Dirt Rider Original Article 
By: Sean Klinger
Featuring the amazing Chris Real and our every own Ed Santin.
“It’s racing. Let them be as loud as they want!”
While it isn’t very difficult to persuade trail riders and off-roaders that excessive sound is detrimental to the overall existence of dirt bikes, convincing those who only ride on a track is a different story… Or is it? The response above displays the sentiment of many motocross fans, enthusiasts, and racers yet this way of thinking leads us down a scary, yet preventable path.
Chris Real, President of DPS Technical, Inc. , and general Motorcycle Sound Guru, has the unfortunate task of telling hopeful potential track owners that their dream just isn’t going to happen.
“When guys say that competition bikes should be as loud as they want, I ask those guys two questions,” Chris explains. “Name 10 tracks that have been closed down since you’ve been riding, and they normally have no problem. Here in Southern California, there’s Carlsbad Raceway, Saddleback, Corona, Anza, Dos Rios, and the list goes on. Then I ask name just five that have opened. And they can’t.”
While noise issues aren’t always the only culprit, they are typically the main complaint.
“Three soldiers come marching out that we have to do battle with any time a new track wants to open or people start complaining about an existing track,” Chris continues. “The first is always noise, then dust, then traffic. Traffic is the easiest concern to deal with because you just explain that people will be arriving at the track after most people are at work, then leaving before they get home. With proper application of water with hoses and trucks, dust is pretty easy to deal with as well. It’s noise that is hard to deal with.”
Chris explains that dirt bikes, especially four-strokes don’t blend into the acoustic environment that well. As the company that is hired by manufacturers to do EPA sound testing, DPS Technical has the equipment and scientific authority to take the most accurate readings possible and put together models showing the acoustic impact of a certain track.
“We can measure the sound of a bike at 50 feet, then I can tell you approximately how loud that bike will be at 100 feet, 200, 500, 1,000, 3,000 feet… We can run a projection. And our target is, most communities have an ordinance that says, ‘You shall not have noise levels above X at the property line.” Chris explains. “The benefit of this to the Dirt Rider reader, manufacturer, distributer, parts supplier, consumer, race track, or city planner, is that sound testing can provide guidance, and when sound is managed properly, motorized recreation can fit into communities. This instrument that I use is the same one the Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, California State Parks, and the AMA uses. Tickets are issued using this machine.”
As far as professional racing in professional venues, Chis says, sound levels also have to be in check for the safety of the employees and spectators. Noise exposure is regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and every employee in any given stadium has to be covered by workman’s compensation insurance, paid by the venue owner, so that is one direct financial impact of loud bikes. Plus, the spectator who is about 50 feet from the track is going to have, “noise exposure, sound levels that are average, not peak, but average for a 20 minute moto, more than a 100 dB sustained: that’s not healthy.” Chris says.
Ultimately, the argument that loud bikes are fine, spectators know the risks, and we are all adults and make can make the decision on how loud our race bikes should be just doesn’t hold water. As riders, we are grossly outnumbered by non-riders and that massive majority says that they don’t want tracks around them because they are too loud. Which leads to one last question; what good is that 1-2 hp extra a pipe can give your bike when you can’t ride it anywhere?
