EDMONTON — Passions are boiling across Canada over the issue of loud motorcycles.
In one case, a Saskatoon city councillor who suggested a possible crackdown on noisy bikes has been threatened.
Bob Pringle isn’t alone in his quest to quiet down the roaring exhaust pipes favoured by some riders. The Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council of Canada says municipalities from British Columbia to Nova Scotia are looking for ways to measure that noise and perhaps put a lid on it.
Pringle started receiving threats in the last couple of weeks after he asked city administrators to examine a possible prohibition on exhaust pipes that amp up a bike’s noise — equipment that’s usually added after the machines are sold.
Pringle, who served as a social services minister in the government of former premier Roy Romanow in the 1990s, says he hasn’t been personally threatened since his days as a cabinet minister.
While most motorcycle enthusiasts are peaceful, he’s been getting an earful from those who are not, Pringle says.
“Bikers are very angry. They feel like I’m targeting them unfairly and they need this extra noise for safety reasons,” he said in a recent interview.
While some anonymous callers have simply told Pringle to back off, others have been more sinister.
“There was also a threat about ’I would love to meet you in a back lane and you wouldn’t come out.”’
Pringle acknowledges there have been only a handful of threatening phone calls. The vast majority of residents complain about ear-splitting noise made by tricked-out machines as they blast through city streets.
When an anonymous caller reached him on his cellphone around 2:30 a.m. last Sunday, he promised to call each time he heard a loud noise. Pringle thought the situation was escalating and it was time to step up his response. He spoke to Saskatoon’s police chief and a lawyer about whether to start writing down some of the more threatening details.
On the other side of the debate is Kelvin Ooms, 44. By day, he’s a maintenance supervisor for a food distribution company in Saskatoon. In his off hours, he climbs aboard his Harley Davidson Fat Boy and transforms into a road warrior who isn’t ashamed to use his bike’s loud exhaust pipes.
When he heard that Pringle was touting the idea of a crackdown on loud bikes, he immediately started a petition and a Facebook site to drum up opposition.
Ooms knows people are passionate about the issue, but he also doesn’t like the nasty turn this debate has taken. He has removed at least six people from his Loud Pipes Save Lives Facebook page who have been threatening or derogatory.
“By no means do I condone any behaviour like this. I don’t think we’re going to accomplish anything by doing that.”
Ooms said there are more constructive ways to get out the message that loud exhaust pipes can save riders’ lives. The image of loud bikes as souped-up versions of their owners’ egos and machismo isn’t driving this debate, he insists. Rather, it’s about ensuring that drivers, who often admit after a collision that they didn’t notice that oncoming motorcycle, both see and hear them.
Earlier this year, when a driver started to change lanes without noticing him, Ooms used his loud exhaust pipes to avoid a collision. He honked his horn, locked up his wheels, popped his clutch and hit the gas.
“It wasn’t until I engaged my clutch and revved my throttle and really snapped my pipes that I finally got the attention of the driver and they moved out of my lane.”
Bob Ramsay, president of the Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council of Canada, says his organization has helped to develop standards on what constitutes a loud bike. They’ve been getting calls from interested municipalities and police forces across Canada.
The group has spent more than three years developing noise standards for bikes because of an escalating number of complaints.
The council has determined that if a bike is idling, its exhaust should be no louder than about 92 decibels. As the bike revs higher, it shouldn’t make noise higher than about 96 decibels. Ramsay says that with an objective standard for noise, it would be easier for municipalities to draft bylaws putting limits on the louder machines.
The industry was also worried that all motorcyclists were being painted with the same brush, he said.
“It’s an approach that we as an industry feel serves motorcycling and motorcyclists best, because we don’t want people just thinking of motorcycles and thinking of very loud motorcycles.”
About 124,000 new motorcycles, scooters and all-terrain vehicles were sold in Canada last year at a value of about $1.5 billion. Motorcycles and scooters made up almost 52 per cent of sales.
Some municipalities in Canada are looking at new measures implemented in Edmonton on July 1 as a sort of template on the issue. A bylaw amendment allows police to use specialized devices to measure the sound levels of noisy bikes. First-time offenders are charged $250.
Staff Sgt. Bill Horne, who works in the Edmonton police traffic section, said angry residents had been calling for years to complain about the deafening racket made by motorcycles zooming through the downtown and on the city’s popular bar strip, Whyte Avenue.
In June, about 40 officers were trained to use meters to measure the sound from idling exhaust pipes. Most bikes aren’t allowed to go over 92 decibels while idling. Other bikes can’t exceed 96 or 100 decibels, depending on the number of cylinders.
Before the amendment came into effect, police tested 1,066 bikes over a two days. Almost 430 failed the noise test.
Since the new rules took effect 216 tests have been conducted, with 64 bikes.
“Without a doubt I’ve heard feedback from people on Whyte Avenue ... and certainly it has helped control the problem,” Horne said.
Staff Sgt. Mark Hodgson, commander of the central traffic unit in Winnipeg, says police there are eyeing Edmonton as they examine comprehensive anti-noise measures. They also want a way to deal with loud vehicles and thumping car stereos.
Winnipeg has been testing noise-measuring equipment similar to Edmonton’s, he says. Police are working with Crown attorneys and Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation to fashion legislation that can be successfully prosecuted.
“We’re moving a little more slowly than Edmonton,” said Hodgson, “But we think in a fashion that will allow us to create legislation that is all-encompassing and will also be supportable in court.”
He says they’re also closely watching any court cases that arise from Edmonton’s bylaw so they can learn from Alberta’s experience.
In Edmonton, Horne — who is the owner of a BMW touring bike — has heard a long list of riders’ excuses for making a big racket, including that a loud bike is a safe bike.
“That’s a bunch of hogwash ...
“Loud pipes don’t save lives, proper defensive driving saves lives.”