Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
c. Machines entered in all meets shall have
mufflers/silencers which do not exceed the maximum
db(A) required by the state where the meet is being
held or 99 db(A), whichever is less, measured at half
maximum rpm per MIC manual SAE J1287 test at
0.5-meters (20-inches).
www.ama-cycle.org/rulebooks/2010/AMARacing_rulebook10_Web_MX.pdf
Without boring you with more links & attachments, Alaska has no sound restrictions so the 99 DBA should fly.
The local City is not exactly favorable with us as well even though the noise ordinance is 10 PM and we are shutting down at 8 PM.
This all totally sucks and the only reason I made this post was to make you aware that it could happen to you as well in the blink of an eye by just a couple of people bitching.
Hopefully people will realize that a little compromise on noise, would significantly make our neighbors happier.... and they would not even realize when we are riding dirt bikes????
ThatDad, thank you for your hard work on keeping the local tracks open!
Jake, put down the crack pipe and enjoy the holiday's.
HAMMER
Read my second paragraph, no complaints about that. Dirt bikes are riding and NOW there is complaints about noise?! There is NO way any 4 stroke bike is loader then a Pro Stock car, alcohol funny car, or any sub 10 second race car.
I agree with jake48, noise is an easy excuse. They will find a way to take it away in their special interest.
For the record, I have been racing cycles for over 34 years. ...
Ever notice how when someone doesn't have an intelligent thing to say they attack the person's character and not the message? My favorite 3rd grade line is "You think you know everything"
Hahahahaha
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
A few years back and near me, a new track opened up in a canyon along side a highway. As one would expect, there was opposition. Specifically one woman who was concerned the "Noise" would scare the animals in the area - (Not making this up)
Interesting enough, when I would go to ride at this track and sit in the pits, the Harley's and street bikes driving down the highway above the track would drown out the dirt bikes with noise as these bikes were louder than the dirt bikes, but no one was trying to stop them from their weekend cruises. Really? It's about the "Noise" Hmmmm...
Anyways, we organized, supported the track owner, were lucky enough to have a city council member who rode dirt bikes and prevailed - for a while....
Eventually, the owner of the property who leased the land to the guy who ran the track got tired of the constant barrage of complaints that were organized by that one woman and her multitude of Sierra Club goons. Sound was one of the issues she used, but in the end, it wasn't the noise that killed the track, it was the lack of people willing to get involved that did the track in.
Not sure why people like hammer can't seem to think beyond the surface. Their logic just doesn't pan out. I am guessing it's the same type of people who think we should just sit down and talk to the poor misunderstood terrorists. If we just validated the terrorist's feelings and showed them we cared, everything would be OK - after all, we are the ones causing the terrorists to blow us up...
Get real - people want to shut down tracks and riding areas because, quite frankly, they just plain don't like motorcycles. Quieting our bikes may help some, but ultimately there seem to be more people that don't give a hoot about you and your desire to ride your scooter off road than the people that want to.
I will try it again: If you want to save our riding areas - GET INVOLVED. Just putting a quiet exhaust on your scooter won't do it...
Hammer great picture on your web site hole shooting that national in BC. I missed 86 to 92 so I was not aware of your racing achievments. Nutty
Most people also have a full plate of day to day problems. Neighbors suffer from the same apathy that you ascribe to the bulk of dirt bike riders. If you are not really bothering them, most will leave you alone. Granted, there is always an asshole, but most run out of steam once it starts eating into their time or costing them money.
When I am in front of a township board defending a track, I have to have credibility. My talking points are first and foremost: this is for the kids. It keeps families together, and kids off the streets. If operating your track will keep kids from not riding on other private property, avoid incarcerating another kid for getting in trouble, or avoid the funerals of kids racing down township roads, your track has public benefit. Second, all of the local shops are also small businesses who employ friends and neighbors. Third, if it is a public track, it provides employment and ancillary benfit to the local motels, restaurants, etc. As a track owner, it is in your best interest to involve local shops and businesses.
That being said, I dont like being shot in the foot because the riders are dirtbags. Neighbors dont want to see litter, racing down the streets, etc. How many of you, on your way home after a weekend of racing, drain your wash water, grey water, or your black water? The argument is "Hey, its just bike wash water," but when one clown out of 50 drains his shit tanks, the neighbors see a trail of wet and smell shit. Hardly a mutual respect position. I also had to endure the pleasure of a stern talk from a local Amishman who almost lost his family on the way home from Sunday Gathering after getting run off the road.
Now, sorry for the rant, and back to my initial point: Noise. If your track is off the road a bit, and you do your job to control dust, the only way your neighbors know you are riding is the noise. In fact, the biggest complaint about injuries from the neighbors is hearing the sirens from an ambulance. They dont care if you kill yourself, they just dont want to hear about it.
