ORBA Convenes 'Turn Down the Volume' Summit With Malcolm Smith & Jeremy McGrath

ORBA staff members team up with OHV and industry organizations for highly successful summit with aftermarket exhaust manufacturers plus OHV enthusiast and trade press to explore ways to work together to reduce excessive OHV sound and its affects on the OHV community.

The Off-Road Business Association (ORBA) sponsored this groundbreaking event, which included speakers from California State Parks OHMVR Division, the Motorcycle Industry Council, the American Motorcyclist Association, the BlueRibbon Coalition, the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council, Dirt Rider Magazine, FMF Racing, and Chemhelp. Malcolm Smith opened the meeting with his personal experiences and views on excessive sound, including his recommendation that all motorcycles and ATVs should have a 93 dba maximum limit at the pipe. Jeremy McGrath later spoke about his personal experiences with proposed loss of use of his private property in Riverside County because of excessive sound. Jeremy spoke about the importance of riding quiet bikes and announced that he has agreed to be a spokesman for quiet bikes and a "Quiet is Cool" campaign.

ORBA organized this effort to try to stem the avalanche of closures and restrictions on OHV use that is sweeping the nation, affecting private and public land including both recreational riding and competition events and to build upon the momentum of other efforts such as the AMA's "Sound Advice" publication. Bill Dart, ORBA's Director of Land Use, believes that the problem can be reduced significantly through Education, Engineering and Enforcement. The enthusiast and trade press can do a better job educating the public and the industry about how much we are losing as a result of excessive sound. They can also educate the public that more sound doesn't always mean more power and that "Quiet is Cool".

As for engineering, the industry needs to accelerate the development of quieter high performance exhaust systems like some are already making and focus more marketing efforts on those products. On the enforcement side, more efforts are needed to enforce rules for competitive events as well as existing sound regulations and ordinances for recreational riding.

ORBA Director of Land Use Bill Dart stated: "We all need to work together and address excessive sound in a pro-active manner and take charge of our future. Excessive sound is a universal problem all across the nation and it is the one issue that is turning the general public against all of us. We must deal with the problem ourselves or others will do it for us in ways none of us will like."

The "Turn Down the Volume" summit was held at Pole Position Raceway in Corona, California, a new state-of-the-art indoor karting facility, owned in part by Jeremy McGrath and Ken Faught.

ORBA is a national trade association comprised of off-road related businesses united to promote common goals that support the prosperity and growth of the off-road industry.