Why silencers are generally  placed on right side?

You might have wondered why does almost every motorcycle have its exhaust placed on the right, and not the left? It is not a design constraint as such and you can have the silencer on the left as well. But there could be many reasons otherwise.We will discuss these reasons in this article.


Manufacturers have just stuck to the design that was implemented on the very first internal combustion-powered, single-cylinder motorcycles.The first motorbike without pedal was having exhaust on the right side. Since then manufacturers decided to mount the exhaust on the right side of the motorcycle.
Apart from this other reasons that are important to consider are as follows:


1. The exhaust fumes would be a little farther from the pedestrian walking sidewalks on the left.

2. Lot of women and old people sit sideways and it is much more safer to disembark them to the left. Silencer to the right helps with that.

3. Usually, there's a chain sprocket on the left side and having the silencer on the right balances the mass to some extent.

4.The way we learn to ride a bike, usually the left foot comes off the foot rest first when we are braking to a stop. Having the silencer to the right minimizes the risk of the foot coming in the proximity to the hot exhaust pipes.

But,it need not to be necessarily on right . Sports bikes have both sides , some have under the seat. But in general the exhaust is placed on the right side for above reasons.