Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

POLLUTION CONTROLS FOR '78 i A suspended death sentence for the 2-stroke figures h ad no t been in te n de d to establish the sort of baseline d a ta fo r wh ich the board was usin g the figures ; fur the r t hat AESi had co nd uc ted i ts testing on available u sed m ach in es incl ud ing one desert racer. (AESi' s figu res, along wi th all th e other em issions test res ults tha t C.A. R. B. used in figu ring its bas el in e e missions, ap peared in a ta b le in Cy cle News' earlier a rticle ). How d id th e bo ard use these figures? First they pl otted each test in th e tabl e, cc disp lacement versus gram s/kilo m e te rs o f HC. Then, usin g a stat istical c u rve-fi t t ing technique , they calcu late d a pair of eq ua tio ns (rep re sen te d b y lin es "A" an d " B" in Fig. I ) th at give a " best es ti mate" of expecte d pollution dis ch arg e for an y size en gine . one function fo r fo u r stro kes , a different one fo r two st rokes, b u t in ei the r case , base d solely on en gine siz e , . Given this calculated "base lin e ", kn owing th e n u m be r o f machines registe re d in the SoCal Air Basin by engine size, and es ti m a ting that eac h m o torcycle travels 8 kilo mete rs /day average (base d on a Gal lu p poll survey of odome te r rea dings) , the board's staff figured m o t o rcy cles emit 17 ton s/day of HC in the air basin . It took a Cycle News staffer If California sets emission standards, can the Feels be far behind-or, the games bureaucrats play By Lane Camp bell SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. , J UL Y 15 At a single, ligh tly-att en ded public hearin g held in a board room borrowed fro m the Unified School District, the Californ ia Air Resou rces Board (Mary Nichols, Tom Quin n, George Tayl o r, Dr. Robe rt F. Sawyer, all poli tical appoi n tees) adop ted a three-step emISSIOns con tro l st rategy for motorcycles th at will begin with a 10 gram per kilo me ter (g m / k m ) limit on hydrocarbons (HC) pl aced on al l m o t orcycles manu factured for ro ad u se after J an . I, 197 8 . This blanket standard, to cover all motorcycles regardl ess of engine size or type, will decre ase to 5 gm/km by Jan. I , 19 80 an d to 1.0 gm /km by J an . I , 19 8 2. Manufacture rs o f fou r st roke m odels will not be required to ce rt ify c om p liance to th e 19 7 8 sta ndard. Off-road bikes are no t affecte d . The m easure which the board adopted l e ft open t o l a t e r a me n d men t the actual te sti ng procedure th at will be used to ce rtify co m p lian ce with t he new stan da rds . The board le ft the session with th e vagu e u n d erstan din g th at if the F e de ral EPA adopted emi ssio n co ntro ls for m o torcy cles, the board m i ght t hen c o n s i de r d rawing California's standards into line with EPA's. In dustry spo kes men from Ho nd a, K a w a s a ki , Su zuki, Y am a h a , H a r l e y - D a v i d s o n and No rton-Tri u mph tes tified before t he hearing, addressing . m o st of th eir res p on ses to a proposed 1.0 gm / km stan dard given in th e board m em o wh ich had announced th e h earing. Only when they were given the agenda fo r the July 15 hearing were th e y aware that several other propo sals were u p for co nside ration , in ad d itio n to the 1.0 gm / km limit an d th e sliding-scale EPA stan dard (see CN, No . 27 C.A:R. B. emiss ions re port). Onl y Yamaha was prepared to co m rnen t di re ctly on the: ether al te rna tives , a nd on ly Suzu ki (whi ch h as th e m ost t o los e at th is p oin t ) gave hard figures o n the cap abili tes o f proto type lo w-em ission e ngi nes. Indust ry testim ony b ro ught out the foll o wing p oin ts : - That o n ly Hond a and possibly BMW co u ld co m ply wit h a 1.0 gm /km standard by 1978 without add-on acc esso ry device s. - That if forced to co m p ly wit h a I. 0 gm /km standard b y 1978 , K a w a saki, Suzu ki , and p oss ibly Yamaha, wo u ld have to leave th e California m arket en tir ely. - That du e to a co m binat ion of models barred from the market and buyer resistance to h igh er prices, the industry as a whole co uld lo se as much as 60% o f its sales, $258.6 million in revenues would be lo st to th e Cali fornia ec o n omy, an d $ 12.2 million in taxes would be lo st to the state. - That given su ch losses, 1900 peop l e wou ld lose their m oto rcy cle-rel at e d jobs, ad ding fo ur to six m illion dollars cost to the st ate in unemploymen t co m pe n satio n . T hat e m i s sio n-c o n t r o l techn ol ogy de rived fro m au t om o b iles w ill n ot tr a nsfe r d irec tly t o m otorcy cl e s. Th at th e in d ustry favors standards th at can be m et withou t re s ortin g t o a d d -o n accessory equip m ent. An y m odels which canno t c o m p ly w ith fairly strai gh t-forward eng ine modificat io ns will li kely be dro pped. - In dustry sp okesmen generally endo rsed th e reco m m e nd a tio n of C . A. R. B. "s 0 wn st aff th at California adopt EPA 's proposed slidi ng -sca le standard of 5 t o 14 gm /k m de pen di ng o n en gin e size . Bru ce Youn g, of Al\IA's District 36, R o n R ol off o f l\lodified Motorcycle Asso c. , and Cy cles News' edi tor testified as to ride r c o nce rns. Yo un g and Roloff both noted th ere arc valid reasons for so m any ride rs t o ch oose t o r id e tw o ' s t r o ke m otorcy cles, and p leaded wi th th e board t o preserve some measu re of tha t freedo m of ch o ice. The board members, th ro ugh th ei r ea rly ques tioni ng of witnesses an d c o m m e n t s , a p p ea red ready to sacrifice th e tw o stro ke e ng ine in one stroke. 