SimpleSimon
Active Member
How about just riding down the street when you know they are home, rolling into their driveway, and knocking. Talk to them, in other words. Is that so horribly difficult to do?
Worst case, they won't talk, order you off their lot. Okay, fine, that tells you much. Most folks won't do that kind of thing. Just be up front, ask if the sound bothers them, explain why you are riding the bike and the benefits of that - who knows, you might make a new friend.
For that matter, making a muffler/straight pipe cut out with an old style manual clutch pull cable is dead easy - leave the muffler in circuit in the neighborhood, open the bypass on the road. People have a right to an expectation of reasonable quietude at home, and a perfect right to be disgruntled when that is disturbed by some loud-a** whining two-stroke motor cruising by.
I grew up out in the country, on a narow, crooked, two lane road to nowhere. A dirt bike enthusiast/builder bought property up the road, built a huge shop, and let his 3 teenaged boys (12, 13, 15) ride up and down the road on unmuffled two-strokers constantly. Dad talked with him, other neighbors talked with him, did no good. Cops were useless - his night job was as a county sheriff's deputy.
I never knew who did it, but somebody stretched a black nylon tow strap across the road between two trees at the end of a quarter mile straight stretch one late evening. All three boys crashed, two went to the hospital, one very seriously injured. The insurance examiner estimated they were hitting around 70 mph (on dirt bikes, unmuffled, no lights, in the dark) when they hit the cable. That ended that problem, but created many, many more.
Often, just communicating will address the issues. If that fails, then is time to look at other options. But remember - what is music to your ears, is just irritating noise to another.
Worst case, they won't talk, order you off their lot. Okay, fine, that tells you much. Most folks won't do that kind of thing. Just be up front, ask if the sound bothers them, explain why you are riding the bike and the benefits of that - who knows, you might make a new friend.
For that matter, making a muffler/straight pipe cut out with an old style manual clutch pull cable is dead easy - leave the muffler in circuit in the neighborhood, open the bypass on the road. People have a right to an expectation of reasonable quietude at home, and a perfect right to be disgruntled when that is disturbed by some loud-a** whining two-stroke motor cruising by.
I grew up out in the country, on a narow, crooked, two lane road to nowhere. A dirt bike enthusiast/builder bought property up the road, built a huge shop, and let his 3 teenaged boys (12, 13, 15) ride up and down the road on unmuffled two-strokers constantly. Dad talked with him, other neighbors talked with him, did no good. Cops were useless - his night job was as a county sheriff's deputy.
I never knew who did it, but somebody stretched a black nylon tow strap across the road between two trees at the end of a quarter mile straight stretch one late evening. All three boys crashed, two went to the hospital, one very seriously injured. The insurance examiner estimated they were hitting around 70 mph (on dirt bikes, unmuffled, no lights, in the dark) when they hit the cable. That ended that problem, but created many, many more.
Often, just communicating will address the issues. If that fails, then is time to look at other options. But remember - what is music to your ears, is just irritating noise to another.
