Sure, that's why open pipes at three AM are run full throttle in second gear on a city street with thousands of houses. It's simply narcissism.

I had the pleasure of living on Overtoom in Amsterdam, which is a beautiful street but I'm a relatively light sleeper and even at the back part of the house you'd be woken up several times every night by some 'look at me' dude making as much noise as possible. Not a car pulling out in sight at that hour.

This is the same tired excuse my friend made when he got a loud bike.

It’s just not true. He later told me he enjoys the feeling (vibrations) and that there was something primal about “taming” something that sounds powerful.

As for car drivers, you should be assuming they can’t see you. Driving defensively is the only way to stay alive and you can argue that it shouldn’t be that way but it doesn’t make it any less true.

Modern cars are so sound-insulated that the volume of the motorcycle isn't going to have that much of an impact in normal operation. Fit a louder horn to the bike if you need to draw attention in specific situations.

Loud exhausts are definitely not designed to make motorcycles more noticeable to cars.

I ride and do "feel" the sentiment that loud pipes might help in some situations. But here's a rider-centric article that helps address the situation _and_ provide some actionable advice.

https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/stop-saying-loud-pipes...

Thanks, that article makes lots of good sense. I see more and more riders (on relatively quiet bikes) drive with high visibility gear, especially on the highway, which is great.

But those are rarely the 'loud' types, they're just people using their bikes as transport rather than as an attention seeking device.