More rules being enforced. With the Dobeck EJK, I find a significant improvement in mileage. (More power so the engine works less.) It may be polluting a little more but if less fuel is burned I wonder what the net effect is. I wish the EPA would consider all factors.

 

Heck wouldn't that be great! But, one-size-fits-all regulation is more likely going to remain, to the detriment of common sense and, in many cases, does not accomplish what was intended in the first place. Net results for much farming and construction equipment falls into this quagmire for sure. Operating costs for these things have been pushed way up and fuel efficiency way down.

 

Absolutely they are in the target zone. Last year the EPA tried to pass legislation that altering any OEM vehicle, even if it was for racing only. Would be illegal. Many racing companies, and manufactures called their congressman and that was canned. The EPA knows full well that "for off road use only, and for racing only" is a BS tactic to skirt the laws.

Here is where it gets interesting. If a company sells a tuner for off road use and racing they will say the customer was warned and they have no control over that. The problem is that these tuners are sold for all street legal vehicles and most of them are never raced.

basically these companies that employ good lawyers may still be able to navigate, but it is getting to the point that aftermarket tuning will be regulated to underground hacking in garages, which BTW is very prominent, especially on locked ECU units.

 

The problem with lawyers-versus-lawyers is that there is no public accountability around regulatory fiat, and few remedies. Other than during the French Revolution (!), no bureaucracy in the history of mankind has ever really stepped back from the power it imagines it can have. History suggests the EPA will eventually win. Sadly, it is like banning straws as if that solves the plastic dumping issue -- it is going after visible targets while failing to really address the macro issue. With bikes that average 45-50+ MPG, we are part of the solution, not part of the problem. A lawnmower or gas-powered string trimmer puts out way more emissions than one of our bikes.

 

They're coming for the mowers and trimmers too.

 

If you keep the crankcase ventilation routing, evap equipment and the cat (a cat, doesn't have to be the stock one), odds are you could still be ok. In many race classes catalytic convertors have become mandatory (WTCC, WRC), and it doesn't keep them from high hp output.

Aftermarket exhaust manufacturers in Europe sell systems that include catalytic convertors for instance.

Heck, even Indian knows how to get tuned engines C-ARB certified.

 

Are you sure? I don't know about farm and construction equipment, but for trucks as a category, since 1975, CO2 emissions have dropped in half while average MPG has doubled.

Some of my farmer buddies who run large tractors have said fuel consumption is up.
On large trucks since 1975, mostly true, but how about operating and maintenance costs in the past 10? That is when tier3 and tier4 emissions have come into force and some seriously expensive changes have taken place. On gensets, our average costs for replacements have jumped 10,000$ just for emissions compliance, and fuel efficiency has decreased. More fuel consumed means more exhaust produced to contribute it's part to our air-pollution.

 

You know your business; I don't. However, I have changed my view over the years (and I used to do a LOT of work in public policy and the utility/energy industry) in that we never really accounted for the omnibus cost of fossil fuels on the environment and health. I am no fan of onerous regulation, but the fact remains that regulation has pushed private industry to places they had said they could never go economically nor technologically -- and we are there today. The inherent motive of private enterprise is profit; the motive of government is supposed to be the broader public good. We need both, albeit on better behavior than we see today.

 

The name of this game is "MONEY",and that's what it's all about,nothing more and nothing less.And if you think these environmentalist are really concerned about the environment,then I got a bridge I wanna sell ya.It's all about money.So we are on the same page on this subject.Dave!!!

 

We don't need to convince each other the catalytic converter greatly reduces smog right?

 

Nothing will be done as the tuners are sold for "Off-Road Use Only"

 

Tell that to Harley lol

 

(Just asking, do you think vaxxing works?)

 

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley of LA. If you weren't there in the 60's and 70's to see (and I mean SEE) the smog then I don't believe you would fully understand how bad it was. 3rd stage smog alerts, which happened frequently, meant no PE or physical activity during lunch while I was in school. Running laps even on good days felt like smoking a pack of Camel straights. Driving into the Valley from LA over the Hollywood Hills on the freeway (I think it was the 405), you couldn't see a single house or building, except the very top of the Howard Johnson Hotel sticking up above the smog. Yet 7 million people lived down there in that bowl of gravy. It's very hard to describe. In the early 70's they started with EPA restrictions and add on's for your car. We all bitched and did what we could to circumvent them. Now when I talk to friends who grew up there we all agree, IT WORKED!!!! Ten years after I left it was considerably better. And it kept getting better even though there are more cars now. Yes, politicians are going to make money off this, yes some restrictions are over the top, yes we all pay for it in the end, yes there are crooks involved. But in my experience it really did work.

