Great sounding bikes

ST Gui said:
Somewhere on this site I posted a link to a story about Soichiro Honda wanting an exhaust system for the CBX that sounded like an F-4 (Phantom II).

Honda engineers recorded F-4s and legend has it actually produced the desired pipes. But somebody decided it was just too loud for a street bike. Damn shame.
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Here's the article about how Honda built the exhaust that sounded like a Phantom Jet. Search for the word "Phantom" and see the reference is halfway down just below a diagram of the CBX engine. The head engineer vetoed the project saying, "You've gone too far. The feeling of that noise is just too much. We cannot build motorcycles that sound like jet fighters." Honda CBX 1000 (motorcyclespecs.co.za)
 
I should add an outlier to the great-sounding bikes list with a cross-plane in-line 4, specifically my Yamaha MT-10. The crank gives the firing order of a 180 degree V4 like a VFR800, but subtly different at the same time. These bikes have a reputation as heavy drinkers, that's because they sound so good when you give them some beans. One of these clips was recorded during the dyno-ing process.

 
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TerryS said:
I should add an outlier to the great-sounding bikes list with a cross-plane in-line 4, specifically my Yamaha MT-10. The crank gives the firing order of a 180 degree V4 like a VFR800, but subtly different at the same time. These bikes have a reputation as heavy drinkers, that's because they sound so good when you give them some beans. One of these clips was recorded during the dyno-ing process.

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I'd like to see an EKG of my brain when I hear those crossplane sounds. It's got to be lighting up like a Christmas tree. PS A surprise nomination is a stock Harley I heard idling out of a parking lot last summer. The aftermarket exhausts on them are typically horrible but the stock sound on this one was low and amazingly smooth with little or no mechanical sounds. Some good machining there. Too bad it's such old tech and not long for the world.
 
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