I am listening to the pulp show right now where steve and keefer are talking about the whole sound check fiasco. Why is it so big of a problem for this sport when there are drag strips so many miles away from houses with those cars racing multiple times a week. Also, monster trucks are in open air and closed stadiums, why aren't they getting sound checked? I haven't been to monster jam but keefer mentioned how loud they are, how are they allowed to do their competitions or whatever the format is and not having a sound limit. Why is it that moto tracks are getting shut down due to a mixture of noise and dust and the dirt bikes don't make near as much noise compared to the other motorsports. The only time I've heard of a drag strip or raceway that is talked about getting shut down is the freedom factory. Which I believe should never get shut down, just stop building houses around the area or thoroughly educate people about the race track they are surrounded by. Thanks for coming to my rant. Enjoy the rest of your day.
You tickled the conspiracy angle in me a bit as I see moto being a pathway to freedom.
However, Bandimere Speedway, next to Thunder Valley is closing down thanks to urban sprawl.
Shit even Red Rocks Amphitheater has battled sound wars.
TV is fortunate to be across from Green Mountain Park, otherwise those Denver views would be sold so fast and another track KIA.
I hope TV doesn’t get closed down due to new houses and uneducated owners. It’s produced a lot of good races.
Raceways deal with sound issues all the time. Laguna Seca is currently in a legal battle with its encroaching neighbors about sound. Similarly, Portland International Raceway (PIR) faced threats from nosey neighbors in 2021. They eventually installed a permanent decibel reader just outside the neighborhood so the town could further enforce the noise ordinance.
Yep, the people complaining are the problem, not the noise. This will sound simplistic but at what point in time did people stop liking racetracks ? WTF happened ? When we were young there were different kinds of tracks all over the place, everyone seemed happy about it, they'd show figure 8 racing on tv, I don't want to get all back in my day but wtf happened, why does it bother people so much now ? Was it the hippy's kids ? When did something so exciting and noisy and fun turn into something bad ? I don't get it. The other part I don't get is that the people buying these homes within earshot of the track do know it's there and was there long before those homes were built. When this person makes a complaint that they can hear the track, how come the judge doesn't say "Yes you are correct, you can hear the track from your property". "You were aware the track was there when you bought the home correct ? Goodbye" Sounds simple enough to me
How about this idea, you come back with signatures from 51% of the population. If over half of the population is unhappy about it, then we'll set a court date for the following decade.
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I don’t know where the turn happened, but what i do know is that chiz has been pro for around the same time i’ve been on this earth.
And your last part in the big paragraph is what every judge needs to say to people complaining. Educate the people and have them watch races or events to see what happens and if they enjoy that, buy the house, if they don’t, see ya. Idk, it will be hard for that to happen but it’s what needs to happen.
Something else is that i can’t listen to fireworks without having some sort of ear pro on. Dirt bikes i’m fine, except if a star bike comes by and a #38 is revving it, that’s when my ears can’t really handle it. Byt that doesn’t really happen because if i go to a national, it’s at fox and i sit by the mechanics area and podium with that big roller.
People are complaining because Urban Sprawl encroaches on riding areas...
Higher density, public transport, walkable cities centres are the answer, Urban Sprawl is THE PROBLEM.
Just don't say 15 minutes because conspiracy nutbags lose their fuckin mind.
I think the sound limit is good for motocross because regular people will ride what pro racers use and products the companies sell.
If you remove the sound limit at races then you will soon have hundreds of thousands of bikes that are louder across the US.
The issue with having bikes louder is that it's an objective measure that people can use to complain about riding areas and tracks. (There are free smart phone app decibel meters).
If someone doesn't like there is riding going on, it's hard for them to get the govt. to shut it down based on nothing but their dislike. But if they say the noise level is above the threshold for hearing loss (which is easy to measure and prove) then they have an easier time getting a place shut down.
Also, sound travels further than dust or other perceptions. If someone is always going to complain, the quieter bikes will lead to fewer complainers being aware of the riding which means less people will be complaining about the riding.
