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As I stated earlier though, the sheep flock to the shepherd. If Dungeys bike is loud, every 17 yr old in America will think it's cool to have a loud bike and the quiet bike that they buy off the floor simply will not work.
If need be, they'll cut the end off of the damn silencer in order to make it loud. Trust me, I've seen kids do some stupid shit.
If quiet bikes are the norm, they will be perceived as cool and Everyone will do it.
The pros have already been louder than production bikes and if they changed the rule today and let them do whatever, by freestone they would be much louder than anything we could buy, and that wouldn't have to have anything to do with production db at all.
You guys may be right, I don't know what the reasoning is, I'm just speculating on possible justification to mess with the pros and very few scenarios make sense. Every other motorsport goes out of it's way to differentiate pro from amateur competition, I'm just wondering why AMA FIM doesn't in regard to sound?
Nascar doesn't try to justify local joe blow when it's called to defend the commotion Daytona causes a few times a year, even if it's nascar sanctioned, they leave them to live with rules in that locale.
And they could put the pros on electric bikes and we'll still never eliminate people from doing something that causes their bike to produce too much noise at the local level. Sound testing at an amateur nat would be good comedy though.
People do what they are forced to do. If sound gets less then the people who hate dirt bikes will complain about dust, trash, erosion and the list goes on.
Sound limits in pro racing will affect sound at local tracks about 1% , not enough to put a pimple on a bugs ass.
Why does it matter so much to you or I if the Pro's bikes are ever so slightly quieter? Who noticed the difference at Colorado last year?
The Shop
If that's the case though, need to do away with the ama production rule as well. A level playing field isn't to have quiet production rule bikes vs quiet works bikes.
If you could tell neighbors we'll cut out all the weekly noise if we can make all the noise we want one weekend a year, I think they'd be happy. The weekly bullshit is what has the sport in trouble, not one more weekend of the same.
Pro racing must really be your cookies and milk......
What's more, while there may only be a National or GP held once a year on a particular track, the likelihood is that the locals have to endure numerous other amateur races throughout the year, either on the same track or others close by. The locals don't give a shit when the Pro's are racing, its all the same to them; noisy & irritating.
Its just a preventative measure to help reduce the growing number of complaints. Noise is a huge problem for our sport and we need to safeguard it at the grass roots level in order to protect the healthy standard at the top. Without local tracks where are the kids going to learn how to ride?
I'm suggesting that producing quieter bikes for public each week is the solution to the noise issues but that can be done without also imposing those restrictions on the pros. And I'm not understanding the justification to make the pros do the same as us.
As long as riders like Dungey are running loud, after market exhausts then Joe Bloggs and millions of other amateurs will continue to want to use them too. They rarely sound test at amateur races or practice tracks and thats where it matters most. How do you police that?
If you make everyone conform to the same ruling, the exhaust manufacturers will stop producing unnecessarily loud pipes and you erradicate, or at least help to reduce complaints for everyone involved, therefore protecting the sport.
The difference in performance a stupidly loud exhaust makes is minute, but the impact is massive.
No matter how you try to spin it, it's much easier to continue having a loud race once a year if we're quiet every other weekend. All the sound limit will do is quiet that one weekend and the rest will be the same.
No you can't police amateur or practice tracks but you can't do that no matter what you mandate, people will still get louder than ama regulated pipes for anything that doesn't require a sound test and they wont repack them either.
You think there wont be a market for louder than spec pipe for the majority of riders that'll never be anywhere near a sound test? Because the pros are quieter nobody will sell a pipe to replace an even more restrictive stocker?
As far as wanting to be loud because a pro is, Joe Blogg already can't have anything on Dungey's bike so he can want in one hand and shit in the other, all he can do is what he already does, buy a pipe that wont be sound tested and not rebuild his muffler like everyone else. AMA sound testing wont stop the local problem as you already pointed out, can't police it.
What you propose is what we already have, once a year the bikes will be quiet, rest of the year people will neglect their stock mufflers and/ or replace them with a louder aftermarket pipe because they aren't ever going to a sound test. And it wont matter to neighbors that the pro race is quiet.
Granted, leaving the pros alone wont change local habits either but the point is, we can what other sports do. There's plenty of circle track and dragways that mandate something to restrict sound for everyone except the handfull that make up the fastest division in the sport.
1) Millsaps factory Honda came within a whisker of getting Nico Izzi's practice track shut down so those of you who subscribe to the theory professional sound levels have nothing to do with the real world might want to reconsider. I also saw Josh Hill in 2010 leave one of the Anaheim races with his race bike in the back of his truck. He was going to practice on Sunday then return it to the race shop on Monday.
2) 2 M Max coming to AMA SX will probably have little impact on the consumer. For the last few years the standard has been 94 db but there are still a plethora of above 94 db pipes out there. Some mfgs meet this level with their normal exhausts while most utilize an insert to reach 94 db. I will bet you a dollar this will be the case after 2 M Max is here as well. Nothing to get excited about here folks....just move along.
3) Like everything in life sound compliance at the amateur level is a personal choice. If you believe in less sound equals more ground run a quiet pipe. If you believe there's no correlation then run what you want to......just let me know how you like that electric bike you'll be riding in the not too distant future.
Speaking of, someone told me KTM cancelled their electric bike. Is this true?
I'm also very surprised given Chad Reed's practice track experience some still cling to the misperception pro bikes don't need to be quiet. Opinions aside the reality is this is 2011 and not the 70s and urban sprawl is just about everywhere.
I'm just looking forward to the day the loud POS H-Ds are a thing of the past.
H-D South Park
Atlanta dragway every Fri-Sat. They all run more often than most mx tracks, you only see the pros once a year.
Unlike their pro classes, you don't get to take the mufflers off unless they let you. They require all the rest of us behave, so they get to make all the noise they want that one weekend a year.
You know It actually makes sense that mx would be ass backwards on this. If you notice, we're having the problems, not the other sports that do the opposite and curtail the activities of the average racers so they can have an impediment free weekend for the pros.
Pit Row
My take is because our sport permits people to take the same machines that are raced to private/local tracks we're more exposed so we are not subject to the same rules and conditions.
NASCAR, Monster trucks, Moto GP machines etc are not used outside of their race venues for the most part. Our machines are frequently used outside of race venues.
Just wondering, why do you care one way or the other if a Pro's bike is loud. What are the positives to the pro bike being loud? Why is it a good thing to have them loud? How will it impact you, personally, if the pro bikes at a national are 2db quieter?
Mike
It would have a positive impact on me, I'd like to be able to talk to someone next to me watching a 250 moto but people say that about drag racing too.
I'm sure some like it, I like the sound of race cars and dragsters but like many others I wouldn't be as interested in NHRA if it wasn't the loudest sport on the planet. just part of the appeal.
I think Mitch covered the positives, just as the riders do repeatedly. I think a better question is why does it matter if they're 2db louder once a year?
some people do pay to see loud
This is just about loud enough for professional motorsports. We have a way to go.
reded-Thanks for making good points in numerous posts.
Most of the 2011 bikes pass 94db which coincides with AMA Amateur Racing's limit dropping to 94db in 2011. You can rest assured 2 M Max won't be utilized in amateur competition for at least two years....to be clear this is my guess.
The other side of the coin is we shouldn't forget the teams can still skirt the rules electronically but that's another story.
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