As one of the die-hard ear-plug people I have to say that the sound of an engine is one of the key things that sells me a bike. The ear plugs are there for wind noise alone and let me hear the engine better - believe it or not.....JackoftheGreen wrote:The lack of any exhaust note is an interesting viewpoint. I'm a 'loud pipe' guy myself.
Somewhere here on TMW is a long-standing thread about folk who ride with earplugs in, I remember reading through it with interest a few months ago. I may even have commented. So perhaps the earplug people would welcome a dead-silent ride beneath them, then, it's just wind noise to compete with.
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This said I recently went to a high-performance indoor electric go-cart track and similar to my outlook on electric bikes, I was expecting to be disappointed. But the electric carts had awesome performance and the sound from the electric engine was somewhat reminiscent of the sound of a formula 1 car at a distance. This makes me want to try one all the more, and I appreciate that there are companies out there like Zero who continue to move electric bikes closer to the mark. It can't be too much longer until they are a true viable alternative to a regular bike. For that reason - awesome.