Current AMA Limit is 105db?
For reference:
Motorcycles are different from dragsters and monster trucks because it's not as easy to buy one of those for yourself and use it. With dirt bikes, we could potentially be riding them anywhere, whereas it's difficult to imagine a funny car cruising down the neighborhood strip. Our racing organizations are leading the way by enforcing a noise limit and hopefully that will keep production bikes in line, too.
One thing that happened is that modern 4 strokes are probably 3x louder than bikes "back in the day".
Yet, all over the place and even on this very forum, we have dudes who only use 40% of the potential of their bike spending a bunch of money on aftermarket exhaust that is louder than stock because they "Need more power bro."
99% of recreational riders should be using the quietest insert they can find, I promise that you aren't fast enough that it'll hurt your lap times.
They are making way more of a deal than it really is. The checking may not be perfect but I am all for a reasonable decibel level that lets the bike breathe and me enjoy the sound without needing earplugs to watch the races in person. If you go to an NHRA race or Nascar Cup without ear protection you will be sorry. I say keep working on the procedure and work with the teams but keep a reasonable limit.
They don't have to be louder. The decibel level of these machines is a choice. What the 4 stroke sound does do is carry a lot farther.
The 4 strokes can be louder but the real nail in the coffin is that the low frequency sound waves carry further, so even at the same decibel a 4 stroke can be heard from further away.
Makes sense.
Either way, I stand by that 99% of us average dudes should be using the quietest insert we can. It ain't gonna make you slower, the throttle is on the right and you can always just turn it a little further.
From what I understand Bandimere and TV are actually in different municipalities and Bandimere had a contentious relationship with the community while Thunder Valley has a much better relationship. Thunder Valley also has way fewer events, and none at night, while Bandimere would have Top Fuel Cars on weeknights.
Joke is on the community of Morrison though. Bandimere sold to Copart so the drag strip is just gonna become an even bigger eyesore.
I wouldn't want to be a track owner in a Blue state, that's for sure.
Lol
I belonged to a MC club in Harrisburg PA in the 90s that had been there since the 40s. New development got built nearby and club got shut down. It’s now a Lowe’s or Home Depot or something. Their complaint was noise and dust.
It’s not just tracks. A local winery that’s been around for 20 yrs is fighting to stay open because of new homeowners that don’t like the noise from music or the traffic in an adjacent driveway.
The sound deal has always been an issue, and it is definitely not going away. Where I am, we lost our road race track a decade ago because of urban encroachment. The track never worried about noise levels and that issue alone lost them most of the support that might have been found on the local counsel. Since then, a couple groups have spent large sums of money to locate and permit another track. Neither project is less than 45 minutes from the city limits, and both have dealt with extensive regulatory requirements that would be over-the-top in any other industry, but were considered reasonable limits in the world of toys for boys. Frankly, most of the restrictions were, I think, designed to scare the developers away. To their credit, they have hung in and at least one new road race facility is now operational.
A number of the restrictions/ requirements seem ridiculous, but the one of note for this thread is that the track was required to install at least three sound meters at various points around the track. Any car or bike on the track must have a transponder/transmitter that is tied into the track's monitoring system. It constantly reads the sound levels as a vehicle runs by. The car is flagged immediately if it exceeds the sound limit at any point. Three fails in a day and the car is out and cannot return until the issue is fixed. And the crazy thing is that dirt berms were installed all around the track so that at some points you can't hear a car on a run. Even crazier is that the nearest town (and it is a small town) is nearly 10 miles away.
On the other hand, I started riding when open stingers were still the fashion on two strokes. You haven't lived (or lost some of your hearing) until some guy goes by you on an uncorked 2S at speed - it's like having an ice pick go in one ear and out the other. Clearly we have evolved since then, and maybe we just have to keep doing so to keep our sport alive.
Mmmm...open stingers:
Pit Row
That poster was on my bedroom wall for years...
