Yamaha Seek A New Note For Our Motorcycles
How to hear us coming when life is all electric
Following on from our article about noisy machines being caught and fined using new noise detection units in France, here is something else for them to listen out for!
Far from worrying about excessive noise from motorcycle engines, some motorcyclists are more concerned about the lack of noise when electric machines come in! Not because of missing the joyful growl of an ICE engine as it goes through its paces and responds to your commands, but also because of the safety aspect. Many motorcyclists deliberately twist the throttle to up the decibels momentarily to let pedestrians and other road users know that they are there. If used advisedly, this is a really useful tool for minimising SMIDSY incidents, getting other road users attention and for helping people who are crossing the road to know that a motorcyclist is coming.
Stayin’ Alive
So what gives when there is no noise apart from the subtle whirr of Ernie’s fastest milk float in the West to alert folks to a motorcycle approaching? Well really you couldn’t make it up, but Yamaha are working on a noise generator for their incoming electric machines. This will make a noise to replace the lost sounds from a petrol engine.
The new noise maker from Yamaha is called ‘ALIVE’ and is currently in development as sound engineers work on the best way to add it to the machines. They are experimenting with the optimum sounds which can be generated and then used in combination with the construction and engine of the bike to amplify them. Oh and there will be various options so you can to choose from a range of different sounds or perhaps there will even be customizable. Who knows?!
As one of the design team says, anything is possible ‘even one that sounds like Star Wars’ which Yamaha hopes will add to the appeal of the new electric motorcycles as they move towards their commitment to be fully carbon neutral by 2050.
So what would you choose for your motorcycle’s new engine sound? The swish of Light Sabres from Star Wars? The sound of a Northern Diver (Loon) at dusk? Right Said Fred’s ‘I’m too sexy for my shirt’ or Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag? Is it going to be like mobile phone ring tones – we all started off with groovy sounds then ended up with ‘ring ring’. Will there be an option for ‘old school ICE engine sound’ just like your bike would have sounded before and is that what we will all end up choosing, vroom vroom?
Bear in mind that Yamaha do make pianos too, so perhaps they will offer the Moonlight Sonata to calm any potential road rage out there?
We’d love to hear what you would choose and what you think of this idea?
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Comments:
02/09/21 - Love it! A sound for every mood I should think. Anything from an aggressive Ducati growl to a calming purr of a big cat.
02/09/21 - A combination of C7 and C9 to make it sound like a Spitfire. ⚡
01/09/21 - gotta be a selection of whippy van jingles
01/09/21 - I was thinking how quiet it would be in the race paddock when all the bikes are electric. Then I realised that there will be dozens of generators running to charge the batteries!
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