OK, I'm bothered by all the boring opinions people have about how loud pipes should be and whether they actually provide any safety benefit for motorcyclists. To that end, I have decided to conduct a research study to investigate this issue.

I am a PhD student in human factors and ergonomics and one of the areas of research in this field is safety and warning systems. I had a colleague recently conduct a study to investigate the safety of quite hybrid cars. He found that these cars are too quiet and can be a safety hazard for pedestrians. Other research has supported this. So, we can start with the idea that at least some amount of noise is important for vehicles.

My study will investigate just how much noise is important, and whether there are safety benefits to louder pipes. I haven't developed the formal research questions or hypotheses yet, and I'd love to hear some good input for the design of this type of study. This will be a side-project as my specific area of research is in human-computer interaction.

Anyway, it could be fun and hopefully actually provide some real data for once. I'm not proposing that the study will be the final word on the subject but hopefully it can direct us in the right path. I'm also not proposing that people's opinions should be heavily be influenced or changed by the results, but I do think knowledge is power.

 

Well let us know how it turns out. For me it is not just a safety issue, I like the sound, it helps with the heat issue and of course the performance of the bike. But with the wild animals where I live, such as wild turkeys etc. anything I can do such as pipes cannot hurt.

 

Go for it chopfury, I feel sound equates to being seen, my opinion. Also a loud horn eliminates those that can't hear.

 

what? can't hear you over my bike

 

Do let us know how the study goes. In my opinion, I think that anything you can do to get yourself noticed is a good thing. I have LED tail lights that flash 3 times when I hit the brakes. The guys I ride with say it does help them out when they are following me. They can see the bright pulse of light out of the corner of their eye better then the stock lights. Another comment I have heard is that because of the louder pipes I have, they can hear me let off the gas better. So I would say that yes the louder pipes do make a difference. People can hear you coming and when you are passing through thier blind spots. Plus when I am being followed, they can hear me let off the gas. That gives them more time to react. Some may say they are too loud and annoying, but I wonder if they would think the same if they took sirens off of firetrucks and ambulances??

 

------ +1 --------Deluxechuck

 

cool, glad to see some positive support.

So a preliminary hypothesis is that loud pipes do increase awareness due to the dual-coding theory. Basically it has been found that audio and visual perception occurs along different channels in the brain, and these channels have limited capacity. So, when a cager is driving along, it could be assumed that their visual channel is more quickly filled to capacity, but their audio channel is not. Taking this into account perhaps the sound of a motorcycle's pipe will have more potential to 'get to the brain' and be processed resulting in an increase in awareness of that sound. I haven't done a lit review or anything so this still remains just an idea.

Another thing to note is even if I find that loud pipes do increase awareness, I would probably have to conduct a follow-up study on social responsibility to investigate the trade-off between heightened awareness and "pissing off the neighbors" for lack of a better word.

 

Some say that loud pipes save lives. A scientific project that proves the claim's validity may help save lives after its completion. Seems like a valuable proposal indeed.

 

good luck with the study and let us know the results thanks!

 

Ya, what he said.

Honestly, the only study I needed was the first day I hit the starter button with my V&H BSS on.