Hi all, Annual summer bike trip planned, through France, Belgium and ultimately Germany for the black forest (with a stop at the nurburgring). Im planning to take my 1198, for its maiden trip across Europe, but im hearing the German police are less than enthusiastic about loud pipes? My bike, is a german import. So it has a german market spec full termi 70mm system, complete with E stamp and the D98 markers. However, the system has since been decatted and the bike mapped to suit. End result - its Loud. Do you think ill have issues in Europe/Germany? I have removable baffles that i can slip in for the trip, i dont think they do a lot other than make the bike run lumpy, but would this help? Will it harm the bike (as its mapped to 'open pipes')? Can i point at the E stamps in my cans and plead ignorance? Or will they decibel test the bike and roger me? Any thoughts/experience welcome! N.b previous years iv toured on a fireblade with Arrow slip on - never had an issue, but the Ducati is substantially louder
Germany along with other countries has laws which you as the operator of the vehicle are responsible for. Noise emissions is one of them. All any copper will be interested with is if they think the bike is too loud. Here in germany the fine for a non-silenced exhaust on a road vehicle is aproximaty 80 euro on the spot. Even if you have baffles in your pocket and you get stopped you will still get the fine but they would expect you to put them in, much the same anywhere. As for the nurburgring, most of the marshalls that man the carpark and barriers are ex or current serving police officers. They are not stupid and have heard all the excuses immaginable. Chances are that as you idle the bike upto the barrier they will have a glance at the exhaust to see if there is a baflfe fitted. If not they will pull you to one side for a chat. If you get thru the barrier without any silencing roll off the throttle just after the quidlebach bridge as the soundmeter is on the right by the marshall post on the right. Normally there is a car parked with the meter clearly visable on it's tripod. If you do trip the meter you will be banned for the rest of the day unless you fit the baffle and plead with them that the bike is now fixed. There is also another meter on occasions after Ex-muhle on the right side as you run down to Lauder-links. On the roads you can get away with it untill you get tugged. In 20 years I've never been pulled for a loud pipe while on the roads here in germany. If I were you i would take the chance with the pipes on the road but when you get to the track put the baffles in. Hope this helps
When you hear Germans playing loud pipes it usually implies they are marching, if they are marching it usually implies they have bigger plans on their minds. Be warned! Hope this helps.
Doogalman - thanks, thats helped a lot, we were getting the impression that its very strictly enforced on the road, seems like ill probably be ok if im sensible. Maybe this is why they clamp down on noisy bikes, as they dont want anything too suspicious being heard in the distance!
Ktm Superduke running an akrapovic full system was ok with most I passed last year, but I don't sit there blipping the throttle at a standstill either. I've ran many loud pipes over the years in Germany and as long as you're not an arse you'll be fine, but do take a db killer as the lads at the ring will stop you at the barrier. I have a fond memory of taking the ktm rc8 to the Nordschleife which was running the under slung akrapovic evo at the time, unfortunately for me some Dutch fellas loved it that much they kept giving it some revs in the car park, by the time I got to the barrier the big old fella with the impressive mustache simply waved his finger at me and said NEIN VERBOTEN. Bless him, I like that old boy
Never been stopped on my 1098r with full Termis and no baffles , but as doogalman rightly said watch the 50 and especially 30 limits in towns. Giving it the berries in town is going to draw unwanted attention but then you surely know that Ive done track days at the GP circuit at the ring also without noise probs Hope this helps - enjoy the tour
Mattmk1, have a look thru these threads I started, any questions just ask. https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/anything-nurburgring-related-thread.57995/ If you need digs out here we have guest rooms at a good price https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/nurburgring-eifel-accomodation-offered.51764/
Mattmk1 I can highly recommend this hotel if you are staying in The Black Forest https://www.gasthof-hotel-zum-wasserfall.de/ The owner is a bike nut and there are normally other bike owners staying there to. I‘ve stayed there with a bike club a couple of times now.
Mattmk1 I can highly recommend this hotel if you are staying in The Black Forest https://www.gasthof-hotel-zum-wasserfall.de/ The owner is a bike nut and there are normally other bike owners staying there to. I‘ve stayed there with a bike club a couple of times now.
There are decibel apps for smartphones. Download one, and measure how loud your bike is compared to the regs?
So I hadn’t thought about this, but at the weekend gave it a go. I’m not sure how accurate they are. I used ‘decibel x’ on an iPhone 7. 1m behind the bike and 1m to the side. 102 decibel on idle, 113 decibel at 5k rpm.
A friend of mine was at a big bike event in germany a few weeks ago on a trip over from the uk on his K1200. Outside the venue police had set up a pull-in to stop and check bikes for non-legal stuff. Anyway he got tugged to be checked over, his bike is all legal in the uk despite being fitted with an Akropovic system with the Akrapovic baffle installed. Police decided to noise test his system. He failed with a reading of 102db, and earned a 130 euro fine. However he wasn't happy with the way they tested it in addition to the police saying the baffle was too short. So nextworking day he went to a TUV station near to where he was staying and asked them to noise test his bike. It passed at about 96db (from memory) so was deemed legal for use on german roads and would have been fine for anyone attaining a fresh TUV which is bi-annual (as opposed to the uk yearly mot). Basically the police tested it too close and with object in line with the rear of the bike, ie vans and cars. The problem being that sound is reflected back to the sound meter in addition to from the outlet. The baffle being too short was a load of crap according to TUV. He took his certificate issued by TUV to the police but was met with a load of back and forth burocracy so never got it resolved. End result was he never got his fine of 130 euro back but I'm sure if he had had the time he would have created a right fuss. I now have a db meter at my house so if any mates come here and are not sure I can at least give them a good idea if it will pass or not.
