The Noise of It All

Over the past few weeks I have been looking at used motorcycles. It is the typical end-of-the-season bargain shopping. You know the story, a guy has to clean out his garage because he has: A) too many bikes, B) too many cars C) all of the above, d) none of the above and they just lost interest. One thing that strikes me is that so many of these motorcycles have aftermarket exhausts. Loud ones too.

An informal survey of our club indicates that only a small portion of members have an aftermarket exhaust and I would guess a large number of those are on Ducatis (there is a reason for this, see my previous entry). Not too many of our faithful put an aftermarket on their BMW, Suzuki, Honda or Triumph. Granted, those members that also own American iron probably have some sort of noise maker, but why do so many used bikes have aftermarket exhausts as a "selling feature"?

I have a theory and it goes along with answer D above. Loud pipes can be very wearing and when it is your bike it is not like you can get away from the noise. Spring of the year, you buy that new bike, throw the pipes on the machine and go ride. One hour later your head aches and you park the machine. You try it again next week with the same result. You keep trying all summer with the same result. Ear plugs - no difference. By September or October this motorcycle thing has played out, with you, your significant other and probably the neighbors. The bike goes up for sale.

It is just a theory, but check out the classifieds.