Tech Talk / By Martha Knight

Just a week or so back I was ranting in print about the amount of noise generated by motorcycles along Main Street/Route 6, from individual bikes to whole phalanxes of them in close order, combining their motor noise. I just hope the riders are protecting their hearing while they are assaulting ours.

Surely there must be some civil, considerate bikers out there! There must be some who would not modify their exhaust systems to make them noisier. They just enjoy riding. And look at all the gas they are saving in they ride their Harleys and Hondas and Suzukis to and from work and on errands. Less fuel, less pollution.

Surely there are bikers who would not rev their motors unnecessarily, long and loud, near their neighbors before taking off, and even upon return. There must be kind sorts, right? They belong to noble organizations and raise money for poor children, and other causes. They converge at scenic spots to hold outdoor worship services, mounted.

There are Psalms that exhort people to make noise when they worship, using various loud instruments—at least some of the time. And blowing those shofars at such amplitude as to shake walls down—just imagine if Joshua and his troops had had vehicles with internal combustion engines and straight pipes! Not that they would have ridden “hawgs,” now I think of it.

When I was musing on these things, and pondering how much trouble it would be to move my office to the back of the house, and install sound baffles somewhere so I could listen to music or teach even by Skype, I came across some news that offered a glimmer of hope. Harley-Davidson is developing an electric motorcycle in Project Live Wire.

Must be H-D has been noticing that measures prohibiting excess motorcycle noise are being adopted in communities and even states. We stationary folks do have, or soon may be accorded, some rights after all! Harley sees the trend and is getting ready to meet it. There will be a customer base of Quiet Riders, and H-D will be ready. Right?

So I read the press releases and other information about Project Live Wire with great interest. But the more I read, the more I realized I had given the company and its customers too much credit. Way too much.

The last thing they want is a quiet bike! The same impulse that causes small children to simulate motor sounds by attaching something on their bicycles to flap against the spokes and make putt-putt sounds is present in children in adult bodies, some of them middle-aged or past. They want to make a lot of noise! They can get noticed, and feel powerful and important, when they make noise. They can be accepted in certain groups where people are validated by noisy machines (and maybe by guns and by congregating at bars?). They have rights! Their rights include annoying others with noise.

So H-D has launched Project Live Wire, and will tour 30 cities in the U.S. to get input from their customers concerning the Live Wire product line. The company wants to “understand the market for electric motorcycles in the U.S.”

Based on vehicular products that sell very well in other countries, very small, enclosed vehicles, especially electric ones, and electric bikes and scooters, H-D might be thinking of producing Live Wire bikes that are similar. But those tend to be quiet.

H-D believes American bikers would not like quiet models.

The senior veep and chief marketing officer, Mark-Hans Richner, says, “The sound is a distinct part of the thrill. Think fighter jet on an aircraft carrier.”

Live Wire Harleys won’t sound like gasoline ones, but they will make plenty of noise.

One argument I have heard used for making motorcycles loud is that otherwise they might be dangerous because other drivers on the road might not be aware of them. That’s pretty lame, isn’t it? They do have horns and lights. And they are clearly visible, more so than bicycles.

Electric vehicles, or EVs, have faced formidable design and marketing challenges. How far can they travel on a charge, how easy is it to swap out batteries, and where can they be charged?

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Meanwhile Tesla is said to be considering allowing use of its patented technology for Supercharger stations.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s colorful CEO, says Tesla would do this “for the advancement of electric vehicle technology” and “in the spirit of the open source movement.”

That’s refreshing, what with most technology companies patenting about everything in sight, and having at each other with infringement suits by the dozen. Musk blogged that patents now seem to enrich the legal profession more than the inventors and patent owners.

The Tesla Model S has become the world’s first open-source car. Musk wants to speed the development of the technology so that there will be more electric cars on the road, and more charging stations.

A change to electric is a change from gasoline. As the market begins to shift, there will be enough business for Tesla and the other electric automotive makers. Meanwhile, Tesla has been trying to get Pennsylvania to let a car manufacturer also sell at retail in the state. Automotive sales are heavily regulated hereabouts.

Now will Tesla make sure to include some vroom-vroom motor sounds for the American market? Isn’t that where the thrill is? And if Elon hopes to crack the pickup truck market, he’d better find a way of getting guts and glory into the image.