CrimeBeat: How loud is too loud for motorcycle exhausts?

Many motorcycles create a deafening roar so how loud is too loud?|

Many motorcycles create a deafening roar as they drive down the street. I know they say ‘loud pipes saves lives,’ but how loud is too loud?

Loud pipes don’t necessarily save lives, and if a motorcycle’s exhaust is too loud riders could end up with a fix-it ticket.

There are a number of laws on the books that regulate the maximum noise produced by motorcycles, but for the California Highway Patrol just one is used for highway enforcement, said CHP Officer Jon Sloat.

“(T)he general rule is, if the exhaust is louder than the engine, it’s a violation,” Sloat said by email, noting the rule applies to all vehicles, not just motorcycles.

In most cases the exhaust system quiets the engine, hence a “muffler” by the end of a vehicle’s tailpipe. But fabrication and the addition of after-market parts often do the opposite, amplifying an engine’s sound.

When officers spot - or hear - a vehicle with a modified exhaust they’ll issue one of two citations. One is a $25 fix-it ticket where a person must go to court and prove the vehicle is in compliance with the law, Sloat said.

The other is an in-house citation, where a person has 30 days to make the changes and get them signed off at the CHP’s Santa Rosa area headquarters in Rohnert Park. The primary cost for the ticketed individual is getting the car or motorcycle back to manufacturer settings, which isn’t always cheap.

This “general rule” has been on the books since the 1990s, Sloat said, but there are old laws in the vehicle code that peg the loudness of a motorcycle to its manufacture date.

One vehicle law, last amended in 1982, states vehicles made between 1969 and 1972 could have a maximum decibel level of 88, which is quieter than a power mower (90 decibels) but louder than a screaming child (80 decibels). This law brought allowable noise levels down to 80 decibels for bikes built after 1985. For those keeping score, 90 decibels is about 10 times louder than 80 decibels.

Sloat was subject to the older vehicle code, albeit not while driving a motorcycle. As a Santa Rosa high school student during the 1980s, his 1962 Chevy Biscayne received a fix-it ticket because the officer thought the exhaust was too loud, Sloat said.

So he brought his “solid steel monster” to the Santa Rosa police station where the decibel reader found he was within the law.

But times have changed, Sloat said, and CHP Santa Rosa doesn’t have a decibel reader on-site and hasn’t had one for at least 20 years.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.