And that is one of the MANY benefits of owning a Harley ! You'd hate my '58 Panhead . I will tell you this much, LOUD PIPES SAVE LIVES !!. It may have been irritating to you, but I can guarantee you knew EXACTLY where that bike was. Intersections are some of the most dangerous places on the road for for bikes, ( Harleys or otherwise ). So, until people wake up, pay attention to the road, put down their cellphones, newspapers , makeup, 142 ounce Big Gulps, laptops, rotisserie chickens, etc etc , I guess the only defense are our loud pipes. So at the end of the day I'll take "irking" a few guys over ending up dead because you couldn't "see me" .. How do I know all this to be true ? I lost my closest brother in a bike wreck. He was 45 years old. The driver of the Fed Ex van that t-boned him at an intersection claimed he "didn't see him" as he was running the red light.. he was wearing headphones because his vans radio was broken. Complain about something that really matters ... Now, do some riders do it just to be jerks ? Yup.. but then some people in cars have their stereo so loud you can hear 3 blocks away .. & that happens year round ..