OK boyz and girlz, over the winter both the District webpage and our webpage have made various comments, statements and warnings regarding mufflers, sound testing and in general, NOISE! We're 2 weeks away from the 2006 season starting and it's time to get clear on how the LMC is going to deal with this. The AMA and District 36 have made it clear that competition sound testing is going to take place in 2006. Enduro and cross country bikes have to meet a 96dba limit (remember that every db is a doubling of the db level just below- 97 is twice as loud as 96, etc.) Non-vintage dirt track bikes get to make 99dba, the District is enforcing a 101dba limit on Vint bikes this year. That means a TT500 dirt tracker gets to be 4 times louder than a CRF450 enduro bike, a 600 Rotax gets to be twice as loud. We can easily meet these standards. The LMC has decided that we do not want any of our riders summarily kicked out just because they failed the first sound test of the year. On the other hand, an old rattly Jemco that hasn't been packed since Dan welded it together 10 years ago in Texas isn't exactly reasonable either. What we will be doing is testing every bike and recording what we find. Bikes that meet either the 99 or 101 limits, whichever applies, won't be retested unless one of us notices a real increase in that bike's sound level. Bikes that don't pass will be allowed to race the first time they are tested unless they are just way over the limit but those bikes will be retested every successive race. If your bike is over the limit on it's first test and you come back the second time with no changes and the same db reading, we'll give you a major ration of grief but we'll probably let you ride that second race. If your bike is better the second time but still isn't completely within the numbers, we're going to thank you for working with us, we're going to be happy to let you ride, but you'll be retested again the third race. As long as you're trying and your bike is getting quieter LMC will not kick you out of our events. If you just don't try and your bike is too loud, you're just cutting your own throat. Work with us- we're racers too, we love the sound of CRF450s, Rotaxes and big vintage twins at speed and if there were no AMA/District issues and if the world was full of nothing but bike nuts we'd be happy to run unmuffled engines- those 5-cylinder Honda GP guys are lucky ducks, getting to run open megaphones. We can't do that and the outlaw tracks that let you get away with huge sound levels are only screwing the future of our sport. See you at the track!