives believers. While driving a car I observe a motorcycle in my rear view mirror. That whole speed of light thing. 1/2 to 2 miles away depending on traffic and hills. Motorcycle will overtake me. No problems, I am aware of their presence. Bike get closer. Bike is a Harley. Again no problem, but now I am into experiment mode. When can I hear the bike? By the time I hear the V-Twin thru straight pipes, it is in the danger zone. While we pass safely and legally, the bike is so close before I hear it, if I were day dreaming and changed lanes, the hapless rider would have almost no time or space to maneuver. Not good for the safety of the rider.
No my fellow riders, a little loud is OK as long as you wear hearing protection. Believing loud pipes enclose you in a force field of protection will give you a false sense of security. My Goldwing is yellow, helmet is yellow, as is my jacket. Most visible bike on the road. And I still ride KNOWING someone is not going to see me. I never forget that for one second. A false sense of security will get you killed.
This is my beliefs and I am sticking to them.
Does it drive you bananas when kids scream when they are outside(or otherwise for that matter)?
Raptor Mam
Every time my kids scream, or even kids around the neighborhood within ear shot, I'm jumping up to see what's wrong, often(thank God) only to discover that they're just playing. I'm fat. It's not easy for me to jump up, but dang it-I'll do it to check on them!!! I'd hate to not to, that one time, and it be a dire circumstance.
I keep trying to tell my kids to PLEASE not scream unless something is wrong. They're kids, though. I can't fault them for wanting to use outside voices when they're outside.
Any stories you can share regarding the subject?
AAUGH! Screaming "help" while in the pool??? Nooottt cool, J!
Answer
If the screaming is happening between the hours of noon and 10pm and endures less than 60 seconds in a single burst I generally ignore it. If it continues and is loud and shrill I get up and go check and these ain't even my kids, they're just a roving pack of neighborhood rugrats.
Most of the time they're just squabbling over something but one time a little girl had wrecked her bike and skinned her knees & elbows pretty bad, of course her parents weren't home so I went & got the first aid kit out of my truck and fixed her owies and gave her some lemonade. I asked her if her Mom would be mad if she knew she was out riding her bike in the street without a helmet and she said she lost her helmet and her Mom said she couldn't get another one until she earned the $ to buy it herself. Guess who went and got the kid a helmet?
Another time two little boys had discovered a yellow jacket nest and though they were the same distance from my house as their own house their parents couldn't hear them because they had their music up LOUD and were busy drinking. I was the one who got stung getting the boys away from the yellow jackets and getting all the bugs off them. The parents acted like they were a little annoyed to have to turn their music down and put down their beers.
Now I get visits from various urchins every time I'm outside. It's kind of nice because they like to help me with yard work and play fetch with the dog but they also want to drink up all my lemonade and ask about 599 questions in a single breath.
But, yeah, I get my fatasss up to check too, you never know and the thought of something awful happening to one of them is what's giving me gray hairs, I'm certain of it. There's like 9 of them I see on this block on a regular basis and when I first moved here and observed them running loose with absolutely no supervision I decided it would be best to make friends of them rather than be the curmudgeon who gets to clean eggs off my truck and put out flaming bags of poop left on the porch. I think that was a baseless concern, these kids all seem to be really bright, good kids. I think we're lucky to have them around. I just wish their parents were doing a little more to keep them safer.
All the parents around here work all day, or they're gone all day anyway (even the drunkards with the loud music) and it seems like the all the kids from the age of about 6 & up are home alone all day. If they can't afford daycare I'd think they'd get these kids into some kind of summer time activities. I know times are tough all over but the YMCA and the parks and recreation department offers stuff that's free or cheap and they offer "scholarships" to low income families. Churches offer vacation bible school and that's ALWAYS free, and most of the time they'll pick them up, drop them off and feed them as well. I'm not big on religion at all but at least there's adult supervision there.
These are their KIDS, they're more precious than ANYTHING else. I know they wanna eat everyday and sleep inside on a bed and all, but damn, what's the point of making all that happen just to let them play in the effing street all day???
If the screaming is happening between the hours of noon and 10pm and endures less than 60 seconds in a single burst I generally ignore it. If it continues and is loud and shrill I get up and go check and these ain't even my kids, they're just a roving pack of neighborhood rugrats.
Most of the time they're just squabbling over something but one time a little girl had wrecked her bike and skinned her knees & elbows pretty bad, of course her parents weren't home so I went & got the first aid kit out of my truck and fixed her owies and gave her some lemonade. I asked her if her Mom would be mad if she knew she was out riding her bike in the street without a helmet and she said she lost her helmet and her Mom said she couldn't get another one until she earned the $ to buy it herself. Guess who went and got the kid a helmet?
Another time two little boys had discovered a yellow jacket nest and though they were the same distance from my house as their own house their parents couldn't hear them because they had their music up LOUD and were busy drinking. I was the one who got stung getting the boys away from the yellow jackets and getting all the bugs off them. The parents acted like they were a little annoyed to have to turn their music down and put down their beers.
Now I get visits from various urchins every time I'm outside. It's kind of nice because they like to help me with yard work and play fetch with the dog but they also want to drink up all my lemonade and ask about 599 questions in a single breath.
But, yeah, I get my fatasss up to check too, you never know and the thought of something awful happening to one of them is what's giving me gray hairs, I'm certain of it. There's like 9 of them I see on this block on a regular basis and when I first moved here and observed them running loose with absolutely no supervision I decided it would be best to make friends of them rather than be the curmudgeon who gets to clean eggs off my truck and put out flaming bags of poop left on the porch. I think that was a baseless concern, these kids all seem to be really bright, good kids. I think we're lucky to have them around. I just wish their parents were doing a little more to keep them safer.
All the parents around here work all day, or they're gone all day anyway (even the drunkards with the loud music) and it seems like the all the kids from the age of about 6 & up are home alone all day. If they can't afford daycare I'd think they'd get these kids into some kind of summer time activities. I know times are tough all over but the YMCA and the parks and recreation department offers stuff that's free or cheap and they offer "scholarships" to low income families. Churches offer vacation bible school and that's ALWAYS free, and most of the time they'll pick them up, drop them off and feed them as well. I'm not big on religion at all but at least there's adult supervision there.
These are their KIDS, they're more precious than ANYTHING else. I know they wanna eat everyday and sleep inside on a bed and all, but damn, what's the point of making all that happen just to let them play in the effing street all day???
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Title Post: Do loud pipes save lives?
Rating: 94% based on 932 ratings. 4,1 user reviews.
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Rating: 94% based on 932 ratings. 4,1 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thanks For Coming To My Blog
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