Apparently none of you have ever experienced loud bikes interrupting your lives. Down the street from my old apartment was a bar with a pretty good sized bike night. All night, there were loud bikes coming and going to the bar. With my windows closed and the air on, there were times I couldn't hear my own television because of the loud pipes. My apartment didn't face the street and it was set back about 100 ft from the road. The real fun started at 2:00 am when the bar closed. All the drunk asses would line their bikes up and try to drag race past my place. Everyone in the neighborhood was pissed. Only a few of us owned bikes, but we all had to suffer from the noise. Our lives were disrupted on a weekly basis. The highway patrol made quite a bit of money busting them, but they couldn't even make a dent in the noise problem.
As far as our sportbikes being quiet, BULLSHIT!!!!! Although the Harleys make noise, it doesn't carry as far as sportbike blasting down the interstate just below the rev limiter. About two miles from my house is an interstate. On any given night, I can open my window and hear the sportbikes blasting down the road, and you know what, I can never hear Harleys or v-twins going down the interstate.
While I am on a roll, the worst sounding bikes on the road are the jap v-twin harley wannabies. The motors will never sound like a Milwaukee bike. They sound like shit, then putting on a set of 2" diameter pipes with no baffles spreads the noise so everyone can hate it.
As far as loud pipes saving lives.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! What a crock of shit. It is sort of like saying wearing a helmet is dangerous. Loud pipes are not going to get someone's attention and prevent them from turning left in front of you or pulling out in front of you. The only thing loud pipes do is to help identify the ASSHOLES!