But the idea of a noise limit, is standardisation, so you have a set of rules, for everyone to adhere to.
I remember road race and MX bikes with open pipes, and its horrific, its one thing for a Top Fuel car to run full noise for a few seconds , but the constant noise of bikes gets old real fast.
What we should really address though, is making a rule where bikes fail sound test , and cunts in the crowd are revving fucking chainsaws till 3am.
Off to shout at clouds.
The sound regs are a self imposed regulation . Monster jam ( another Feld company) has regulations for their trucks too. But they own all or most of the trucks . I heard a youtuber that has a Monster truck over in the UK talking about how he would need different headers if he did a Monster jam show, ones that push the sound down into the ground and are not as loud. So there are some people thinking about sound for those things too.
A couple others have already talked about how MX bikes are more common and the pro regulations trickling down to get locals wanting the same stuff.
Keeping sound levels down or to a more reasonable level makes sense on many levels. I think that it is a good idea for all motorsports to do something. I think that more parents are open to going to a MX or SX race with their kids with bikes not being as loud as Top fuel dragsters. If keeping DB levels to a certain level help increase live attendance and increase the numbers of kids at live events, than its worth doing. Getting kids wanting to start riding helps keep the sport alive.
I understand that sound is a big part of it for a lot of people. I'm not saying to make everything totally silent. An example , a 2 stroke sounds better to almost everybody right?? Even with a similar DB level the 4 stroke sound travels farther. Tuning the sound to be more pleasant to people while also decreasing the DB levels and or how the sound travels could help more than just lowering the DB levels that are allowed. That is easier said than done. But I think it is a different way of approaching sound issues. I'm not saying to make a bike sound like a flock of birds, or Taylor Swift, just find a less offensive tone.
Omg...I was standing behind RD when he fired that thing up one time. It is EXACTLY as you described...an ice pick to the brain. I guess they called it a stinger for a reason.
I didn’t want to read this topic but i clicked anyway … i’m a loner and a rebel like that 😂
Lol...that's what my daughter said when she came home with a tattoo. She wanted to be a loner and rebel...like everyone else.
There is an ugly political aspect to the Bandimere story that has a huge influence on the “noise” problem. During Covid when the uber left governor allowed leftist rioters to burn and steal shit…. and attend protest packed in like sardines then that was fine…but when the owner of Bandimere wanted to hold an event then he was killing people. There were huge lawsuits and that was the real beginning of the end. It is incredible to me how people can actually justify this stuff in their own head like Covid supported the protests by being less contagious in crowds for them. Sometimes people are beyond fucking stupid.
PiR has a hard stop at 10:00 PM too. Unless the 125 class is the last gate, and someone gets hurt the moto before. Then they drop the gate at 10:15 AND give us a few extra laps. Funny - I guess 2Ts are less annoying than the 4Ts late at night.
I only opened this thread to not read it and let you know that I didn't read it.
People stopped liking racetracks when it became "cool" to hotrod and accessorize their cell phones.
Back when we lived in Shingle Springs we were 5 miles from Placerville Speedway (sprint cars). On the rare Saturday night we were home, and not actually at the races, we could hear them quite clearly especially on starts. We'd all look at each other and wish we were there, getting mud worms in our beer and eating the best hand-dipped cheddar jalapeno corn dogs you'll ever get. It was easy to tell when the 410 main went off - what an awesome sound ringing through the countryside - FREEDOM!!!
I’m confused, is OP upset about a rule that the governing body of our sport made or because this controversy surrounds Star Yamaha and his favorite rider?
Also, is the problem sound rules in professional racing or sound restrictions at amateur races and practices which aren’t enforced at all?
Not trying to be rude but this is a legitimate question. All professional motorsports have technical rules and rules about sound levels and I’m not sure if the issue here is about sound level rules at professional races or the issue of sound pollution at practice and amateur racing events
And that’s ok, that’s why i put the warning in the title.
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