I know I'm going to some flack for what I'm about to write from someone I know... but fortunately, I don't know anyone who could be called a 'Ricer'. You know who they are, we've all seen them even if you're not familiar with the term.
My rant today is about how one thing is allowed when another is not. Example: Harley-Davidsons... I can't stand them, everything about them is wrong and a cliché and just plain tacky. But my main complaint is this: why the hell are they allowed to 'rumble' past, making so damn much noise, screaming "look at me"??? Let me make a point about this: Harleys (as I understand it), are NOT built this bloody noisy. They are in fact, built with an ordinary motorcycle exhaust, which is made to be very easily and quickly removed by the dealer or the owner, hence their horrendous, if not a trademark, noise.
However, if you had a car that sounded like it no longer had an exhaust, you'd be pulled over the moment a cop or that retired old goat down the road who is always looking out his living room window to see what his neighbors are up to, calls it in. Mufflers are not only a tool in keeping the noise down, but they're the law!! And yet these damn motorcycles are doing it all the damn time. And almost always is it a Harley.
Why does the law 'look the other way'?
And what about "Ricers"? You've seen them, they come in many forms. 99% of them are Japanese cars. Almost all of them are an automotive abomination! $5000 car with $100,000 of body kit. And it's never really functional or useful 'attire'. usually, it's a fiberglass picnic table attached to the rear-hatch of a Honda Civic. And sometimes, horror of horrors, it's 'McDonald-super sized tires on a 3-series BMW lowered to the point that they are 'sculpting' the chassis' shape into the pavement.
Some of the many forms vary geographically. In Quebec, the car is either jacked so far up in the rear, the driver is practically laying down towards the back seat to get a useful sight line. Or it's a $500 car with a $5000 sound system. In Ontario, it seems it's the "coffee-can exhausts". Those gigantic exhaust ports that make the car sound like it should be a joist at Canadian Tire. In California, it's the wings and the neons under the car. In British Columbia, it's the small pickups lowered to within an inch of the road, which to me, seems contrary to the very reason that the truck exists!!
As you can in the pics above, they can be gawdy, tacky, and just plain offensive to see. So why then does the law ignore these things but were I to trundle down the road with no muffler on my V8, you can be damn sure the cops would be on me within minutes?
We all secretly squint and turn our heads when a chorus of Harleys go by. We all sit quietly at the red light and wonder how the hell can the driver of that used-to-be-a-Civic in front of you, see over the dash of his car when he's practically lying down and the tunes, (which are always gawd-awful and incomprehensible), are just trying to escape through the windows and strangle you.
I hate them, I laugh at them and I sit back and just wonder. And let's face it: They ARE ugly, noisy and just shouldn't be allowed. That's my opinion, yes, but it's my blog!
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