Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126049
EPA to weigh future of motorcycli At t he L.A. Con vent ion Center May 27 , Californ ia's Air Resources Board publicly applied for a federal waiver to allow Cali fornia to ado pt hydrocarb on emissions st andards for mo torcycles, beginning January , 197 8. T he standards (wh ich 'CA RB adopte d july 15, 197 5) call fo r a 10 gram /kilo me te r limit begi nning in 19 78, 5.0 g/ k beginning in 1980 and 1.0 gjk in 19 82. ' The mo torcy cle indust ry has con stan tly main tained th at su ch stan dards would be disastrous, in terms o f cos t , performance , and u ltim ately in te rms of m ot orcy cle sa les. Alan Isley (MIC), Brian Gill (Honda), Den nis David (Kawasaki), Robert Ham mo nd (Suzu ki) an d Russ jura (Yam aha) all testified again as to th e industry 's positi on . On ly one person (a Cy cle News edi to r) attempte d to speak on be ha lf of the motorcy cling pu bli c. For CARB 's p art , Dep uty Exe cutive O fficer Tom Austin accused th e motorcy cle industry of exagge ra tin g co st figures an d cla imed th at th e produce "clean techn ology to motorcy cles" wa s a t ha nd . Austin • seem ed insensitive, even under quest ioning, as to wh at the co n tro ls wou ld cost to co nsu mers ultima tely , or wh at it would do to firms prima rily depen dent on two stroke mo torcycles for t heir su rvival. The EPA will leave the he arin g record ope n for pub lic co m me n t until june I I. Th e effects o f emission con tr ol on motorcycles, at either th e state or fed er al level will be sweepin g, co stly , damagin g to some, po ssibly dangerous to r iders. Riders an d dea lers wh o have an inte rest or a position on this issue sho u ld study th e fac ts and wr ite th eir co mmen ts to th e EP:\ at the address sho wn (see ac co mp any in g story) . There is little time left. BLM East Mojave hearin g results On a slightly mo re upbeat note ar e th e res ul ts of fo ur pu blic meetings calle d by BLM to hear citizen in puts fo r EPA vs, CARB vs, Japan~Inc. A gothic horror story By Lane Campbell A handfulof men in business suits are going to decide wh at you and I get to ride, come January 1978 and beyond. I spent Thursday, May 27, watching a few of th em at thei r business, and hoping to in fluenc e their decision in some small way . I wasn't th ere to ask much. Just to convince them not , to murder my sport. T he occasion was a hearing in which the Cali fornia Air Resources Board would request of th e Federal EPA a waive r to allow California to set emission stan dards for motor cycles; an d in wh ich representatives of t he motorcycle industry , plu s yours truly , wo uld try to te ll them why not. 1 was th ere with the prescribed 15 co pies o f m y statement. T he young lady on the phone wh o had confirm ed m y tim e slot had said, "You reall y wouldn't want to show up with any less than 15 copies. .. The way she said it made me realize this must be the social whirl -in Washington - meeting to hearing to meeting', alway s with th e correct number of copies and th e correc t co lor of ne cktie . The Air Resources Board sent in a Deputy Executive Office r , a Mr. Tom, Austin, to speak fo r them . The board itself was meeting d own the h all on other matters - an act wh ich was in it self an off-h anded socio-political gesture. Mr. Austin proceeded to tell us th at motorcycles gave off bad hydrocarbon (He) emissions be cause they ran on such rich fuel -air mixtures; and that the manufacturers used rich mixtures as a " cover -up" for other engine design problems. He went on to state that technology was available td ' build clean motorcycles and maybe even save gas, wi th leaner-burning engines. (When I asked him, in writing, whether the lean-burn strategy would cause significantly more engine failures, he cho se to filibuster the question rather than answer it .] He also said , "We've kicked it around in the office, they (the manufacturers) co uld use direct fuel injection to clean up the two strokes cons iderab ly. " And 1 thought, that's just great. If you guys can kick it around in the ,o ffice , then the technology must-be available. _ Well, t he industry girys ought to be able to put 'em straight . After all, they got all that mone and legal horsepower - a t least that's wh at everybody keeps telling me. If anybody can do it, the industry can, so there 's no need for any of us riders, racers, magazine guys or AMA types to be there, right? Hey - y ou guys must still believe in the tooth fairy. Eye-opener Number One: Everyone from MIC, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki maintains that the industry has been begging the Feds to regulate it since ab out 19 74. Then they ea ch in their own way go on to state why they can't meet this particular standard at this particular time , so won't the Fed. please give them a little more time and maybe relax the standards a bit, but mainly get California off their backs. for now. The presiding dude, Benjamin R. j ackson, a 'man about my age , 30-ish, pleasant-fac ed and athletic looking, flanked by his bright. earnest looking assitants, listens with a semi-bo red , "I've heard all this before" demeanor. And indeed he has heard it all before. T hese gu ys and their EPA colleague s have, for the last ten years, be en facin g off' with the he avies from General Motors. Ford, Chrysler, Exxon . japan, Inc. had sent up again st them a bunch of hired ha nd s, good gu ys, mostly, but unable to say much without getting a decision from a 30 t he East .Mojave Planni ng Un it (a 1,90 0,000 acre are a east of Ba ker, be twee n 1-15 an d 1-40 , marked " Spec ial design " in BLM's interim pla n .) T he atten dees at the four m ee tin gs - Los An geles, Baker, Needl es, Riverside were aske d to iden tify issues and prob lems of impor tan ce to th em . Th e overwhe lm ing m aj or it y in all cases ca lle d fo r an ope n desert , no mo re closures, less restrict io ns , o r so me variation on the same th em e. This came from m ore th an just bikers . Miner s, ro ckhounds, cam pers, jeepers, ranc he rs, and cavers (spe lu n kers) all told the govern ment, in effec t, to sta y o u t o f their lives and leave 'desert use planning to t he p eo ple wh o live on it. Onl y in Los Ange les was there enoug h input asking clos ure or contro l of ORVs to warr an t su mma ry r Th ere, acc o rding to the planners ' "point sy ste m " assigne d to various inp uts, the " Con tro l ORVs" issu e re ceived eigh t points , against 264 for "No ORV closure," 252 fo r " Leave open exist ing ro ads and trails," 101 fo r " Re-o p en Kel so Dunes," and 33 fo r " Allo w for