 

I too spent a lot of time in the LA area during the 60's through the early 90's (grandparents lived in Redondo Beach, then later La Puente) and I lived in the LA area (Van Nuys, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach - I was a Navy recruiter at the time) from 1980-1982. One thing that is still etched in my mind during our drives into the city in the 60's was the thick black "smog" grime that was stuck to all of the freeway signs on U.S. 101. I lived in San Diego from '76-'99 (except for the couple of years in LA) and also remember my many drives north up I-5 and seeing and experiencing that horrible smog haze as you got past San Clemente. I agree that the EPA's smog regulations dramatically changed (for the better) the air in the Los Angeles basin.

 

Everything is connected... and just because we can legislate and control some aspects of our technology for the better locally, does not mean that our footprint (that has been exported) is not still there in the global environment... and still making an impact on human lives. It would be way too simplistic to cite the impressive cleanup that is obvious in LA as full justification for the displacement of our manufacturing industry to other parts of the globe. China and India have been absorbing a major environmental impact as a result.

 

Los Angeles circa 1970

Los Angeles 2018, Same set of Buildings

 

That is an xlnt couple of pics, almost captures it. That would be looking into LA. Does show the dramatic difference. The Valley was much worse because it was a large bowl surrounded by the Angeles Crest Mountains so the smog just sat there. Look at that 70's pic and imagine it much worse, that was the Valley.

 

Well, we could try using fuels that have a shorter eco cycle, like alcohol.....

 

If I'm not mistaken,"smog" has always been in California and long before the automobile was even invented.

 

That's the Central Valley area, yep, fertilizer....

 

Over Labor Day weekend we had a classic car show. You want to smell the good old American V8 from the good old days, well let me tell you, the fumes from some of those beauties would take your breath away...literally.

I currently drive a 2017 Chevy diesel. I am amazed at how clean both fueling with low sulfur fuel to the DEF mitigated exhaust. It makes it a pleasure compared to just a few years ago. Here is a 1 ton truck that gets over 20 mpg unladen on the highway and has over 900 ft lbs of torque when needed. Best truck I’ve ever owned.

 

For a smog alert the air quality has to be much/even worse than it is currently I guess....

 

And you think it's from cars?factorys don't dump anything in the river or air.does the military have smog devises on their vehicles?where does the military dump thier trash?ships and planes can not dock or land with fuel in thier tanks,you think it's dumped in the ocean? Why don't school busses have seat belts?

 

Why don't school busses have seat belts?

The Reason You Won’t Find Seat Belts on a School Bus
TL;DR: they're safe enough as it is.

 

It's statistics. There's just many, many cars, and also owned by private citizens, so very easy to enforce laws and have them pay for it, AND reach a decent result at the same time...

 

When you buy a bus and convert it to an rv ,you have to wear a seat belt.did the safety aspects of the buss been altered to an unsafe level.or maybe the schools are not run by the same insurance co.state run insurance is completely different,not that I'm following the money or special interests.

 

Way to have read that 1,350 word article in 2 minutes.
Had you actually read it, you'd have caught the part about how having the seats so close together, with high backrests is part of its safety.

 

I have not read the article, but have read similar articles over the years. The closeness of bus seats and their height compared to some cars are the same, yet the law requires seat belts to be worn in the car. It is all about time, convenience, and cost with school buses. The closeness of seats and height does absolutely nothing to protect children in a roll-over or side impact crash.

 

I got an idea,let's out law cars in california, we'll register bikes,the peddle kind.and electric cars

 

Get your flu shot.

 

Don't forget we're going to burn more "clean coal" to charge-up all these electric vehicles. Maybe we can get the railroads to go back to "clean coal" steam locomotives while we're at it.

 

Clean coal...I live about a mile from the local power plant and when the winds are from the east I have a thin film of soot on my vehiles windshield. At least when they blow the soot off the boiler tubes they do it at night when most are in bed and in the house, but the particulate is still in the air I just wish they would cover the exposed raw coal piles. It can be done, they cover the massive roadsalt piles in Milwaukee, but We Energies won't spend the money on the coal piles.

 

Of course they won't spend the money on the coal piles.If they did that,they won't be able to play their usual golf game.Now you wouldn't wanna deprive those POOR, UNDER PAID,STRUGGLING TO GET THRU LIFE ,people,now would ya??? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!