BBC reports shines a light on motorcycle noise in Hampshire

A BBC video is being shared on social media shining a light on the plight of one poor gentleman who lives in Hampshire. He finds the motorcycle noise near his house infuriating, claiming that the ‘high-pitch engine noise just grates on you’. 

The poor cherub in question is called Sam and he moved from London to Hampshire for a slice of the quiet life. Now the BBC claim he is frustrated with the level of, what they call, motorbike noise from a nearby road.

The weird thing is that in the video, cheeky chappy Sam seems to clean a motorcycle’s headlight, going on to admire his handsome mush in the wing mirror when he’s done. Confusing that a fellow biker would be so down on other bikers enjoying their hobby in this way.

In the film, the Beeb do go on and get the views of some of the locals at a biker’s café – it could be next door to Sam’s house, the BBC don’t confirm – and they go on to speak about the loud-pipes save lives argument. And all seem like the decent sort of biker who would roll off the throttle or snick into a high gear when trundling through a village.

The BBC report goes onto claim that the legal limit for new motorcycles is between 73 and 77 decibels (that’s news to me but I may be wrong) which is where the problem with the whole noisy exhaust argument goes off track. MoT inspectors don’t check each bike with a decibel meter in the test centre. I just spoke to my local bike-only MoT test centre and they advised the following:

‘As long as the can [exhaust] is stamped either BS or E and not for race use only, we [the MoT inspector] only have to decide if the exhaust sounds painfully loud – much louder than other bikes of that make and model and engine size.’

So there you go, you could go trundling through Sam’s village on a road-legal, fully MoT’d machine and still get a ticket, brilliant.

Also, how big is Hampshire and does anyone fancy a rideout this weekend – asking for a friend!