Morning Read: In the Adirondacks, it’s Harley time
Regular readers of the In Box may remember that I’m pretty curmudgeonly when it comes to the motorcycle craze that’s sweeping the North Country.
I’ve reported on the safety issues associated with cycle touring and grumbled about the really overwhelming and unnecessary amount of noise these machines make.
But for some reason, the popularity of Big Hog touring hasn’t been affected one bit by my salvos. Indeed, this week the Adirondack Harley invasion has resumed with gleeful (and for tourism businesses, lucrative) abandon.
In Old Forge over the weekend, the motor touring season kicked off with the 15th annual “Thunder In Old Forge” event. This from the Adirondack Express newspaper.
The event will include vendors like Harley Davidson, a beer garden barbecue by ADK Cafe, and live music by the Paul Case Band on Friday, Doug Green & Mallory Road on Saturday and Fritz Henry on Sunday. Guided bike tours will be offered as well as a best bike contest on Saturday.
On Sunday, the Blessing of the Bikes will be followed by the bike parade down Main Street and at 1 p.m. a tattoo contest at the pavilion.
Lake George, meanwhile, is gearing up for the annual Americade rally, which starts this week, as the Glens Falls Post Star reports.
Each year, up to 50,000 bikes of various makes and models roar into the area, pumping millions into the local economy.
While some local officials had worried that the ongoing economic slump could impact the event, Lake George hotels aren’t reporting a decline.
“It’s looking really good,” said Edrie Squires, front desk manager at the Lake Motel.
So as the annual migration of Harleyites begins, I’ll offer my In Box welcome to riders visiting the Adirondacks: Ride safe, ride silent…
Tags: adirondacks, outdoor recreation
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I’m with you, Brian. It’s incredible to me that the Harley riders managed to kill off anti-noise regs with that bogus “Loud pipes save lives” BS campaign. Ever see your average Harley rider in a state that doesn’t require helmets? You got it– they replace the helmet with a cool pirate/Springsteen bandana, to protect their valuable brain case. That’s how safety conscious they are.
My proposal would be to require motorcycles to be well-muffled, but to allow them to use a focused, forward projecting warning horn going beep beep beep if they’re interested in saving lives. My guess is that no one would get rich selling the horns. And the world would be a whole lot quieter.
I realize they are good business, but if you live near one of their major routes, the noise is tremendous. They travel in packs. My son, the young doctor, says that in his industry they are referred to as “donor-cycles”. Evidently it is not uncommon for a motorcyclist to be decapitated going under a semi, leaving all the other organs in perfect shape.
I’m on board with the noise thing. In my former career I handed out a lot of paper for loud pipes. In every single case the charges were dismissed when the owner showed the court paperwork from the MC Inspection Station that said the pipes were good! Sometimes ya just can’t win.
“Ever see your average Harley rider in a state that doesn’t require helmets? You got it– they replace the helmet with a cool pirate/Springsteen bandana, to protect their valuable brain case. That’s how safety conscious they are.”
Helmets should be a matter of personal choice and not government mandate.
The noise problem only lasts for a little while, so not a real problem.
When you live up here, you know you should gas up before the weekend because the bikes can take over a gas station.
What I find most interesting is the age of the average biker. These are not Marlon Brando types from the Wild Bunch.
The fast bikes are not the Harleys. The fast bikes, mostly ridden by the young crowd, are Japanese or BMWs and these bikes aren’t very loud but do whine at a high pitch when the rider wants to go fast.
Now you want real noise, what about putting mufflers on logging trucks? If not that, then stop complaining about the bikes.
I will say that there are few things as fun (or as dangerous) as riding a motorcycle on windy mountain road going as fast as possible. But they dont need the noise for that.
RE: The noise. When I was riding I frequently had drivers of other vehicles cut me off. When I had the opportunity (or misfortune) to confront them the response was always “I didn’t see you”. I didn’t and don’t like loud bikes myself but OTOH I’ve never heard anyone complain that they didn’t know the loud biker was coming because they didn’t hear them.
RE: Helmets. That requirement was enacted because of our health care system. Injured bikers often wound up in ERs with inadequate or no insurance and the taxpayers ended up subsidizing it. Texas actually allows choice, wear a helmet or don’t, but if you don’t you have to pay more to register your bike. Much more.
Let us not forget – bikes get pretty good mpg.
And while I’m thinking about it, one of the problems with the Adirondacks is how it is over populated by those who are old at heart. Even young whipper snappers like Brian M. seem to be affected by the ailment.
Notice I didn’t say old people. I said old of heart.
I spent six months working in the intensive care unit at Bethesda Naval Hospital. During that time there were at least six sailors that were either in comas or were paralyzed. All from motorcycle accidents.
