California to introduce bike smog checks?

[Bob]

All motorcycles of 280cc or larger, manufactured in 2000 or later will be subject to biennial smog checks if legislature currently being considered by the California State government is approved.

The legislature – which would effectively target illegally modified exhaust systems (eg. y removing the catalytic converter or using straight-through pipes – would come into force in 2012 if approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a motorcyclist himself.

According to the California Air Resources Board, bikes account for 3.6% of vehicles registered in California, but account for 10% of smog-forming emissions. The ARB estimates that 5.2 tons of pollutants would be prevented from entering the atmosphere daily if motorcycle smog checks become law.

[NordieBoy]

Wonder how many of those bikes are ridden daily or if the figures are based on all the bikes being on the road all day.

[Motu]

But surely they will have Freedom of Choice?

[alanzs]

Cars have had to have smog checks in Cali for many years. You only need it checked every two years. There is no other type of inspection required. No WOF. But, if you get pulled over and something isn't up to code, you get ticketed.

[The Stranger:Me]

According to the California Air Resources Board, bikes account for 3.6% of vehicles registered in California, but account for 10% of smog-forming emissions.

Hmm, it would be realllly interesting to see the data from which that 10% figure is drawn.
Sounds suspiciously like the data used to arrive at our passive smoking related deaths figures i.e. absolute fooken bullshit.

[vifferman]

But surely they will have Freedom of Choice?

DEVO?

[vifferman]

Cars have had to have smog checks in Cali for many years. You only need it checked every two years.

I really liked that in CA. In the two visits I've had there, I saw only a couple of smoky vehicles. It's a far cry from the hoards of smoke-belching shitheaps we allow on our roads, even though smoke emission (as a subjective test) is supposedly part of the WOF test. It REALLY pisses me off when I see how grimy communtering makes my gear. Wonders how black my lungs are getting...
Really can't understand how cyclists can ride around in it, sucking that crap deeply into their lungs. Mebbe they're all closet hobbits....

[Motu]

the hoards of smoke-belching shitheaps we allow on our roads, even though smoke emission (as a subjective test) is supposedly part of the WOF test.

We must live in different worlds,I have never seen hoards of smoke belching shitheaps....and I used to commute 1,000km a week.Diesels and 2 strokes will produce some smoke under certain conditions from design.I do WoF tests for a living,and in all the time we have had the smoke test as part of the WoF,I have only failed one car for excess smoke.

Smoke and emissions are totally different products,although smoke will show as HC.If we did bring in the tests (been tried,too hard) 90% of vehicles on the road would fail,motorcycles would have a 99% failure rate....this is just on carburetor design.

We have enough complaints with the WoF test as it is,the noise test has shown how ignorant the public is about noise - an emission test would be totally out of their comprehension.

[DarkLord]

Pft.

Why they would bother with bikes is beyond me.

They should be focusing on the smog and ridiculous fuel consumption of all of those huge, ugly utes and SUV's. L.A. especially is crawling with them.

[Bob]

The bill that would have required motorcycles to have smog checks has been watered down. Senator Fran Pavley agreed to drop the smog test provision.

Pavley originally stated that bikes “are more polluting than cars and that owners often make them worse by removing the catalytic converters”. Opponents pointed out that bikes get more miles to the gallon, and a smog check would be the equivalent of a stealth tax.

The bill now has to be approved by the State Assembly and would then be put in front of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[Gremlin]

They never met my KTM... worst consumption has been 8L/100km

Hopefully after the recent dyno and tune I can start beating medium sized cars... hell, people have said V8's can do better