[wrogers55]

I have been stopped only once and the officer was OK. Young guy who said he was under orders to stop all Harley's and any other "open exhaust" vehicles on the road.

His test was simple, a thin night stick looking thing that he stuck in the end of the side pipe. He was looking for a "baffle" and mine has one. That's all he needed to move me on my way with no action. Actually, he apologized for the inconvenience and logged me down as a stop and in compliance (of what, who knows since sound was not the issue in the first place).

I asked him how his Harley stops were going and he said not to well. Seems most are open aftermarket (mine also) and there is no baffle to hit. Fix-it tickets were being issued on that basis and the guys were throwing a fit.

Interesting, I also asked him about the 18 wheelers and he said they were off limits for this exercise. So now we have seemingly privileged classes of vehicles for sound or baffle purposes.

All took place in the San Martin/Gilroy, CA area during a training program out of the local HP facility for new officers, along Highway 101. I did read later the program was short lived and had been stopped. Can't quite remember why, but whatever was published probably wasn't the real reason anyway.