Looking for proof that America’s love/hate relationship with the motorcycle is as strong as ever? Here’s the latest example:

Within days of the opening of "The Art of the Motorcycle" exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago, several of the Windy City’s aldermen vowed to pass legislation to prohibit the use of motorcycles on Lake Shore Drive-the very road that leads to the museum-between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Why? Listen up: excessive motorcycle noise.

Over the past 20 years, the AMA’s Government Relations Department has been forced to spend a share of your membership dollars each year fighting highway closures, curfews and bike bans resulting from citizens’ complaints about noisy motorcycles. Those pro-posing such restrictions focus on the noise and nuisance issues, while we have countered by defending your rights, as taxed and licensed operators, to lawfully use the nation’s streets and highways.

Of course, some motorcyclists maintain that, by calling attention to their vehicles within the traffic mix, "Loud pipes save lives." But when these bans come up, those who don’t make too much noise feel they are being victimized by those who do.

Typical of these disparate views are the quotes in an article from the Chicago Sun-Times about the proposed ban. Jon Szostak, who lives along Lake Shore Drive, told the paper: "It’s the most heinous racket you can imagine when a band of these goofs goes flying by. It sounds like a small battlefield in motion. It wakes up the entire neighborhood."

Meanwhile, Joe Collins, who rides his motorcycle on the road most weekends, believes the city has no right to punish him for the actions of others. "Not all people who drive down Lake Shore Drive are criminals and thugs," he said. "I’m a professional."

The excessive noise issue has been with us from the get-go. Newsletters published by the Federation of American Motorcyclists, the earliest predecessor of the AMA, admonished riders not to incur society’s wrath by using "cut-outs," a popular device of the era that bypassed the muffler.

The AMA’s Muffler Mike campaign, launched in the 1940s, urged riders to take a pledge for quiet riding, and even encouraged vigilante action to curb excessive motorcycle noise.

In the 1960s, the AMA and the Motorcycle Industry Council teamed up to promote the message, "Less Sound Equals More Ground" among off-highway riders. Earlier this decade, Dirt Rider magazine renewed the call for responsible off-highway riding by creating Team Stealth.

Two years ago, the AMA reasserted its position against excessive motorcycle noise, encouraging everyone with a stake in the motorcycling community - from riders to dealers to aftermarket companies to manufacturers-to adopt a responsible approach to this divisive issue.

Coincidentally, just two weeks before the Lake Shore Drive controversy made headlines, the AMA Board of Trustees expanded the Association’s current campaign against excessive motorcycle noise by adopting the slogan, "Loud Pipes Risk Rights."

That message will be distributed in public-service advertisements throughout the American motorcycling media. And it could hardly be more timely, with one of our nation’s largest cities considering a motorcycle ban on a major thoroughfare.

Unfortunately, slogans can only go so far, and the fact that we’ve been at this since the 1920s without solving the problem is proof-positive of that. In my mind, excessive motorcycle noise will end in one of two ways: Either the federal government will come down on us with the kind of onerous anti-tampering laws that are currently being proposed in Europe, or our industry will become more responsible and take real steps to solve the problem through self-regulation.

I think the second approach is preferable for all of us, but we’ve got a long way to go. When motorcycle manufacturers work hand-in-glove with aftermarket companies to create illegally loud exhaust systems, this is not responsible. When manufacturers sell illegal systems for 700-pound touring bikes and claim they are designed for "closed-course competition" or "off-road" use only, they seriously endanger their own credibility. When dealers sell and install exhaust systems that they know are illegally loud, it affects everyone who rides.

Until these practices are stopped, voluntarily or forcefully, the issue of excessive motorcycle noise will continue to unite officials at every level of government against motorcycles. And the AMA will keep spending buckets of our dues money to keep trails and highways open for riders who may or may not have loud pipes, and who may or may not be members of the AMA.