HOW IT WORKS BY MARJORIE KlEIMAN

THE EPA REGS & YOU - Pt 3

The 20-year-old Clean Air Act states that owners cannot disable emission controls or cause their motorcycle to exceed emission standards. And though bikes are not currently tested, the Feds could easily mandate testing in the future, just as they do for cars.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMISSION CONTROLS

The 1978 EPA rule separates highway motorcycles into three categories, or classes (I, II, and III). As of 1980, all three classes had a standard of 5.0 grams per kilometer (g/km) HC and 12.0 g/km CO, which resulted in the phase-out of two-stroke engines in highway (road) motorcycles below 50cc displacement. However, the EPA states that significant reductions in emissions were realized. The December 2003 rule slightly modified the class structure to accommodate the inclusion of above 50cc motorcycles. CO emission standards have not changed from the 1978 rule. However, NOx emissions, which were not regulated in 1978, are now included in the EPA standards.

In California, Class I and II standards have been in effect since 1982. Here are the California Standards for Class III motorcycles adopted in 1999. Effective 2004-07, Tier 1 emission standards for motorcycles 280cc and larger are 1.4 g/km HC + NOx and 12.0 g/km CO. Starting in 2008, the Tier 2 standards for the same size motorcycles drops to 0.8 g/km HC + NOx and 12.0 g/km CO.

The new Federal EPA rule mandates the reduction of hydrocarbon (HC) from the 1978 standard of 5.0 to 1.0 g/km for the new Tier 1 standards for Class I and II motorcycles. Most significant will be the new Tier 1 standards for Class III motorcycles, which reduces the combined hydrocarbon (HC) and nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions to 1.4 g/km for model years 2006 though 2009, with a final (Tier 2) reduction to 0.8 g/km in 2010. The Federal standard of 12.0 g/km for carbon monoxide (CO) remains unchanged (see chart).

According to the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC), 2002 annual sales of street motorcycles were 614,000. Class I-A (smaller than 50-169cc) motorcycles accounted for 1 percent of these sales. Class II (170-279cc) made up 6 percent, and Class III (greater than 279cc) accounted for 92 percent of the motorcycles sold in 2002. Clearly, the Class III rules will have the biggest impact on the industry. Six motorcycle manufacturers, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, and BMW, make up over 90 percent of total sales of street motorcycles in the US.

To meet the 2010 Tier 2 standard, all motorcycle manufacturers, including Harley-Davidson, will most likely need to use more advanced engine modifications, such as water-cooling and/or secondary air injection. The EPA maintains that a major cause of harmful emissions is the inexact air/fuel ratio from a carburetor, which allows some amount of unburned fuel to make its way into the exhaust system. Fuel injection provides for a more precise air/fuel ratio, thereby reducing the amount of unburned fuel reaching the exhaust. The EPA has not mandated the use of fuel injection, and suggests that engine modifications combined with improved carburetor technology could be a solution for compliance. However, some industry insiders feel that by 2010, carburetors on motorcycles will go the way of the Edsel. Will Harley-Davidson eventually eliminate carbureted motorcycles from its offerings? Will it have to go to all water-cooled engines, such as the one currently in the V-Rod? Again, H-D will not comment on future plans. However, you may have noticed that fuel injection was introduced as an option to the Dyna line for the first time in 2004 and, of course, there’s the new V-Rod line.

The entire Victory motorcycle line uses fuel injection for its motorcycles in all 50 states. Catalytic converters (cats) are already in use on all Victory motorcycles produced for sale in California. Additionally, Victorys in California are also equipped with evaporative emissions control systems, which is a charcoal canister- type filtration system to control emissions from the gas tank. Gary Laskin, product manager for Victory Motorcycles, comments that it will be easier to accommodate the 2010 standards with this type of technology already incorporated into the design of the motorcycle.

According to the EPA, approximately 20 percent of 2002 and 2003 motorcycles use cats to achieve current emission standards, and it is the EPA’s expectation that approximately 50 percent of the motorcycles produced for highway use in 2010 will need to use cats to meet the new standard. The EPA informed us that “some manufacturers are telling us they feel they can meet our standards without putting a cat on because they will have such sophisticated fuel injection systems that they’ll be able to control the emissions coming out of the engine without a cat.”

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