My German friend with a harley tells me that loud motorcycles are very strictly controlled in his part of Europe, especially Austria, which is popular to transit through on long tours to the Alps. He says Austrian police will confiscate a motorcycle on the spot if it is deemed too loud and/or illegally modified. I wish they did that in my neighborhood, where some motorcycles are loud enough to set off car alarms right outside my window.

Europe has fairly strict sound limits on motorcycles (and they are getting stricter) in euro4/euro5. This constrains the manufacturers, but aftermarket enforcement really varies by location.

These days a lot of manufacturers homologate to meet multiple standards, so we get euro4ish stuff in north america too, stock at least.

Yep, it's not so much the production limits (still, they could be pushed gradually lower and I'm sure the manufacturers would manage), but it's the often grey-are of aftermarket modifications.

Also, I think European houses and apartment buildings are built from brick, stone and concrete, while in US most of "homes" are wood and drywall, which doesn't isolate as well.

All I can say as a motorcyclist myself is good.

After market exhausts that aren’t engineered to be deliberately louder are stupid and annoying to other people.

I suspect you meant engineered to be quieter?

Excluding intentionally loud exhausts, the intake on a lot of bikes generates more sound than the pipes, at least at speed.

We have those limits on sound where i live in the u.s., but the police feign ignorance on testing procedures and treat it as lowest priority.

You have to realize that these people want to inconvenience others. That's what gives them their kicks. So it really isn't the Porsches that's the issue here but rather your asshole neighbor. I live in the middle of nowhere but.I still have a neighbor who keeps two constantly barking dogs. One of his dogs died so he replaced it with a new puppy which he proceeded to train to bark constantly too.

He told you he purposefully trained the puppy to bark constantly?

I ride a motorcycle with a lightly modified exhaust and I promise you my neighbors are way more upset about the 80db parrot :D

The bike is less loud than an old car. Just don’t rev like a maniac in the evening when streets are empty and you’ll barely notice it above the normal noise.

Now the parrot ... that little dude is something else. We’ve tried everything and you can still hear him a block away if he wants you to.

I don't know why the government doesn't intervene and outright ban these practices.

Doesn't it? AFAIK it's illegal to have a noisy muffler, at least here (but it's not enforced, much to people's dismay).

Assholes and annoying people will find a way to skirt regulations.

The more pressing thing is that if you keep asking for a big brother, don’t be surprised when you get one.

Such a weird dichotomic view can only come from someone who’s never lived in Europe. Loud cars and motorbikes weren’t a thing in Germany, where I lived for 30 years, and yet I had the impression that my privacy was also much better protected and respected than here in the US.

Giving hefty fines, or even outright confiscate veichles, to people blatantly ignoring the law and infringing on other people's well being. That's not "big brother", that is trivial to accomplish with a well-organised vehicle inspection programme.

You're lucky he's not just parking his cars and playing loud bass music for hours. That'd be 100x worse.

> Motorbikes are the worst offender here.

I think ford mustangs are becoming a contender for this honor. :)

thats when you buy a spotlight.

joking but its very frustrating dealing with neighbours like that, but at the same time they do sort of have the right to their own hobbies.

Maybe take up a loud hobby yourself. Cathartic leisure jackhammering. Good for grip strength.