‘I love bikes, however …’
I was pleased to see the topic of noise pollution being raised in recent issues of Bike, because I’m convinced it’s a subject the biking community needs to address before it bites us big time.
I have ridden bikes since I was a teenager and currently run a Speed Triple. I love bikes. However, I also love living in the countryside just a few miles from the Shropshire/wales border and most weekends tens of thousands of people living in the surrounding areas are subjected to the incessant howl created by swarms of race replicas thrashing their way up the A5 into North Wales. The ludicrous thing is that many of the end cans fitted to these bikes would not be allowed at a race meeting because they are too loud. And the guys riding these bikes often wear ear plugs so they don’t have to suffer the racket they are making, even if everyone else within a two-mile radius of them does. If it annoys me, a bike lover, think how it is received by the general public. It paints bikers in a poor light.
We are told UK police are looking at noise radar cameras that can track the sound footprint of a bike and photograph its number plate for prosecution purposes. That is just the thin end of the wedge, the fat end being more restrictive legislation targeted at bikes and bikers. Can the riders of machines with illegal race cans not see their selfish actions are brewing a massive problem for the rest of us? Davidpoole,email