Emissions standards for motorcycles took effect in 2006 under rules adopted by t
ID: 1177688 • Letter: E
Question
Emissions standards for motorcycles took effect in 2006 under rules adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency. There were no previous emissions controls for motorcycles at all, but even under the new law, %u201Cdirt%u201D bikes for off-road use will be exempt. The new standards add about $75 to the average cost of a motorcycle according to the EPA, but $250 according to the Motorcycle Industry Council. Why do you think motorcycle makers did not adopt voluntary emissions standards? Should they have done so? Why or why not?Explanation / Answer
reasons
1.The scooters are a small niche market and attempting to introduce advanced emissions control technology on them will almost certainly assure their demise. Requiring the addition of complex exhaust emission control equipment, especially catalytic converters ignores the weight increase
and placement issue faced by this class of vehicle.
2.the EPA was banning all two strokes. This is repeated often as one of the cornerstone reasons by proponents on either side of the debate.
3.On the official EPA website the legislation called the Clean Air Act can be found. This is the law that governs recreational vehicle emissions
-NO manufacturers should have done so.
-what they could have done :
Use of catalysts
They could have looked into developing cleaner two stroke technology. Is this even possible?
I suppose it depends on who you ask. But in doing a little research you will find that there are quite a few different ideas that have been developed to clean up the emissions.
Examples :
In Europe the Aprilla company has developed a system called DiTech, a Direct Injection Technology for two stroke engines. This was developed for their scooter line when the four stroke engines did not live up to performance nor emissions standards. Here again the performance and emissions of the direct injection two stroke out performed the four stroke.
While these projects were not developed for motocross, you can see that the technology exists to build clean two strokes. The technology just needs to be applied.
The EPA is not the bad guy that they have been portrayed to be. There is not one reference in any of the EPA Clean Air Act that says anything about banning two strokes! At one point they did not believe that the two stroke could ever meet or exceed their standards.
It has been proven that it is possible.
What we need now is a motorcycle manufacturer to step up and build a clean two stroke.
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