Speaking of old people and their hearts- most of the Harley riders you see are middle-aged and overweight (pudgy old white guys). They would be well advised to stop off a week or so in the mountains and get some exercise.
Did my share of riding…finally, this little statement registered: When you ride a motorcycle, it’s not a matter of “if you have an accident…” but “when you have an accident.” And, when you have an accident, there’s no predicting how serious the injuries will be…statistically, my guess is injuries are much more severe than from car accidents. But it’s a matter of choice. Not really my business…except as it relates to my own willingness to get on a bike…and whether or not the rider has health insurance.
The noise is ridiculous. The “noisy pipes save lives” propaganda is right but only to an extent. The purpose is to alert those within maybe a 50-100 yard radius that there’s a bike, NOT to alert everyone within a 2 mile radius. I live a few blocks from the main drag in my town and unless I have my AC on, I can hear the bikes rumbling by even when I’m watching TV or listening to music. Though in my opinion, the greater scourge is noise from garbage trucks and DPW vehicles. Their engines are at least as loud as motorcycles plus they have that obnoxious beeping noise (also audible for a range 20 times greater than necessary for safety purposes) which is made even worse when they leave it in reverse even while not moving.
Ellen – having had a motorcycle accident… its the difference between a fender-bender and serious bodily harm.
scratchy: I think Walker was using that statement about not wearing helmets to debunk the concern for safety that loud bikers make when talking about their noisy exhaust pipes, not the “choice” issue.
I’ve been on quiet ponds a couple miles from any road and can clearly hear the harley bikes out on the highway – it’s not a short duration, I hear them coming for miles. What I don’t get is the continuous revving when the bikes are stopped, or even if they are not stopped – hearing them pull in the clutch while they are rolling through town and rev the engine up and then re-engage the clutch and keep on rolling only to repeat it again a hundred yards down the road…. huh?
I have a neighbor that owns a harley – he is, actually, quite respectful with it – I have never heard him rev it and he motors out relatively quietly, not getting on it excessively when he pulls out onto the street. It can be done but it requires a driver that is conscientious, not something I see/hear from harley riders very much.
Gas mileage and big bikes: first of all, they are not that great and second, 5 guys , each riding barge sized bikes don’t get very good gas mileage compared to the five of them in one single car.
I agree about the trucks, especially those with engine brakes, sometimes called “jake brakes”… real pleasant to the ear when they are coming into town. We are bombarded with excessive noise on a daily basis and it has negative impacts, one of which is simply, sanity. Why it is ok for a few to impose their excessive noise on the rest of us, I don’t understand.
“Why it is ok for a few to impose their excessive noise on the rest of us?”
Exactly!
Its the sound of money.
I don’t understand why Harley enthusiasts think they sound cool. They sound like junk to me. Any piece of equipment that you have to “warm up” for several minutes — in the summer — before you can run it without it stalling is junk.
As for getting better gas mileage it is true that a nice small bike gets good gas mileage. A big old hog doesn’t do all that well and it is pretty rare that the owner of a big bike owns it as day to day transportation. Most gasoline burned in motorcycles is simply for joy riding.
The loudness thing? Yes, you are well aware that a bike is loud when you are directly behind it on the highway. Or in your bedroom.
I get it. It’s the same reason that muscle cars with duel exhausts sound cool, its the reason that nascar is so loud, it has a muscularity about it that is cool at some level.
“RE: Helmets. That requirement was enacted because of our health care system. Injured bikers often wound up in ERs with inadequate or no insurance and the taxpayers ended up subsidizing it.”
This is something that concerns me about national health care- a policy im inclined to favor- the possibility of increased government control over personal choices.
You can hear chain saws farther than you can hear a bike and they are pretty dangerous too.
Tandem trucks are also very loud.
If you are worried about bikers getting hurt, stop running into them.
When I was a kid, some of the “cool” guys would install a cut-off on their exhaust system. What’s a cut-off? A cut-off is a device you install on the exhaust before it reaches the muffler. If you wanted to race with your “hot” car, you would just pull a lever and the exhaust would leave the exhaust pipe before it reached the muffler. No muffler equals more power. Very illegal but that was half the point of it. By the way, race cars run without mufflers for the same reason.
Another illegal device from the 50’s was a suicide knob. It was attached to the steering wheel and by grabbing it rather than the wheel, you could drive one handed and make fast turns.
No, I never used either device but will admit to turning up my collar to look cool like Elvis.
Why have we reached a point where everything is illegal and someone is always wagging their finger at someone about something?
If you don’t want a bike, don’t have one. I don’t but I wouldn’t dream of spending my time complaining about them. It doesn’t make you a better person.
