Tyre Cavity Noise: Mercedes C200 v Nissan Qashqai

[st13phil]

Ford coined 'NVH' many years ago and it is made up of 3 distinct elements Noise, harshness and vibration....but they all come together to create the environment we either love or hate.

Isn't that the truth! What amazes me is that with all the knowledge that now exists in the automotive industry regarding NVH, occasionally they still get it badly wrong.

A good example is the Honda ST1300 motorcycle. This was the successor to the ST1100 Pan-European and is aimed at those who want to tour in a reasonable degree of comfort, without the bulk of something like the Wing-a-bago. The ST1100 was Honda's first foray into to that market and became very successful. I owned two of them and covered best part of 80k miles on them all over Europe. When the successor ST1300 was announced one of the features that caused a lot of interest amongst ST1100 owners was that the new engine incorporated balancer shafts. "Great," thought most ST1100 owners, because the one consistent criticism of that bike was engine buzziness at higher cruising speeds that made long high-speed stints more tiring than they could have been.

Once people (including me) started taking delivery of the new ST1300's there was universal dismay because instead of the turbine-smooth engine we all expected (like in the Blackbird), the ST1300's motor was much harsher at the top end of the rev-range than its predecessor. How could this be? There was much chatter on t'interweb about this, with many new owners convinced there was a fault with their new bike. But there wasn't, as a conversation I had in 2003 with the Honda Japan project lead for the ST1300's drivetrain revealed. When I questioned him about it he said that "we consciously added vibration to the engine to make the riding more exciting". If he had a sword with him, I'm sure he would have fallen on it when I and other owners told him in no uncertain terms that we were of a united view that by that decision Honda had made the bike much less pleasant, and much more tiring to ride for hour on end at autobahn speed and that it was viewed as a major fault.

 

[Mactech]

Isn't that the truth! What amazes me is that with all the knowledge that now exists in the automotive industry regarding NVH, occasionally they still get it badly wrong.

A good example is the Honda ST1300 motorcycle. This was the successor to the ST1100 Pan-European and is aimed at those who want to tour in a reasonable degree of comfort, without the bulk of something like the Wing-a-bago. The ST1100 was Honda's first foray into to that market and became very successful. I owned two of them and covered best part of 80k miles on them all over Europe. When the successor ST1300 was announced one of the features that caused a lot of interest amongst ST1100 owners was that the new engine incorporated balancer shafts. "Great," thought most ST1100 owners, because the one consistent criticism of that bike was engine buzziness at higher cruising speeds that made long high-speed stints more tiring than they could have been.

Once people (including me) started taking delivery of the new ST1300's there was universal dismay because instead of the turbine-smooth engine we all expected (like in the Blackbird), the ST1300's motor was much harsher at the top end of the rev-range than its predecessor. How could this be? There was much chatter on t'interweb about this, with many new owners convinced there was a fault with their new bike. But there wasn't, as a conversation I had in 2003 with the Honda Japan project lead for the ST1300's drivetrain revealed. When I questioned him about it he said that "we consciously added vibration to the engine to make the riding more exciting". If he had a sword with him, I'm sure he would have fallen on it when I and other owners told him in no uncertain terms that we were of a united view that by that decision Honda had made the bike much less pleasant, and much more tiring to ride for hour on end at autobahn speed and that it was viewed as a major fault.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean!
The V4 VFR1200 has a similar issue, but there seems to be very little interweb chatter about it.
Much is written about the reduced power in lower gears (which has never been an issue with me as I don't intend the Flat Track the bike), the driveshaft backlash (again, a complete non-issue with me) and the 'marmite' DGT gearbox (I'm in the 'love it' camp)
However I'm now on my 3rd set of handle bars to try to rid the bike of a high frequency 'fizz' through the bars at motorway cruising speeds.
Retaining the standard handle bar weights on the slightly raised 'Helibars' retained the fizz.
So I'm now on superbike flat bars by LSL with lighter bar end weights and things are improved.
Slight buffeting from the raised Givi screen was cured completely by the fitment of a redundant Shoei visor on the outside top of the screen at zero cost using the laminar flow principle

 

[ashenfie]

Maybe the OP is an LFN sufferer in that they have issues with Low frequency noise

In studies where the hearing thresholds of LFN sufferers was measured it has been found that their hearing thresholds vary much like any other group of individuals with the same age and sex profile. So on average, LFN sufferers cannot be said to have particularly sensitive hearing in the low frequency range, just that it's an issue for them.

 

[horatio]

If this sort of thing bothers you go for Dunlop Blu-response. They are amazingly quiet.