Regarding your complaint about apathy, We have managed to fill two township halls for riding bans. It works. Many times the Board of Supervisors are elected by the employees and friends are elected by a small number of friends, neigbors, and the employees of a local developer who also provides jobs. If you can pack the township hall with voters who otherwise wouldn't show up, you have influence.
Jake, that is great that you have been racing for 34 years but out of respect for others, you probably have learned to follow the rules. And based on rules(or laws of the land), we cannot expect people to tolerate things that make their life unpleasant for very long. And they, being the track owners, probably have been riding and racing motorcycles at these tracks for a long time, so what gives anyone the right to think they should be friendly neighbors?
And as time/years goes by, and new homes, new owners of existing homes, populations intrusions, people start to realize what use to me a minor irritant is now a major pain is the back side. Instead of a couple of squid riders making a little noise, it is now a gate full of riders every 15 minutes all day long, two or three times a month(or maybe every friday night in Dade City)....
You are probably right it is not the fact that the manufactures are creating the fastest and most powerful bikes they can, it is probably that they are all jealous of the rock star life style racers live.....
My thought, and yes it is probably a waste of time, let’s just be friendly to the people that do not know and love this great sport! The noise issue just makes us an easy target, and the government is just look for another reason to break us down....
enuf sed HAMMER
How about the motor home owners who empty their holding tank in the pits of Goupher Dunes after a race. What a slap in the face to all involved in the sport. Nutty
"Regarding your complaint about apathy, We have managed to fill two township halls for riding bans. It works. Many times the Board of Supervisors are elected by the employees and friends are elected by a small number of friends, neigbors, and the employees of a local developer who also provides jobs. If you can pack the township hall with voters who otherwise wouldn't show up, you have influence."
The unfortunate reality is that there are more people that ride motorcycles who don't get involved like you have described than do. Just a fact. My point is that even if we get our bikes to zero decibels we will still have to deal with the very small percentage of people who just plain don't want a motorcycle;e anywhere near them. They will always have an excuse to shut us down whether it is noise or something else. And like Rim Lock said - It was ONE person who complained that is causing him all these problems
This is not a one issue problem. Too many people are pushing the "We need quieter bikes" as the solution, when in the end, it will not get the job done if we don't organize, get information out like you mentioned you have done or hold the elected officials who pass city or county ordinances restricting us from riding responsible by un-electing them.
Quiet exhausts help, but we need to ensure that we have laws (City / County ordinances) that either remain intact or that we as a community help pass to protect our tracks form being shut down. This requires us to be vocal and get involved and all the quiet exhausts in the world won't get this done...
Which of these do think would have the greater impact on keeping tracks open? Quiet exhausts or motorcycle riders getting together, voting as a collective group and protecting / creating laws that ensure our desire to ride on tracks.
You are going to encounter opposition in everything you do. Trust me, my ability to earn a living depends upon it. I do not believe there are an abundance of people who get up in the morning and decide to crusade against dirt bike riders. People get pissed off because loud bikes ruin their sunday picnic.
The city inspectors would show up and write them up for everything and anything. As a solution, they started buying the inspectors lunch, which they thought was a good thing because at least they would know when they were going to show up. The problem with this was the city inspectors started showing up way more often, and bringing friends to the point of disrupting the business. Everyone was getting along just fine, but now the question was how to get rid of them.
Evidently, Waylon Jennings, Meryl Haggard and George Straight was just the ticket. One man's music is another's torture. My point is that you may like the sound of dirt bikes, but imagine if it were noise that wasn't your cup of tea.
"If no one complains, you are avoiding the fight,"
My guess is that you have probably been around as long as I have. Do you really believe no one would complain if our bikes were whisper quiet? Really? We have already established (beginning of this thread) It only takes one person to complain
Do you mountain bike ride? I do. I have been just as active trying to keep mountain bike trails accessible here in my local mountains and parks as I have with my fight to keep motorcycle riding areas open. The mountain biking issues had nothing to do with sound....
My point is that if we go after the politicians and ensure that we have good laws that allow us to operate our motorcycles on our own land we can truly avoid the issue of a single person complaining, whether it be noise or what ever excuse they choose to use. Although quiet exhausts help, the remedy is superficial to the problem. Our time and energy spent would be more effective and have a greater impact by us getting involved in the judicial process, not on the back end worrying about 15 -20 decibels.
We are wasting too much time and energy obsessing over those few decibels when we know our opponents will just move on to another reason to shut us down. Quieting the exhaust of our bikes is reactive, we need to focus more on being proactive.
It is not "just a few decibles." I put two kids through Cobras and up now in the B and Schoolboy classes. The 250fs are brutally loud. It hurts when I stand behind them at the line. I wake up most mornings with ringing in my ears. Now, when my wife says I am not listening to her, it really is because I didn't hear her.
