Every year, the motorcylces make me wish that good weather had never come

[MissMillie]

You know, that beautiful day, the one where you just have to open up the windows. And the cats just love it. They get up on the window sill and they sleep in the sun.

Then it comes..... that obnoxious loud rumble that makes sure that you can't hear the person who's sitting across the table and talking to you, or you can't hear the TV, or you can't hear the music you've got playing.

If cars get that loud, the cops pull them over and cite them.

But not bikes. There's some theory that a bike has to be loud because people don't see them as readily as they see cars. If I had a dime for every time I saw a biker driving up between cars in the lanes at the traffic light, or down the breakdown lane when there's traffic. If a bike wants to be seen it needs to stay in it's proper lane. It doesn't need to be loud.

There's those bumper stickers that say "Look twice, motorcycles are everywhere" and I always want to add "except where they are supposed to be."

/end rant

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. We were working out in the yard today

and some kids went screaming by on motorcycles. Had to be going 50 - in a residential area.

[Wcross]

2. Just craving attention.....

Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!

They ought to walk around naked- that would get them the attention they crave. I could choose to look or not. With the loud pipes I have no choice. Now where did I put that piano wire?????

[qnr]

3. I ride mine 365 days a year, Maine, High Sierra desert in NV, here in OK

of course mine is much smaller and nowhere near as noisy.


I actually prefer to ride in the winter in some respects, because everyone else is being so careful.

Edit: s/mine it/mine is/

[7th_Sephiroth]

4. just because you dont like motorcycles doesent mean

they should be banned

[MissMillie]

6. I don't want to ban the motorcyles

I want the same noise reduction rules for cars to apply to motorcycles.

[Wcross]

8. Nobody said anything about banning bikes.

We just don't like the loud exhaust systems. Why should I have to hear you drive by my home? With the windows closed? 200 yards from the road? I never hear any automobiles drive by.

[Borgnine]

5. I always get behind the slow-moving motorcycles.

The ones that go about 30 in a 55-limit area. There's always more than one, and they take up both lanes so they can make faces at each other.

[Dudley_DUright]

7. Try living near Daytona Beach during "bike week" sometime

It gets ridiculously loud, even on very quiet residential streets like mine.

[n2mark]

9. Last year when I was working

one of my co-worker's son was killed on his motorcycle. He was too close to the car in front of him on the freeway, the car had to stop quickly and he flew over the car. He wasn't wearing a helmet. The parents were devistated, but so was the driver of the car who had to stop quickly. This was so sad.

[KG]

10. i never want to hear those honkeys (they're always white) complain

about homeboys with the bass-booming cars again.

i live on a corner with a traffic light, and the harley assholes sitting there and revving while waiting for the light to changes are louder than the boom box hoopties. :grr:

[ForrestGump]

11. People who rev their bikes while at a standstill are morons

Does no good at all and only hurts the bike. Stupid. It's a sign of the effete motorcycle rider, the one who's extremely part-time and uses the bike as an accessories (or as a penile enhancement, a la the Hummer) -- the trouble is that, in the US (in stark contrast to most of the rest of the world), motorcycles are seen as toys and are treated as such by idiots who have no business riding them, especially large (Harley) or powerful (everything else) ones.

I see a lot of Harley riders revving the hell out of their bikes at a stop. It's not surprising, because they'd be the ones most likely to be preoccupied with style (or the illusion thereof) over substance, as illustrated by their overpriced,underengineered, overhyped choice of ride and by those pathetic little brain buckets that they wear (supposedly to enhance their cool factor, though beanies have rarely been at the front echelon of coolness). It's possible that they have to rev like that just to keep their tractor engines running, of course. Yesterday I saw some doofus on a Harley who was actually moving (slowly) within a gas station's apron area and blipping his throttle hard while doing so. If I did that on my bike, I'd be pulling a high wheelie with each burst of power and be in great trouble...the Harley didn't even twitch upward, but it sure made a lot of noise.

From the perspective of a long-time motorcyclist, I can say that most car drivers appear to be morons. Unfortunately, I can also say that -- in the US -- the same is true of many, and perhaps most, motorcyclists. Certainly the ones we encounter around town. The posers, most definitely. Thusly is the US majority morons and thusly we find ourselves being led happily into a corporate fascist future by transparently bad players...

[Shananigans]

12. Interesting you say that as I just saw a group of young

African American men ride by on their crotch rockets. And please don't perpetuate the already bad race relations in our country by calling them "honkeys"

Thanks!

[KG]

13. i am a honkey,

thanks!

[Shananigans]

16. And that matters?

When a young black man refers to himself as the "N-word" it doesn't make it any better. When a young woman refers to herself or her friends as the "b-word" or "c-word" it doesn't make it any less wrong.

[KG]

17. i'm using stereotypes to make a point.

but, i'd be real interested to learn how calling myself a honkey on a BBS hurts race relations in this country.

[China_cat]

14. It's a big bike convention this weekend here in Charleston.

Being on the road to go to the store has been just plain scary.

[DS1]

15. Many lack a socially normal level of courtesy, motorcycles of any sort

are loud when really revved, I hear the crotch-rockets racing around miles away at night, and the Harleys trying to catch up to them, it's really obnoxious. Like that one guy that brings a huge radio and two untrained dogs to a campsite. You wanna kill em. But you don't. Maybe next time.