11, e board's sta nce o n th e two stroke softened so mewhat af te r hearing ride r inpu t and in du stry testimo n y as to the extent of econo mi c d islocat ion a sudden two s tro ke ban co uld ca use. T o wards th e end, Dr. Sawyer sta te d fo r the board , U\ V don ' t want dual ce r t ific a tio n e (one fo r Cal iforn ia, one Federal); a nd we don' t want to drive the two stroke m an u factu re rs o ut o f business." The stan da rd th e board adop ted, as p r op o sed by Dr , Sawy e r, was intended to give tw o stro ke m ak er s tim e to con ve rt to fo ur stro kes or clean u p the two stro kes. The bo ard de cided to leav e the ce rt ific atio n process up for furth er stu dy afte r H a r le y -D a v i dso n's spo kes ma n t estified th at m o st m otorcy cle s requi re a m aj o r o verhaul in 15, 0 0 0 m iles or less. The o rigin al proposal had called for certification 6 f emission controls up to 30,000 kilo meters (just over 18 ,0 0 0 mil es). Th e Harl ey test im ony, co mbine d with testim o n y by Norton-Triumph a n d Kawasaki as to th e d ete rioration o f e mission con tro ls with in creasin g m ileage, led th e board to realize th at its own un derstan d in g of the proble m was inco mp le te . Board Chai rman T om Quinn wa s a t one point ready t o propose a two month st ay in th e he aring, in order to r e s e arc h t he problems further. Ho wever, Bo ar d m embe rs Nic hols and Sawy er co ntin ue d to p res s fo r some im me d ia te action . Technical analysis Ch airman Quinn h ad reason to wis h th e C.A. R.B. staff had more time to go over its homework befo re vo ti n g o u t a stand ard . A representative from AESi (o ne of the private labs that furnish da ta to go vernment agen cies ) h ad earlier told the board that AESi 's emission test E! t th ro ugh 19 8 5, in areas that already h a ve an a u t o m o t ive p ollu tion p roblem . This m em o was ap p aren tly generated with resp ect to ba c kin g off on p o llu t ion co n tr o ls in favor o f increasing fuel economy . What t his m ean s in po liti cal terms is that e mphasis at th e federal level is sh iftin g from pollutio n co n tr oIs to energy con se rvatio n whil e California 's state board is still pressing fo r tigh te r con tro ls on everything with ou t regard to energy costs. If C.A .R.B. goes by its own p rop o sed regul a tion, the ca t aly tic co nve rtor can be j us t a bou t written o ff fo r m o t orcycles. One rul e requires that n o dev ice ins talled to con tr o l HC e m it any new substance in to the air that would not have been produced witho ut t he d evi ce. Another requ ires th at n o device c reate a safety or fire h aza rd. Co ns ide ring wh at 's go ing d o wn in th e dail y p re ss th ese da ys, th e cata ly st lo ses o n both co un ts . Other con tro l strate gies - Ho nda has tested a CVCC (str atified ch ar ge) engine in a m otorcy cle , b u t is lo o k in g at " o the r technol o gy " . Su zuki has exp eri mented with mod ifie d jetting, less radical ex ha us t port tim ing, "optimum" ignition timin g, an d " u tili zin g th e pulses in the exhaus t". Su zuki's st ra tegies (Yam ah a 's are - Fig. I Calcul ated emissions vs. engine size C ~ 16 EPA (pr op .] 0 c 14 0 ~-------- .;;; 0 'E 12 -: w o J: 10 -: CARB 1978 st d. 8 6 4 2 200 600 400 800 Engine displacement (eel abou t three h ours to re p roduce th e bo ard 's res ults , given the sa me data. It took an o ther hour ' to recalculate th e baseline fo r tw o strokes af te r th rowin g out AE Si's da ta (line "C", Fig. I ). It tu rns o ut th at AESi's de sert racer an d o th e r tests ca u sed the C.A.R. B. staff to o ve rsta te the motorcycle 's con t rib u ti o n to SoCal air pollu ti on by almost 2 070What ov ers hado ws all th is backing an d filling with figures is a m emo f r om t he Pr e s id en t ' s E nergy Resource s Council which was quo ted in testi mon y before C.A. R.B. T hat group had conclu d ed t hat t ighte r or looser standards on HC , CO , or NOx would m ake little . d ifference , now sim ila r) revolve aro u n d the tw o stro ke 's m ajor problem (wh ich is not oil sm o ke, b y the way) . Because of its p ort tim in g a nd o pe ra t i ng charac teristics , th e high -performance two stroke c h u ffs so me 25 % o f its fuel-ai r ch arg e out the exhau st port, unburned. Effo rts t o con trol this lost c ha rge will gen er ally raise fu el ec onomy sligh tly, while m ovin g th e p ower band d o wn on th e RPM scale a nd c u tt i n g p e a k horse p o wer signi ficantl y . Both th e in d us try and C.A.R.B. seem to be moving ' in the same di re c tion t owar d s the con clu sio n (Con tin ued on page. 41) 31

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