Your argument about mountain bikers still runs back to the public land tree hugger side of the argument. When you are doing anything on public land, everyone thinks its "theirs." It could be right next to a major highway, but somehow they can't hear the birds because of your bike. The same people that bitched about our local enduro would use the trails to hike on. They wanted the forest service to keep them clean in the off season.
I want to keep tracks open as much as you do. Quieter bikes would make that a lot easier.
Read back through this thread. There are plenty of people who seem to think if we just had quieter bikes things would be OK
Here is another example: The city adjoining mine is horse property in an urban setting. A few of the residents made mini bike tracks in their back yards and of course, some of the neighbors began to complain. "Noise" was their issue. The complainers went to the city council and quickly, without any opposition, the city council passed a city ordnance prohibiting the use of motorized equipment in the back yards within the city limits.
OOPS! Within a few weeks the city council was getting complaints that the residents could not operate their gas powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers, weed whackers and quads used to maintain their premises. Quickly, the city council amended the city ordinance to allow the use of the above mentioned gas equipment. The city council was very diligent, however, to ensure that no motorcycles were allowed to operate.
If it is about 'Noise" why were all of the other gas powered equipment allowed to operate when they are just as loud, if not louder than a 50cc mini bike, but the mini bike was not?
Which would have made the greater impact? Residence in the community addressing their city council members in support of the right to ride their min bikes or a quieter exhaust?
Good luck on some of your thoughts on this matter. Let's look back on this in 10-20 years and see how this turns out.
If less noise would get rid of 80% of the complaints we shouldn't do it because some people would just find something else to complain about?
The difference in your viewpoint and that of most of those in this thread appears to be that we feel addressing the noise issue is proactive, while you think it is somehow reactive.
Pit Row
I'm thinking the tipping point was at the edge of 2 stroke noise. Again, we'll see in 20 years.
BTW - the 6 days a week I mentioned....was in reference to practicing 6 days a week (not allowed), then a race on Saturday Night(which is currently running)
If you apply this logic then why does the AMA have to regulate the sound of the bikes at an outdoor motocross National that only happens once a year?
Really? It's about the noise?
I happen to be on different hours than the rest of the US. Just what I need.....a gate dropping every 12 minutes on Sunday morning starting at 8 AM. ...the other 6 days.....practice.
I would be one of the first in line though to stop a track from opening in my back yard.....95% because of noise, and I am on your side!
I have done low frequency tests on many of the nightclubs sound systems (big ones) that I have designed. Because of the resonant frequencies of the roof moving with the low frequency of the music, I have had low frequency complaints from as far as 5 miles away, but could not hear the same frequencies at 1 mile. The low frequencies tend to "curve" over a certain distance (with wind and humidity) and then can come back to the ground at other distances....it is a strange thing. This is why some track owners think the people at 5 miles are singling them out and they can't believe them because at 1 mile - there is no problem. The higher frequencies (in nightclubs) tend to dissipate because of the shorter wavelength.
Again......20 years, there will be an answer. I hope you find more willing people in your neighborhood.
Why? Revenue and the fact that a large percentage of people want the place to remain open.
Guess what used to be at the very same location several years before? A motocross track - at least until enough people complained about the dust and the noise.
So a concert venue that is WAY louder on peak decibels is allowed to operate, but a motocross track that is considerably quieter is not allowed to operate.
Someone please tell me again how quieter bikes are going to save all are riding areas?
Look, let me make it clear quieter bikes are GOOD, I am all for them and Dad is right, there are many examples of where a quieter bike can help. One of my points, which is clearly supported by several posts from other people in this thread, is that for whatever reason, too many people have bought into the lie that if we just had quiet bikes everything will be OK.
Collectively, we need to put more thought into the issue and understand that the complexity is much deeper than the single issue of making our bikes quiet. I am not advocating louder bikes, but if we do our work, use the local, state and federal legislative process we can protect our riding areas and not have to spend near the time and energy we currently do trying to attempt what is arguably impossible - quieting every single dirt bike ridden off road.
Think about it, it only takes one bitchy neighbor to complain about a loud bike and it only takes one loud bike to get that neighbor to complain. There is no way we can get every offroad bike quiet enough so that no one complains. We can, however, keep or pass legislayion that protects our right to ride our bikes on our own private land. Passing legislation and defending our rights would be a more effective use of our time in keeping our tracks open when compared to the reality that in the end, just having quiet bikes will absolutely not get the job done.
To be sure we need to do both, have quiet bikes and fight for our rights. The problem I am trying to identify is that WAY too many people are not working on the fighting for our rights side of things and that a good number of those people don't do so because they seem to think the solution to the problem is to just have quiet bikes.
Again, good luck with your position.
It is all about Noise, thats what their bitching about.
Thanks for the best cheese burger of my life.
Post a reply to: Another Track Near Closing