Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-20
MUFFLERS TO
BE QUIETED
MOTORCYCLE CLUB AGAINST THE
PRESENT SYSTEM
SAY RIDERS OF FIREcRAckEF
MACHINES EvADE LAW
Letter Written by Member of Loea
Organization Shows Sentiment
of Members in Regard to
Nuisance

The Los Angeles Motorcycle club heart
ily indorses the effort being made by
hotel managers and downtown business
men to secure the passage of an ordi'
nance to abolish the noise nuisance re-
sulting from riding motorcycles without
any device for muffling the sound of the
explosion. They say the proposed or
dinance is unnecessary, however, as
there is already one in existence in Los
Angeles which, if enforced, would ac-
complish the required results
The little frecracker machines are the
nosest vehicles that parade the streets
A one-cylinder, two-horsepower motor
cycle will make more noise than an or
binary 6O-horsepower automobile. Los
Angeles has become invaded with such
a host of these popgun bicycles that
there is hardly a moment in the day
when one of them cannot be heard puff
ing down the street, sounding like the
discharge of a rapid-fire machine gun.
These noisy machines became such a
nuisance that about week ago some OF
the hotel men registered a kick with the
MAYOR. Mayor Harper investigated the
matter and expressed himself favorably
to an ordinance which would compel
riders of motorcycles to keep their ex-
haust muffled while in the city limits.
The Hotel Hayward and other down.
town hotels claim they experience con-
siderable difficulty in keeping people in
their choice front rooms because OF the
disturbing noise of motorcycles, which
becomes particularly annoying at night
The Los Angeles Motorcycle club took
the matter up at its last regular meet
ing and passed resolutions condemning
the practice of riding motorcycles with
out a muffler or with the muffler cut
out. 1t is a standing rule of the club
that no member shall cut out his muller
while in the city limits Club members
maintain that the offenders are not mem
bers of their organization and they are
willing to cooperate with the hotel men
and others in securing an abatement of
the nuisance.
A little more power is supposed to be
developed when the muffler on a motor
cycle is cut out and the exhaust from
the explosion is discharged directly into
the open air. This is one reason why so
many motorcyclists ride without muf-
fer.
The letter from the Motorcycle club
to The Herald is as follows:
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17.-[Editor
Herald: Noting an article in your
daily paper on the stand taken
by the mayor hotel keepers and gen.
eraI public against the open muffler
nuisance of motorcycles, the Los An
geles Motorcycle club rises to express
its sentiments against this nerve
shocking annoyance.
For months and months we have
been making direct crusade against
the open muffler business, and all
members of the club are forbidden to
open their mufflers within any city
or town limits. We wish it to be
generally known that those riders of
motorcycles making this "popgun'
noise which causes so many COM
plants are not members of the Los
Angeles Motorcycle club. We further
wish to enlighten the public on the
mechanical construction of the muf-
fer Each and every standard stock
machine is equipped with cutout,
which is the deadly weapon used to
make a good invention unpopular
with the general public. The general
impression that the machines have no
muffler or cannot run silent" is
wrong and it only needs an ordinance
rigidly enforced to prove this fact.
If we are informed right, sometime
ago there was an ordinance passed
prohibiting this practice, and nothing
would please the club more than to
see this enforced Yours truly
L. A. MOTORCYCLE CLUB,
Per S. l.. Lyon.