How loud is a motorbike?

With the first rays of sunshine, it’s not just spring fever and the twittering of birds that return. Motorcyclists also awaken from their winter sleep and get on their bikes. What is pure joie de vivre for the riders can certainly become noise pollution for residents along popular motorbike routes and in city centres. With more checks and warning signs, politicians and police want to curb the noise from motorcycles.

Motorcycles are therefore a powerful summer noise source for our ‘Cirrus measures…’ team! We therefore measured the sound levels of various motorcycle models from a group of hobby riders with our Optimus noise level meter before the tour – in neutral and when accelerating from a standstill.

When measuring at the exhaust, the Ducati reaches 97.9 dB in idle. When accelerating from a standstill, it already reaches an impressive 112.1 dB. It’s easy to imagine how loud this model gets when driving.

Noise level measurement of the Ducati 1098 when accelerating: 112.1 dB

Noise level measurement of the Ducati 1098 when idling: 97.7 dB

The Daytona is even louder than the Ducati at 99.8 dB when idling. However, when revving up, there was an overdrive here because the signal was too high for the measuring range. Nevertheless, our optimus displayed a rough value of 107.2 dB, due to the overdrive in red.

Sound level measurement of the Daytona 675R when accelerating: 107.2 dB

Sound level measurement of the Daytona 675R when idling: 99.8 dB

When idling, the Honda Cb 400n achieved at 91.9 dB, the Honda CB 400N achieved the lowest value compared to the other two motorcycles. However, when accelerating from a standstill, it can certainly keep up with its younger colleagues at 109.0 dB.

Sound measurement of the Honda CB 400N when accelerating: 109.0 dB

Sound measurement of the Honda CB 400N when idling: 91.9 dB

All three motorcycles reached values between 91 and 112 dB, which in terms of volume is comparable to a jackhammer or a chainsaw. Based on our motorcycle noise measurements, we can say that motorcycles are real noise makers. They are fun, but in terms of noise, they can also be quite annoying.