An Annoyance for Me, What About You

[Gonzo the Face]

Maybe I'm just getting too old, but these problems just seem to be getting worse.

Maybe they are illegal, or maybe I just think so. I know all road vehicles , cars, motos etc have to be inspected annually. Vehicles must be compliant with all safty laws and regs.  So how do all these cyclists get away with gutting their mufflers until they are nothing but straight thru pipes.  How do the traffic police not hear them and why are they not stopped and/or ticketed?  Especially at 1, 2, in the morning when they take off from a red light and blast out their pipes.  Its just getting worse and worse.  The other thing is the jumbo speakers and the wide open volume of so called music, that is nothing more than a beat of thump, thump thump  that has to be shared with the world in the also early morning hours.  But the drivers , to show their generosity make sure to keep all windows open so all within a quarter mile can share.  Why is there no crack down on this peace disturbance.  Does it annoy anyone else??

[Saraphee]

I live in a fairly quiet area, but it was disturbed by a pick up that regularly passed through about 5 am treating us all to his bass speaker reverb.

Occasionally I rise early and head off out, one morning I noticed that the pick up had pulled over and was in discussion with the leading lady of the village and two larger local chaps.

We never heard the pick up again.

[Crossy]

You can't beat the sound of a big, multi-cylinder bike on a good pipe, not too loud mind. But those 125cc squeak-boxes... argh.

 

We're pretty lucky being a bit off the beaten track so the boy racers don't visit. We do get the occasional 3AM Schumacher wannbe, often followed by screeching tyres and a crump as the local bus-stop gets modified once again. The unsignposted 90^o left-hander strikes again. Nobody's been killed or badly hurt recently but it's really only a matter of time.

 

As to the thump-and-squeak "music"...

[cyberfarang]

[canthai55]

In our village they built a new soccer field, with grandstands and bleachers. Used to throw parties - rattle the windows.

Phu Yai Ban had a talk with them - finished before 2359

[orang37]

Welcome to Thailand !

 

~o:37;

[madmen]

Recently a thread about BKK Said the bib impounded 50 bikes for noise pollution.

It's a start but will it be just another 24 hour crackdown..

[worgeordie]

1 hour ago, Gonzo the Face said:

Especially at 1, 2, in the morning

The Police will all be asleep by then.

regards worgeordie

[totally thaied up]

I just recently upgraded to a big ass bass box under my seat and six speakers in the car.

 

I thought if I cannot beat them, join them but at least play a bit of Frankie instead to daze and confuse them (mind you Linkin Park now sounds so good). 

[trainman34014]

1 hour ago, madmen said:

Recently a thread about BKK Said the bib impounded 50 bikes for noise pollution.

It's a start but will it be just another 24 hour crackdown..

'Impounded' meaning they can pick them up again the next morning.   When they start crushing the offending bikes i will start to believe the country is serious about changing things !

[daveAustin]

2 hours ago, worgeordie said:

The Police will all be asleep by then.

It is the police! 

[BritManToo]

5 hours ago, Gonzo the Face said:

Especially at 1, 2, in the morning when they take off from a red light

You live on one of the main roads in and out of town, with bars and restaurants and live music all around.

What do you expect?

[hmficc]

Gonzo, free music! Chill out old chap..

As to the mufflers or lack of, it is just “girls gone wild” and cops pleasantly drunk at 1 a.m. I know because farang wife backed into a cops POV at that time and the cop came out of the bar to offer a mai pen rai. He was chill.

you have got to love this country.

[amexpat]

11 hours ago, trainman34014 said:

'Impounded' meaning they can pick them up again the next morning.   When they start crushing the offending bikes i will start to believe the country is serious about changing things !

 

How about offering free penis enlargement surgery to get the boys to give up their noisy bikes? 

[Formaleins]

They don't always get away with it. The inspection each year may or may not pull the bike if the exhaust is not compliant, probably a 50/50 chance- trouble is, these guys make their money from the testing of the bike AND the fee for processing your vehicle tax and possibly a cut for doing your insurance, so there is very little incentive to fail a vehicle in the first place and if the exhaust is not ear shatteringly loud it will pass whether it has the relevant stamp or not..

The cops will probably pull it if they think they can make some money, want an exhaust or have been instructed to. If the cops get you and it does not have the Thai compliance stamps on it, you get a 1500 Baht fine and then they either smash  the exhaust, or if they have a sense of humour, they make the owner smash it. and you don't get it back (Chiang Mai Area).

[IAMHERE]

Not that long ago having a motor vehicle of any kind was a sign that you were rich or powerful in your community. That thought process hasn't changed. In order that others 'know' you have a vehicle the louder the better. The culture hasn't changed with the times because practically everybody has a motor vehicle these days; loud or not, it just isn't special like when these louders were growing up.

[cycolista]

21 hours ago, Gonzo the Face said:

So how do all these cyclists get away with gutting their mufflers until they are nothing but straight thru pipes.

Why blame "cyclists" for the noise?  No mufflers on any of my bicycles, none needed.

