I've also heard the 'cars are so well insulated these days that you can't hear bikes anyway....' which is almost true too.
But here's how I got a £60 fine when I was chopsier and yougerer than I am now.
So I used to run an ART 'Race Use Only' can on a bandit. Nice deep tone at idle but made bit of a noise everywhere else. One day a copper pulls me over and says to me 'we've pulled you over because we feel the noise of your exhaust is excessive'. I swiftly replied with 'NO, it's not!'. He said he'd beg to differ and then informed me that 'Yes, you exhaust is excessive as me and my partner heard you coming from a distance and decided to pursue you to inform you if and when you passed'. My then 'costly' reply then was, 'that's my point, you heard me coming, you knew I was there... They're not to loud!'.
My point here is it's not just the people driving in the cars you need to make aware of your presence but people about to get into cars, crossing the road, cycling the road etc etc. The more people aware of you, the safer for you and potentially safer for them too.
Generally, the outcome is almost a six of one, half dozen of the other result. Some bikes sound lovely with standard cans on but as of today, my opinion is that all bikes should be made more aware to non-riders/ enthusiasts and a surest means to this is to offer no choice but to be aware of their surroundings and this is effectively achieved with noise, i.e. loud cans
I currently run Delkevic Stumpies and love them. Just recently taken baffles out and npw it has an additional rasp to it
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