Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Noise standard overkill and untaxed whiskey I By Lane Cam pbe ll s the government trying to do awa y with loud motorcycles, or is th ere something more sinister on its collective mind ? You sho ul d know where the federal Environmental Protection Agency is com ing from , now that th e proposed EPA noise regs for motorcycles are out in th e op en . ( T able I shows th e numbers and th e time sch edule.) Table 1 For street-legal mtorocycles, and offroad motorcycles 170cc & below: Regulated sound Effective Date (Date-of-manufacture) level (dbAI Jan_1, 1980 Jan. 1, 1982 Jan. 1, 1985 83 80 78 For off-road motorcycles o~er 170cc Jan . 1, 1980 Jan. 1, 19 82 16 86 82 By its own admission . the go ve rnm en t ex pects t he foll o win g things to happen in response to th ese regs: _ a 10% reduction in projected deman d for new motorcycles by the mid-1980s. a loss of 5.000 to 5,000 motorcycle related jobs in the V .S. - the end of the distinctive HarleyDavidson V-twin as Harley enthusiasts have come to know and appreciate it. - as many as four out of five exhaust manufacturers driven out of business, leaving only the biggest corporations to take up the slack. Projecting on what the government implies without saying: - by 1985 , all large street bikes might have to be watercooled, multi-cylinder shaft drive. - by 1982 , all off-road motorcycles except closed -circuit MXers, road racers and .r r/ din trackers would have to be four strokes, and would have to possess bulky , heavy exhaust systems. - all the Italian manufacturers , and possibly H -D, might be forsee to consider withdrawing from the V.S. market by 1980 if the proposed standards go int o effect as planned. - all the European dirt bike builders could be forced to build motocross machinery only, or else drop out of th e V .S . market altogether. What caused all the upheaval ? It all begins with the federal No ise Control Act which (t heo ret ica lly) gi ves the EPA power to regulate any product which the agency has identified as a "major noise source." They did that in 1975 , m eaning we were already being set up . Next , they've got to p rove that what they're doing is in the interest of public health and safety. In 1974 , they developed the number they call Ldn 55 - an " average noise exposure" number that's equivalent to a stea dy day-night " hum" of 55 'db A. Real ize that th e noise level of indoo r conversation is 60 -65 dbA : so if th e subject were exposed to people talking more tha n half th e day. he might j ust be over t he " Ld n55" lim it. Be that as it m ay, th e EPA open s up with the st at em en t ' 90 m ill ion Am ericans are cu rrent ly ex posed to levels of traffi c noise in excess of Ldn 55 ," as if it were som e gr eat ca la mi ty . But is it? Or is it more like sayi ng, " 90 million Am ericans ca tc h co ld each yea r." How about the statemen t "( X ) milli on Ameri cans co nt r ac t lung cancer from ciga rettes." How co me cigarette makers get off with onl y a warning on the package, and motorcycles get stringent no ise sta nd a rds? Someone sho uld ask EPA that , come the day of th e hearing . For now, the EPA says it's going to save at lea st some of those 90 m illion poor sou ls by stifli ng m otorcycles. How g rea t a no ise redu ct ion a re th ey prom ising us? W ell , th ey say tha t in terms of overa ll t raffic n oi se (a ll vehicles) it co uld be as littl e as 2%. Got th at? . T hen they say . " Bu t wa it! If we regu la te b ig t rucks to 75dbA , and a ll noisy old veh icles are re p laced with new quiet ones. why gee. we might see 18 percent . o r eve n 44 pe rcent. . ." Fat cha nc e. Con sidering how peop le a re alread y preserving old ca rs rather than b uy emission co ntrolled ones, a n d co nsid eri ng wha t the t rucke rs have already sa id to th e 55 mph speed lim it , they're talking some pretty big " ifs." Someone ought to ask th e EPA to comment on that , com e the day of th e hearing. . The feds aren't too careful with their use of language either. Some of it may be careless mistakes. Either tha t . or it's enemy action . For instance, they say (with respect to regulat ing off-road bikes) that motorcycle use in wilderness areas is a problem (as if to imply that noise regs will "solve" it) . Hold on there , EPAI " W ild ern ess' has a specific definition in land -use lexicon, and motor vehicle use is forbidden in wilderness no matter how quiet the vehicle. Are you sure you m ea nt to say " wildern ess?" Someone ought to ask them that . In another section, they discuss "modified 'm o to rcycles," as if to single the real culprit in the motorcycle nois e fiasco. OK. we'll