Loud Biker Thuggery and US EPA – a history

Illegally LOUD biker thuggery has been around for many decades. In 1983, the US EPA, due to health concerns, restricted motorcycle noise emissions to a “total” motorcycle noise output of 83dB(A) and in response to continued testing, the US EPA then opted to reduce motorcycle noise output to 78dB(A) but Suzuki Motors complained that such restriction would be cost prohibitive; therefore, the EPA settled on a total motorcycle noise output of 80dB(A) in model year 1986 and every street-use motorcycle muffler going forward was and is mandated to conform to the strict testing requirements of the SAE J331a full-throttle motorcycle testing procedure where every make and model of street-use motorcycle manufactured in the United States was/is to be tested at full-brake horsepower at 42-feet on each side of the motorcycle; said motorcycle under noise output evaluation could NOT exceed 80dB(A) in order to be retailed and operated in the United States.

Once that motorcycle make and model passed the US EPA testing mandates, the factory muffler affixed to same was to be permanently and heavily embossed with a specific US EPA muffler label that was to be in plain view for inspection by authorities and attached to the frame of the motorcycle (usually the downtube on cruisers) is another US EPA label that matches that EPA-approved muffler to the motorcycle and clearly articulates that any modification to the muffler which would increase noise output is prohibited; also, that frame label designates at what RPM (max brake horsepower) the motorcycle was tested and met the 80dB(A) restriction.

Unfortunately, enforcement of the Federal Law concerning motorcycle noise was delegated to the States and the States and local municipalities, their Governors and Mayors and Law Enforcement Community, have been abysmal failures and illegal motorcycle noise, illegal manufacturing of “not for road use” aftermarket exhausts for retail, the operation of illegally loud motorcycles on our public roadways, has grown exponentially and 80%+ of every narcissistic thug operating a large displacement motorcycle in the United States rides with an illegal aftermarket exhaust that emits in multiples (logarithmic) the total, legal, 80dB(A) as these hedonistic thugs abuse our children, the elderly, our handicapped, veterans suffering PTSD, our families, with illegally LOUD, dangerously intrusive, motorcycle noise; this, as our police are too compromised and too cowardly to stand in the gap for the abused citizenry and cite these NOISE thugs, incarcerate them if necessary, and impound the illegally LOUD piece of vibrating junk until it is returned to OEM-factory noise levels. This abuse is permitted by those sworn to protect us from same.