LeoVince believes the new SAE J2825 sound standard is a positive and proactive move by the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) to protect the rights of riders. The MIC conducted extensive research on over fifty different exhausts installed on V-twins, triples and inline-four motorcycles. The effort here was to find the correlations to sound of each unique motor design and to develop a repeatable, easy to administer standard. We were involved in it to the extent we submitted several different exhausts that underwent these testing procedures, as did many other exhaust manufacturers. We believe the MIC has developed a test that is liberal enough to allow a responsibly built and engineered aftermarket exhaust system to pass these tests, while still being stringent enough to quickly weed out gross offenders. These usually consist of shotgun exhausts, un-muffled straight pipes, mufflers with little or no packing, or systems with the mufflers removed. It also is proactive in that it finally gives the authorities a true roadside sound test that is valid and repeatable. It is a responsible move on the part of exhaust manufacturers and the MIC to keep local municipalities from passing laws banning bikes completely from certain areas, roads and events due to noise concerns. It prevents law enforcement agencies from pulling people over because there bike “sounds” loud. The sooner this standard is adopted by police agencies nationally, the better protected the majority of aftermarket exhaust buyers will be. Now they will have an objective standard by which their bike can be measured and they’ll know whether or not their ticket (if they actually receive one) will stand up in court. The hope is that it will also assist in stopping frivolous legislation that is enacted primarily to quiet down the tone of motorcycle exhausts, i.e., smog checks and annual inspections. Let’s face it, motorcyclists are in the minority and we need to act intelligently and proactively to protect what rights we have and the responsibility for at least some of that falls to us as manufacturers. All LeoVince exhausts will pass the new standard and even our race cans will pass with a sound insert (which typically only robs 1-2 HP). Being a European company we are painfully aware of what happens if you are not proactive and just wait for damaging legislation to be levied against you. As one of the few global manufacturers of motorcycle exhausts that meet all current European emission and sound restrictions, I can assure you that the engineering cost to meet these stringent standards was not small. Unfortunately the resulting increase in costs is passed on to the end consumer, the rider and that is why it’s important to act now. We know that with our engineering and experience in the exhaust sector we are able to provide exceptional products that produce sector leading horsepower gains while emitting a throaty exhaust note still within the limits of this new SAE standard. I personally think that long term it will be great for motorcycling and a sign that we as an industry are trying to do our part to ensure all riders continue to be able to enjoy this great sport we are lucky enough to be part of. Tim Calhoun Executive Vice President LeoVince USA