California's existing smog check programs already stop 400 tons of smog-forming pollutants daily, primarily from light-duty cars, trucks and SUVs; but the state must, by 2023, come up with several hundred more tons of pollution savings per day to meet federal clean air requirements. The state also is committed to reducing greenhouse gases.
If motorcycle smog checks become law, the vehicles would join light-duty diesel trucks, which will be subject to smog checks beginning next year, and, potentially, older vehicles. A tougher measure, AB 859, is also working its way through the Legislature. It would require smog checks every year, rather than every other year.
In pursuing bikes of 280 cc and above made in the 2000 model year and beyond, SB 435 attempts to home in on the size of motorcycle more likely to have a modified exhaust system, and an era of bikes equipped with catalytic converters. Motorcycles that employ catalytic converters are more reliant on them to reduce emissions and are at greater risk of becoming gross polluters when those systems are removed.
It's these gross polluters that SB 435 is after.
Whether for improved performance, a different sound or a custom look, 38% of on-road motorcycle owners replace or modify their exhaust systems, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council's 2008 Owner Survey. Cruisers are the most common type of bike with a modified exhaust, followed by sport bikes, touring models and competition dirt bikes.
But a 2008 study of aftermarket activity by the ARB found that 85% of bikes 280 cc and larger had modified exhausts. "Most" of those, said Cackette, were illegal.
Not all modified exhausts are illegal; some comply with the emissions requirements that govern what makes and models can be sold in the state. But many modified exhausts remove the bikes' catalytic converters, causing them to emit twice the legal limit of hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen.
"Motorcyclists perhaps don't realize that those catalytic converters are absolutely critical to improving our air quality," said state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), author of SB 435. "I would like to challenge the motorcycle dealerships to work with us in educating motorcycle riders about the importance of keeping their catalytic converters on their bikes, as well as realizing that since all cars are part of the smog-check program and because we really have air pollution problems in so many parts of California, they need to be part of the solution."