[natway09]

I suppose you also get upset at the village folk being drunk before the wedding even starts Ha Ha

[amexpat]

5 minutes ago, natway09 said:

I suppose you also get upset at the village folk being drunk before the wedding even starts Ha Ha

Not relevant Ho Ho

[Retiredandhappyhere]

The OP seems to believe that all motor vehicles and motor cycles are tested every year, whereas I understand that the former are tested after 7 years and the former after 5 years and then yearly thereafter.  Without the test certificate, which can unfortunately  just be purchased from unreliable "testers", the car/bike cannot be taxed or insured, but of course that would not worry about 40% of the vehicles on the road.

[khunPer]

When I was a kid – admit, it was long time ago – we would mount a piece of cardboard with a pair of clothespins to the pushbike wheel to make it sound like a motor, preferably noisy motor like grown up boy's motorbikes.

 

Today kids dont need to invent their own homemade toy, it's an industri and can be ordered online, and I find the same inventions already made up, but way more noisy now with an exhaust pipe amplification...

 

 

 

I think it's the same when you grow up, it has to be more noisy now than it was a generation or two before...????

 

Remember:
The difference between men and boys

is the price of their toys

 

And by the way, I tried to head up in the quiet mountain region on the island I live, to get away from roads and the multi-decibel boom-(cannot repeat in Thailand) car-stereo; unfortunately it didn't make much of a change...☹️

 

 

Over the years I learned, that Thais seem to like noise – there actually is a 1,000 baht fine available by law if a motorbike is noisy, but there seem to be a lot of fines available, but not commonly used – however, it's not my country, so I also learned over the years to accept wannabe-motorbikes (even they still sometimes irritates me) and loud boom-(cannot repeat in Thailand) car-stereo...????

[Gonzo the Face]

18 minutes ago, Retiredandhappyhere said:

The OP seems to believe that all motor vehicles and motor cycles are tested every year, whereas I understand that the former are tested after 7 years and the former after 5 years and then yearly thereafter.  Without the test certificate, which can unfortunately  just be purchased from unreliable "testers", the car/bike cannot be taxed or insured, but of course that would not worry about 40% of the vehicles on the road.

As the OP, I will tell you what I believe.  There is a loud noise ordinance, whether the noise is created by a brand new vehicle or a 10 year old one is immaterial.  Not only this topic but any one..... if this developing country has desires of reaching  "Developed Country, rather than Developing" status. those with little or lots of self perceived power,    have , themselves to evolve  from

"Me-ists to We-ists"

[canthai55]

5 minutes ago, Gonzo the Face said:

 those with little or lots of self perceived power,    have , themselves to evolve  from

"Me-ists to We-ists"

Hear Hear - now, if I can live as long as Methuselah I might have a chance 555

[orang37]

5 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

Not that long ago having a motor vehicle of any kind was a sign that you were rich or powerful in your community. That thought process hasn't changed. In order that others 'know' you have a vehicle the louder the better. The culture hasn't changed with the times because practically everybody has a motor vehicle these days; loud or not, it just isn't special like when these louders were growing up.

 

PSPOY !

 

pseudoscience post of the year awarded in the categories "confusion of correlation with causation," and "abuse of the concept 'culture'"

 

~o:37;

[sfokevin]

I don’t think this is a Thai or Chiang Mai specific problem... In my home county it is common for men with smaller than average endowment to modify their motorcycles in such a way... 

[BritManToo]

14 minutes ago, sfokevin said:

In my home county it is common for men with smaller than average endowment to modify their motorcycles in such a way.

You've checked them all personally?

[runamok27]

40 minutes ago, sfokevin said:

I don’t think this is a Thai or Chiang Mai specific problem... In my home county it is common for men with smaller than average endowment to modify their motorcycles in such a way... 

Don't know about the endowment part but where I'm from in the U.S., there are laws on the books about loud exhausts and people still ride around on super loud motorcycles and never get hassled by the police. A lot of police in the area have extremely loud motorcycles and trucks/cars, so that probably has something to do with it. As for the Thai police, they don't really enforce anything so expecting them to enforce this is probably a bridge too far. 

[runamok27]

4 hours ago, Gonzo the Face said:

As the OP, I will tell you what I believe.  There is a loud noise ordinance, whether the noise is created by a brand new vehicle or a 10 year old one is immaterial.  Not only this topic but any one..... if this developing country has desires of reaching  "Developed Country, rather than Developing" status. those with little or lots of self perceived power,    have , themselves to evolve  from

"Me-ists to We-ists"

There's so much to fix I don't think they know where to start. Just a short list:

1. Develop a professional police force.

2. Minimize the rampant corruption.

3. Greatly improve the education system. It's how Japan, Korea, China, India, etc. are able to push to 1st world status.

4. Do something about the obscene wealth inequality. 99%+ of the folks here are extremely poor. When the people have no hope they can become extremely dangerous.

 

At the end of the day, anyone who fixes 1 or 2 of these problems would be in power forever in Thailand.

[Humpy]

The brain dead gofers up here in Isaan with their illegally modified exhausts race up and down the new dual carriage way that divides the village. All hours of the day and night. The exhausts noise can be heard for over 2 km. The headman is reluctant to ask the police to sort it out. Perhaps the local police chief should tell the village headmen to inform their villagers, in their morning broadcast, that those with illegal exhausts have until the end of the month to fit legal ones or their bikes will be crushed. Simple self policing. 

The lorries with half an  acre of mirrors and dustbin sized exhausts seem to be untouchable. 

[sfokevin]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

You've checked them all personally?

My experience has only been with the ones who’s motorcycle purrs like a kitten ????