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loud pipes

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The day of the loud pipe is slowly coming to an end, and it is technology that is killing it. No, I am not talking about the rise of electric motorcycles. Instead, I am referring to noise enforcement cameras.

The idea is about to be tested in France, just outside the Paris Orly airport, and the concept is pretty simple. A calibrated microphone picks up when a vehicle has exceeded France’s noise limit for cars, trucks, and motorcycles, and then a connected camera takes a picture of the offending vehicle.

The license plate in the photo is then run through a police database, and within a short period of time, and ticket arrives at the offending  party’s address – similar to how a speed camera system works.

Another year, and another April Fools Day is done and dusted. I am fairly certain that for journalists, April 1st is better than Christmas, as it marks the one day where media outlets make the news they wish they could report on daily. And as usual, the imaginations of the motorcycle media pool didn’t fail to disappoint.

My colleague David Emmett had a timely story on how MotoGP will be a house divided, because of the current drama around the use of aerodynamic rider aids.

For my own part, I looked to the increasingly important space of airbag-equipped motorcycle gear and wondered what the next evolution in that space, with thanks to the fine folks at REV’IT for being good sports about our vision of perforated airbag systems.

How about from the rest of the industry though? In case you missed them, the highlights of April Fools Day are after the jump.

The next hot-button issue concerning the EPA and motorcycles is not gas and particle pollution like you might expect, but instead simply noise. There’s always been a battle between the straight-pipe running motorcycle contingency (you know who you are), whose loud pipes have been an earsore for both regular citizens and motorcyclists alike. With the EPA cracking down at a federal level, and states like California adopting similar provisions, it would seem the day of the straight-pipe are going the way of the dodo, but the issue doesn’t stop there.

Take the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R, the would-be superbike of 2011 (if Kawasaki ever sends us one from the press fleet), which boasted an astonishing 207hp at the crank with ram-air. Motorcycle enthusiasts of the United States were disappointed when the machine arrived on American soil, and learned that the new ZX-10R had been de-tuned to meet EPA standards. Losing roughly 10hp, the presumption was that the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R had failed to meet emission standards, but the reality is that Kawasaki had to de-tune the bike in order to make it quieter.

Shortening the rev range by 750 RPM, Kawasaki basically gamed the system on how the EPA measures sound, which is based off a percentage of the total rev range. Perhaps the first to comply with this new standard, American motorcyclists can look forward to different performance spec-sheets on sport bikes from those found abroad in the soon-to-come future. Of course as is the case with the Kawasaki ZX-10R, bypassing the changes made to meet EPA compliance is a simple matter of modifying the electronics package, and then Bob’s your uncle. However would-be tinkerers may want to think twice, as a new device known as the Noise Snare is set to make its debut on catching overly-loud motor vehicles.