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> Next time you are in a car driving next to a Harley, listen to it. It will be quiet even at a stoplight and inaudible at speed. Do they make Harleys totally

> Next time you are in a car driving next to a Harley, listen to it. It will be quiet even at a stoplight and inaudible at speed. Do they make Harleys totally different where you're from? Serious question, maybe your country has noise regulations the US doesn't, or something, so they have to modify them for that market. This isn't at all true in the US.

pandaman 5y ago
The post you're replying to is not about Harleys being silent in absolute sense but about their noise not standing out to drivers over the noise of other cars, car's own noise, and sound insulation.
- brimble 5y ago
  Right, I haven't found that to be true at all. Some are louder than others (I assume they've been modded so?) but they're ~always quite loud and do not fade into the general background noise of the road.
  - pandaman 5y ago
    I found it to be true, all bikes are virtually silent when I drive. All the road noise is just monotonous hum in the background even with music off.
    - brimble 5y ago
      Huh. Motorcycles are on a pretty short list of types of vehicles that startle or distract me with noise fairly often, along with emergency vehicles (popping on their sirens) and semi trucks (if they happen to rev to go up a hill or pass while right alongside me, or use a Jake Brake while fairly close). Cars almost never do unless they've clearly got some severe problems with their mufflers, even though ordinary non emergency cars must represent something like 80% of vehicles I encounter on highways in my city. Even for the loud-bass types, the radius in which I can hear that and the volume is lower than typical "Hog"-alike motorcycles. Motorcycles are also the only non-emergency vehicles that sometimes sound really loud inside my house about 300 meters—and a bunch of trees—from the nearest highway (though that's mostly a couple of jerks who seem to like to race on that stretch of highway every so often, on what sound like racing-style bikes, not Harleys)
      - pandaman 5y ago
        Motorcycles are loud outside the car, nobody argues that. Most cars have heavy sound insulation though. E.g. I can hear emergency sirens but just because of the different spectrum, if it had been engine sound at the same level I'd likely would not notice most of the time.
        brimble 5y ago
        I mean from inside a car. The sound is very noticeable, stopped or within 2-3 car lengths while driving.
        rascul 5y ago
        If I'm driving 30 or 40 mph then I will not hear a loud motorcycle directly next to me. Between my radio, my engine noise, my tire noise, and whatever insulation there is, I just won't hear it.

pandaman 5y ago

The post you're replying to is not about Harleys being silent in absolute sense but about their noise not standing out to drivers over the noise of other cars, car's own noise, and sound insulation.

brimble 5y ago
Right, I haven't found that to be true at all. Some are louder than others (I assume they've been modded so?) but they're ~always quite loud and do not fade into the general background noise of the road.
- pandaman 5y ago
  I found it to be true, all bikes are virtually silent when I drive. All the road noise is just monotonous hum in the background even with music off.
  - brimble 5y ago
    Huh. Motorcycles are on a pretty short list of types of vehicles that startle or distract me with noise fairly often, along with emergency vehicles (popping on their sirens) and semi trucks (if they happen to rev to go up a hill or pass while right alongside me, or use a Jake Brake while fairly close). Cars almost never do unless they've clearly got some severe problems with their mufflers, even though ordinary non emergency cars must represent something like 80% of vehicles I encounter on highways in my city. Even for the loud-bass types, the radius in which I can hear that and the volume is lower than typical "Hog"-alike motorcycles. Motorcycles are also the only non-emergency vehicles that sometimes sound really loud inside my house about 300 meters—and a bunch of trees—from the nearest highway (though that's mostly a couple of jerks who seem to like to race on that stretch of highway every so often, on what sound like racing-style bikes, not Harleys)
    - pandaman 5y ago
      Motorcycles are loud outside the car, nobody argues that. Most cars have heavy sound insulation though. E.g. I can hear emergency sirens but just because of the different spectrum, if it had been engine sound at the same level I'd likely would not notice most of the time.
      - brimble 5y ago
        I mean from inside a car. The sound is very noticeable, stopped or within 2-3 car lengths while driving.
        rascul 5y ago
        If I'm driving 30 or 40 mph then I will not hear a loud motorcycle directly next to me. Between my radio, my engine noise, my tire noise, and whatever insulation there is, I just won't hear it.