all agree there's a problem here - a problem we've all fa iled to solve. We all know at least one dude on an old gnarly Triumph with a pair of Chatanooga rattlers who insists on getting whooping drunk and riding it full chat at 2 a .rn . W e all know several pit -ra cer types who st ill ins ist on blatting about the neighborhoods with a home-made expansion cham be r. Or the kid with the D'Tv series Yamaha who cut off the whole back half of the chamber with a ha cksaw . figuring that'd open 'er up a bit . Hopefully he'll seize the thing. OK, we all know wh o the problem children are, and maybe we should have kicked their tai ls long ago. What is the government going to do ? Well, first the EPA says that nationwide , 15% of all street bikes a re modified , and in California that figure might be as high as 40 % . Then th ey say that they want to cut th e nationwid e figure to about 5% (a quarter of its present level ). even if it means drivin g four out 0'* of every five ex ha ust makers up agai nst th e wall . N ow hol d o n th er e , EPA I In C al iforni a , we 've h ad laws on the books since 1975 regulating both new a nd a fte rmarke t exhausts . Although it 's easy enough for the individual rider to chea t the law . any legitima te business firm selling pipes in this sta te has to m ak e quiet syste ms. And they do, as EPA's own figures show . The aftermarket can build pipes as much as 2 db quieter than a stock Honda for $85 less t ha n a stock replacement system . (See table 2 .) In other words , the builders of " m od ified" exhau sts h a ve made oustanding efforts - and succeeded - in complying with ex isting law. As their reward . they get to face an 80 % chance of be ing pu t out of business . Somebody sh ould rattle the EPA 's cage about that , come the day of the hearing. Then there's that old bromide " bes t availa ble technology." It 's a p hrase th at a p pears in m ost all fe d e r a l em issio n control a nd noise co ntro l laws. Co ngress really fell in love with th at p hrase . It go t coi ne d through m any a politica l campa ign . in wh ich th e office-seeker piously invokes the Gods of T echnology by sayi ng. " If we could send a man to th e moon , wh y ca n' t we . . . (i nsert favorite pie -in -thesky proposal)." The ca tch is, when we sent a man to th e moon . all the hardware , all the research. all the mistakes and false starts were bought and paid for up J "rrr' front . In th e fields of ermssion and however . th e n oise co nt ro l , government wants to push technology without paying for it. They expect the ind ustry to eat the cost now and pass it on to th e co nsu mer later. And if th e consumer refu ses to buy the adulterated product. th e government~ could care less if the industry lives o r dies. " ( \ So what technology a re they pushing this week ? Th ere are t hree acknowledged sources of motorcycle noise : t he exhaust itself. the air intake. and all th e mechanical bits & pieces.] The feds expect that to get down to th e 78 dbA level . medium and la rge st reet bik es may require water cooling, shaft drive, multi-cylinder de sign , and po ssibl y hydraulic lift ers . Hey, wait a minute! What if I wanted a Yarna thumper? What if I wanted a plain 01' traditional Ha wg? What if I want a CBX , or a Lav erdaJota ? Instead , I g~t to choose betw een four kinds of twowheel ed ca r , come 1984 ? Where does the go ve rn me n t ge t off. d ictat i~~ g motorcycle design a nyway? (, I I~ the dirt . th e fed s figu re that t~el,l( 80dbA level would require wholesi te rll con version to 4 -st rokes (a ssum in :>~~ em ission co nt ro ls ha ven 't already done l :>S{ it) . So th ey hedge: 78dbA fo r little -~ bikes and 82 dbA for b ig 'u ns. R ealize when the EPA says ",o!~ road ," they've got their own idea of what that means . They're saying that nois e regs apply to any d irt bike not used in organized , closed -circu it I Table 2 Pu rchase Price Comparison Be tween OEM Repla ce ment and Aftermar ke t Exha ust Sys te ms Exhaust S ystem Mfr_ Motorcycle Sound Leve l Ire stock, J-331a) Reta il Price ($1 (re stock) Honda CB-7SO (4: 11 A - 2 -3 1 B C· Honda GL-1000 Imuffler only l +1 2 -31 -61 A 2 +1 0 +1 -85 12 mufflers only l -30 -10 -25 0 1 +1 0 0 +2 - 32 12 mufflers o n ly ) - 42 12 mufflers o n ly l + 35 + 43 14:21 - 42 12 mufflers o n ly I +28 1 0 1 2 0 8512 mufflers o nly l 95 12 mufflers only l 3014:11 10 14:21 C 514:21 B C 0 Honda CB-5SO 1 4:11 A B C 0 E F Kawasaki KZ900 14:41 A B C 0 E 2 H-O XLCH 1 :21 A +3 +3 5 + 10 B +2 +1 + 45 +5 A +1 - 53 B Yamaha RO -3SO12:21 Suzuki GTISO 13:31 " Not ye t in co mmerce A '"' .ov' - av Ov 0'

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