I always slow down to a crawl or stop at all intersections...regardless of whether I've got a green light or not, especially if I'm making a right turn...I've almost been smoked I don't know how many times by people making left turns into me and not seeing me...I hate to keep the arguement alive...I'd say that probably true that folks in front of my bike won't hear me well enough to make notice, but those behind me...that I can't see, tailgaters especially...they hear me and notice to stop...I'm more afraid of getting hit in the *** than anything. People behind me tend to back off a bit and give space..especially tailgaters if I turn and give them the "back the **** off" look.

 

What you are referring to is known as the Doppler Effect and it has some serious shortcomings in terms relative to the directional awareness of the specific sound and the frequency of that sound. Echo location is a science in and of itself however, having the ability to understand that echo in a manner that would allow the end user to actually locate the source based on the echo is now left to computers and a sensor array simply because of the difficulty. Don't believe this, roll your window down the next time you see a bike in your rear view mirror. As the bike approaches you can't here it until it is almost on top of you and this occurs even with the loudest of pipes. Flip it around and follow the bike and that sound can be heard at a very good distance.

 

I think we might be getting to deep into the science of it...I was looking at as...we're all human, curious humans and when we hear a sound thats out of the ordinary "i.e. loud pipes", regardless of whether you can identify where the sound is coming from with your eyes closed, people are going to hear it and look for the source, the motorcycle..I usually light my pipes up a bit when I'm rolling to a stop, because I want the drivers behind to take notice.

 

I took my bike out saturday and had 6, count 'em, 6 close calls all but one due to dip**** drivers. one, i'll take responsibility for. i got tired of dragging *** behind a guy in the fast lane, so i went around him in the right lane, and an Embark truck pulled out in front of me.

 

Would love to know what your ideas of "close calls" are. I have ridden for 8 years and have had very few real close calls.

 

It is kinda funny, that you complain about dipsh*t drivers......then admit to being one yourself in the next sentence.

Were you "hitting the pipe" that day?

 

Correct, we are human and as such we associate speed with the size of an object over a relative distance as perceived by our eyes and the data those eyes are sending to our brain. If we take three vehicles coming at us at the same exact speed the perception of speed could be quite different for the driver of a cage that is turning left or pulling out. The first is an 18 wheeler. As that rig comes towards us it gets bigger in our field of vision and it does so at a rather rapid pace. The next is an SUV and while it doesn't gain in size as quickly as the 18 wheeler it does change. Now we take the motorcycle, as it approaches at the same speed the others did it changes very little in size so the brain doesn't really know how fast it is approaching, which gives the driver a false sense of how fast it is actually approaching. This phenomenon is quite often the reason the driver of the cage made the move they did and why many accidents of this type occur.

 

When I took the MSF course they teach you that an accident is the result of a series of events. Remove any one of those events in the chain and the accident will probably not occur.

So like others have stated I ride like everyone is out to get me and when I come to an intersection weather it is red or not I slow down and I usually downshift. When I down shift I usually give a little blip on the throttle as well and I have had ppl shoot their head around to look in my direction. Now if that helped to remove one of those events from the accident chain I don't know but if it did then that is great.

I have also experienced far fewer ppl pulling out in front of me on my sporty then I did on my other bikes. That being said I don't count on my pipes being my safety line! I just simply like the way they sound and thats enough for me.

 

There will always be hazards out on the road from all directions, the only really really irritating thing to me is when somebody pulls out in front of me and then scowls because they think it's my fault, or flip me off, yell, honk the horn, whatever. That about makes me want to flip a u-turn and go beat the the **** out of them. that and vehicles that pull up close enough at intersections that I can feel the heat from their radiators. arrrrggghhh!

 

So basically what you're saying in a scientific response is that we are both correct.

Post edited. I don't come here to argue with people. Nor do I advocate for overly loud pipes. I enjoy the sound level from my bike as well as that of others. Riding safely and responsibly is the best prevention.