I kind of agree Pete, I mean Harly’s are supposed to be loud. I remember going to illegal street drag races in high school in South Dakota in 1976, they were loud and dangerous. But you know what they were still healthier than some of the stuff young people do today. At least it involved skills and the love of something awesome.
I get it Mervel, you’re a motorhead. But isn’t there something really cool about a highly efficient engine paired with a clocklike transmission and a suspension that will drop you down and throw you through an s-turn instead of throwing you out of the turn like an over-powered under-engineered muscle car will do?
Well, Pete, maybe you don’t value peace and quiet, but some people do. As for your “Why have we reached a point where everything is illegal,” you may have missed the fact that this whole thread is about loud pipes NOT being illegal.
I’d be curious to know what would happen if you had a near neighbor with a teenaged kid who put together an heavy metal band that practiced in the garage twenty feet from your bedroom. Wouldn’t dream of complaining ’bout ’em, eh?
Good point Knuckle! I mean I do wonder how much of my like of those old gas hogs is simply aesthetics, because they do not handle well and have some big problems engineering wise. But I think there is some comparison to these harly’s. From what I can tell they have some of the same issues but people still like them I think because of the noise and look.
The difference between a loud Harley and a truck or chainsaw is that the truck and chainsaw DO have mufflers. The louder Harleys and other bikes don’t, it’s straight pipes with no muffler. NYS V+T Law requires mufflers, straight pipes aren’t legal at all. But, even when you write a guy for what are clearly and admittedly straight pipes he can get it dismissed with a note from an inspection station saying the pipes are good. Maybe he put the baffles back in or maybe the MC inspector likes loud pipes, but it happens.
My thought is that some folks just like to be obnoxious. Loud pipes, the “boomer” speakers, shirts with obscene language/pictures, etc. It’s another sign of our cultures degradation and the slide into the abyss. There’s nothing good in all this.
Funny, the old Beach Boys tune comes to mind- ” …It’s not a big motorcycle, just groovy little motor bike…”. I wonder what ever happened to the old 3-400 cc bikes Honda used to make?
“Harley! If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand, anyway!”
I used to ride my Panhead with 14 NYS Troopers…..talk about law-breakers on their days off! It was all in fun and nobody got hurt. I miss my “scoot”.
Why haven’t the geriatrics on this thread complained about jets flying overhead?
Just for the record, I live within 100 feet of Rt. 28 coming into Indian Lake and I do hear the sound levels of all vehicles. One area of sound never mentioned is the sound made by tires. Even a new “quiet” car can produce a lot of noise because of the tires.
When I visit family down in the Bronx, I get to listen to overhead subways less than a block from the house. Yes, there are houses in the Bronx and a huge oak tree grows in front of the house. It’s loaded with squirrels.
Anyway, my point is, you can get used to just about anything. You want real peace and quiet, take a long hike into the woods. Oh, I forgot. You might be disturbed by some fool talking on a cell phone.
About that long hike into the woods– I’ve found that when I camp on St. Regis Pond, more than two miles from the nearest paved road, you can still hear trucks and motorcycles on Rt 30 on a still morning. And you’re right, tire noise on a big pickup or SUV is impressively loud, less so for lighter cars. And of course lawnmowers, chain saws, etc. can be annoying. But what’s sets the noise from Harleys apart is that it’s intentional and unnecessary.
Mark: FIVE guys? I’ve seen thirty or forty in a skein half a mile long stopping traffic so they can all make a left-hand turn as one vehicle. Come on! If it’s supposed to be such an expression of individuality why do you always see them in a herd? Why don’t they take a freaking bus? (Oh right, it would be less cool vogueing for each other in their motor-fetish gear that way.) And there’s more than one winding back road they consider their own race course despite the presence of regular drivers–my wife and I have had too many close calls in June. It’s been going on way too long with zero oversight. (Cops heart Harleys on days off!) It’s time to stop pretending this is such time- honored family fun, or worth the beer and hotdogs it sells.
Chain saws, trucks, jet aircraft – they are at least all doing some work and are generally not used except to do work. I will never forget my friend Chuck’s suggestion to a harley rider that perhaps he should fire up his chain saw and walk back and forth on the street in front of his home revving it over and over… on a quiet Sunday morning. It’s about on the same level.
Pete Klein: “Why have we reached a point where everything is illegal and someone is always wagging their finger at someone about something? If you don’t want a bike, don’t have one.” I’m not even sure how to respond to that comment in the context of this discussion. Somehow Pete, you have really missed the point.
It’s the Tea, Mark. It’s fashionable just now to be against everything that has anything to do with government. It’ll pass.