a year of silence

3/20/14

  I am in the process of trying to make my motorcycle more quiet. This is in direct opposition to many people's idea of what being a motorcyclist is all about.
  I can understand modifying your motorcycle so that it makes more noise in order to make people more aware of your presence. When i'm riding a no-door, pretty much just engine and wheels vehicle, i feel a lot safer when i'm sure people know i'm there. I would rather have car drivers annoyed and aware, than undisturbed and unobservant.
  But having a loud bike would be contrary to my endeavor in silence, so muffling the noise is essential right now.
  Many of my friends who ride are aghast at what they consider to be my "selling out". These are primarily people who consider riding a motorcycle a lifestyle rather than just a form of transportation or an all consuming passion.
  I know people who eat, breathe, live and die for motorcycles. They create, work on, and ride the snot out of their bikes every minute of every hour of their lives. They have found a passion in life that they love and deeply believe in. That kind of devotion is worthy of envy.
  There are also those who consider their motorcycles an economical means of transportation and nothing more. As well as a few who ride bikes occasionally just for fun.
  There are also people who take up motorcycling because they see an image that they want to be. To them being a motorcyclist is wearing certain clothes and behaving a certain way. To deviate from their contrived motorcycle ideology is heresy of the worst kind. They deeply believe in an image, and to silence one's bike is to deviate from that image, and therefore completely unacceptable.