I’m interested in getting an electric motorcycle, but something I’ve been wondering:

ICE motorcycles can be loud, and that can act as a safety feature, especially when lane splitting. I’m thinking about Los Angeles, where motorcycles regularly weave through bumper-to-bumper car traffic. The noise they make helps prevent riders from getting accidentally doored.

Do electric motorcycles have any kind of artificial noise maker to achieve the same thing? Or does anyone sell a device that does this?

Note that I’m not talking about generic speakers, because

  1. I don’t want to have to blast music all the time just for safety, and
  2. most speaker kits are pointed BACK at the driver, not FORWARD towards traffic.

Anyone know the answer?

  • tenacious_mucus
    52·
    1 year ago

    Pretty sure your answer is going to be no. The ONLY way to do this would be a horn or speaker system pointed forward like you mentioned which would have to be speed controlled, otherwise it would just be a constant siren of sorts. That being impractical and likely not well sought after, I dont think anything exists. Like other commenters have already said, scooters and such quiet, small displacement bikes dont have any noise enhancement and have never needed it- BUT they are primarily used in slower-speed city-type traffic, not out on higher speed highways and interstates (regardless of the actual speed of traffic flow when lane splitting is utilized).

    I understand your concern, though. I used to commute daily on 2 wheels in the Bay Area on highways and on I-80 and people definitely could hear me and would move over when they could, and my bike isnt even “loud”- just a 900cc Triumph. Sometimes they wouldnt realize they were on the center line blocking progress and you could blip the throttle and then they’d notice and move over- something you wont be able to do on an electric bike, short of just beeping the horn i guess. It was a nice, reassuring feeling that you knew that THEY knew you were there. Not to mention i’ve been in a cage plenty of times and heard motorcycles well before ive seen them, so again…noise is justified.