Car alarms are right up there next to excessively loud exhaust and SUVs on my list of things that should just go away. I have a hard time believing they actually deter thieves or vandals, since no one pays attention due to all the false alarms.
Recently, I've been amused to learn that my bike - which has the stock, factory exhaust - apparently sounds like a car being broken into. This is the only conclusion I can come to about why every time I start my bike, a nearby alarm start whooping, honking and bleating.
I'd like to say again that my bike, though much louder than a Vespa, has the stock, street-legal, reasonable decibel-level exhaust system. It's possible to stand next to the speed four while it's running and have a conversation at a normal speaking level.
At first it bothered me when the car alarm next to me went off. After all, I'm a shady looking guy wearing black leather. It's almost a given that I'm up to no good.
After the fifth time or so, though, I've started to be highly amused by the cacophonous avalanche of tripped alarms every time I hit the go button on my bike.
Last night, I was particularly delighted to hear no less than 5 car alarms go off. You see, my bike set off the car next to me, which in turn set off the car next to it, which then set off a car across the way, which set off another car nearby, et cetera, until I had my very own disco light show going in the parking ramp. All the noise from the other alarms set off the first car again, which started the whole cycle over again.
I laughed so hard I couldn't get on my bike. Had someone walked by, they might have thought I really was up to no good.
So, how many alarms have you set off by merely running your motorcycle?
4 comments:
I've set-off a few car alarms in my time, but never five at once! It's all that power in the Speed Triple waiting to be released...
I was loading-up some groceries in Beo's saddlebags at Wal Mart, when a Harley, a Road King Classic I think, pulled-up. The owner of this chrome masterpiece was in standard uniform, chaps, vest and do-rag, scraggly beard, etc. He dismounted without even a glance at me. As he went in the side entrance to the main vesibule, I saw his fingerless-gloved hand reappear momentarily, holding a remote. The bike blinked it's lights and honked once, and then the hand disappeared. I don't know why, but the scene struck me as intensely funny, like I was watching a comedy film where the cowboy just set the alarm on his horse.
John
I could set off quite a few when I was running drag pipes with no baffles, but it also made me half-deaf after an hour and made the bike run like crap, so I stopped that. I had better luck back in high school when my hobby was car stereos- 6,000 watts through 12 speakers will set off every alarm in the parking lot...
My Vespa never trips car alarms. It is a ninja. The alarms only trip when I am dragging the 16 penney nail along the paint, cutting valve stems, or pouring Karo Syrup into the fuel tank. Wait, that's what goes through my mind after some bonehead trys to kill me on the road.
*grin*
I have been reading Sony Barger's "Freedom, Credos of the Road" and I am trying to imagine Hell's Angels parking their bikes and arming alarms. I guess all of this is progress.
My Ducati 900SS with the full-race Termignonis was famous for that. I'm surprised you manage it with a stock exhaust, though, because most of those have been tuned to a whisper. That's why they are the first components to be replaced.
Ride well,
=gc=
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