Hi All,

I live near a ferry terminal and therefore hear a lot of road noise.  Generally they let the bicyclists off first, then the motorcyclists, and then the cars.  It is a neat sound in the afternoon to hear all of the motorcycles roaring down the highway (I confess, I like the sound of the big Harleys the best).

Before owning a Twin, however, I chalked up most of the "bike sounds" as all alike.  I've gotten to the point, however, where I know the sound of my own engine well.  It sounds different than a Honda, a Harley, a BMW, etc.

Yesterday, I was walking along the road when I heard a familiar sound behind me.  I thought "I bet that's a GS500."  And it was!  It's kind of neat to move from the stage of thinking all motorcycles sound alike to being able to pick out your own particular model.

Anyone else have this type of experience?

El Noobo

x

I listen for the cam walking....

I always think I hear the sound of another GS, but then turn my head and realize it's just another lawn mower.

Quote from: BaoQingTian on September 08, 2006, 10:42:09 AM
I always think I hear the sound of another GS, but then turn my head and realize it's just another lawn mower.

:thumb:Same here!

They sound a lot better with a decent can, and that might have been me that you saw yesterday. Yellow '99 wearing black gear and helmet.

That was you?  Cool!  You have a yellow fairing on your bike?  Mine's a re-painted (originally purple) yellow 93.  I also have black riding gear and a yellow / black helmet.

El Noobo

Quote from: BaoQingTian on September 08, 2006, 10:42:09 AM
I always think I hear the sound of another GS, but then turn my head and realize it's just another lawn mower.

:laugh:My friend who owns a Triumph describes the Suzuki engine sound as "kinda like a hairdryer."

Mine sounds like sewing machine on steroids.

twin sound kinda of like a inline 4 !? nooo way the inline has more of a zip and sounds alot better if you ask me . i really love the sounds of the ducks   they sound mean .. i'v  been in a group of bikes where we had one duck (999 base moddle ) god i loved it . it kinda of sounded like a musle car it was nast fast and soooo pretttyyyyy !!!! i want one he got it for a steal he also has a 749 that he got for 6 or 7k

I have to admit that I enjoy listening to the sounds of different engine layouts.

back in the day (for me early/mid 80's), when I first started noticing, I could just tell the difference between big and small engines.  Like the 5.0L mustangs (which always really stuck out for me) compared to honda preludes - wasn't really concious of much other differences.  Years later I ended up getting a car with a flat/horizontal engine that I eventually put an aftermarket exhuast on and I really started to notice the differences in sounds. 

In the bike world, I first noticed differences between the vtwins and inlines.  really big difference.  in my head the differences sounds something like:

inlines - buzz
vtwins - booouwahhh
flats - burble warble

parrallel twins sound somewhere inbetween vtwins/flats and inlines.  With a reasonable piple, I like the sound, almost as much as I like the flat/horizontal engine sound from my cage.

All the sounds pale before triple engine with all three cilynders firing into one pipe.

the triples are still inline engines.  just one less then an I4 and 1 more then our bikes.  I know they sound different inherently because of that, but how do they fire into 1 pipe differently then any other engine?  Do they have a unique exhuast manifold?  I didn't think they did, but am truthfully not that versed with the triples.

They don't firee into one pipe any differently than 2 or 4. All I am saying that triple with all cyls firing into one pipe sounds great and better than a triple with, say, 2 into 1 and 1 into 1.

the triple sounds so great b/c it right its not the V-twin thump and not the in whoosh,on the big inines,cbr1100xx and FJR1300 anyway. IN the most reacent cycle world they state the speed triple engine is so great b/c it hase low end like twine and top end rush like liter bike.Gatta love it

Back when I was younger, I used to flag 3 weekends a month for a local dirtbike motocross track.  I finally got to the point in distinguishing the engine sounds that I could tell the 4 major brands apart.  Hondas didn't have as much treble in their note as the Kawi's did, the Suzuki's were always more tinny than the green machines, and the Yamaha's just sounded the best.

+1 on the angry sewing machine.
I also will admit to thinking of a vacuum cleaner, or a washing machine with an unbalanced load.
Cool.
Srinath.