emmission controls, why not motorcycles too?

[Jason]

Dirt bikes are ok by me. I am buying dual-sport in August after I pay my tuition.

This is the one i am getting. Bring on the trails
http://powersports.honda.com/motorc...delName=XR650L&ModelYear=2008&ModelId=XR650L8
I know it-s heavy but I had a Suzuki DR-650 for a while. This has to be better than that slug.

 

[Jason]

Oh yeah. just so i do not hijack the thread. All new motorcycles have catalytic converters. The all have to meet very strict emissions regulations, most even meet the new ultra-tough Euro 3 standards. Most bikes built through the 90's had a PAIR system which is exactly like the A.I.R stuff on cars in the 80's. I frankly think that doing this to bikes will have the same effect it had on cars. They will become increasingly expensive too difficult for the average shmuck to maintain.

Right now we should focus on the fuel economy of bikes and the great affect they have on heavy traffic areas. My Bandit dynoed at 155hp at the rear wheel and gets 37 mpg. Not bad for something that can do 0-60 in around 2.5 seconds and smoke even the fastest exotics up to about 160 or so. Hell, it will hit 185 mph!! Good luck holding on at that speed but it can be done.

Motorcycles are so much more than machines. That Bandit is 12,000 rpm medicine for my soul. The Warrior is just a middle aged 'tang magnet.

 

[OilPatch197]

Dirt bikes are ok by me. I am buying dual-sport in August after I pay my tuition.

This is the one i am getting. Bring on the trails
http://powersports.honda.com/motorc...delName=XR650L&ModelYear=2008&ModelId=XR650L8
I know it-s heavy but I had a Suzuki DR-650 for a while. This has to be better than that slug.

Wait one sec, UM NO. It is NOT alright to have a wide open Dirt bike!

Unless you visit, smell, hear, and see a forest, how can you have any love to protect it? People are increasingly more detached from nature.

What is the name of that organization? "Tread Lightly"? I as a hiker really don't want to hear your ignorant open exhaust in the woods! Not only do you disturb other peoples peace and quite, you also desturb the precious habitat! But those DAMNED snowmobile riders(snowmachine if your in Alaska(?)) are more damaging to the enviroment than dirt bikes, ATV's and horseback riders, they pollute and when the snow melts, OMG a mess, trails loaded with trash!

There are three issues here; trash, noise and trail damage. I think both hikers and atv/snowmobile riders leave garbage but in my personal experience people out in the woods on a gas powered machine are less careful with the environment. I've never seen a hiker throw a beer bottle over his shoulder while walking through the woods but I have seen a few ATV drivers do it.

However, i think they need to follow courtesy guidelines about garbage, oil leaks, and not cutting new trails or widening existing ones. Unfortunately persons who participate in such a sport are unlikely to have much of a conscience. I'm sure the wild animals don't want to hear your loud exhaust either, not to mention that ATV's and Dirt bikes are a cause of erosion to the landscape.

I'm sure some people love the noise as part of the experience. If they stick to places with wide trails approved for their use and respect the land around it, I see little problem with it.
While dirt bikers and ATV fanatics can brag online all they want about how nice they are on the trail they are generally rude, loud, polluting, smelly and personally obnoxious. For every rider that stays on the trail and does volunteer trial maintenance there are dozens that leave beer bottles, chip bags and shell casings scattered across the landscape. That is when they aren't chasing hikers and horsemen off the trail with their high speed antics.

The planet cannot afford motorized sports any longer, it's time they were phased out and shut down. Even to get to the trailhead requires that you use large trucks and trailers wasting far more fuel than hikers that can get there in a Geo Metro. It would be nice if the guy in my neighborhood who tows his rock crawler with his Hummer scrapped them both and got himself some nice hiking shoes.

Climate change is real and you don't have to believe in it; it believes in YOU. Ask the people of Atlanta or Australia how nice things are when the planet doesn't like you any more.

There are some NICE trails near my house, on PRIVATE land, "NO TRESSPASSING" signs don't keep the kids off the trails. I'ved hiked these trails many times, yeah I KNOW first hand of land abuse!

 

[ZMan]

There trying I know Harley had to switch to EFI and there looking into cats and what not, as for the aftermarket mods I guess they don’t care about motorcycles yet.

My friends 2007 Sporty 1200 has a carb..

 

[Shran]

Oilpatch, I agree that there are bad apples that ruin the sport for all of us. But I don't think most of us here have Hummers to tow our junk out in the sticks. All the guys I wheel with either drive their rigs out or have 3/4 ton pickups. They do no more damage to the environment than soccer mom with her Suburban.

The club I'm in is very much into maintaining the trails we wheel. We go out and pick up the trash at the shooting range, clear fallen timber, etc., so the Forest Service doesn't have to. If we don't keep up our good image we won't be able to do the things we love for much longer.

 

[lil red]

all harleys (exept the sportsters) have efi(i think, only efi, no carb option)

plus harleys needed it
they overheat too much

now if they could only put a cooling system and i might buy a new one...

btw, oilpatch

i have a bad feeling that you just enjoy bitching about people on snowmobiles/quads/motorcycles because you dont have one, so you dont get how it feels to ride one
i get it if their litteing and screwing up trails, but not everyone does that, just a-holes

and (just because i can)
yes loud pipes do save lives, dont improve or deminish emissions
and as long as people ride bikes produced before cat-converters are put on, theres nothing you or anyone can do.

and yes i am a motorcycle nazi, and damn proud of it
im also a voulinteer firefighter
wanna call me a nazi for that too?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Wait one sec, UM NO. It is NOT alright to have a wide open Dirt bike!

Unless you visit, smell, hear, and see a forest, how can you have any love to protect it? People are increasingly more detached from nature.

What is the name of that organization? "Tread Lightly"? I as a hiker really don't want to hear your ignorant open exhaust in the woods! Not only do you disturb other peoples peace and quite, you also desturb the precious habitat! But those DAMNED snowmobile riders(snowmachine if your in Alaska(?)) are more damaging to the enviroment than dirt bikes, ATV's and horseback riders, they pollute and when the snow melts, OMG a mess, trails loaded with trash!

There are three issues here; trash, noise and trail damage. I think both hikers and atv/snowmobile riders leave garbage but in my personal experience people out in the woods on a gas powered machine are less careful with the environment. I've never seen a hiker throw a beer bottle over his shoulder while walking through the woods but I have seen a few ATV drivers do it.

However, i think they need to follow courtesy guidelines about garbage, oil leaks, and not cutting new trails or widening existing ones. Unfortunately persons who participate in such a sport are unlikely to have much of a conscience. I'm sure the wild animals don't want to hear your loud exhaust either, not to mention that ATV's and Dirt bikes are a cause of erosion to the landscape.

I'm sure some people love the noise as part of the experience. If they stick to places with wide trails approved for their use and respect the land around it, I see little problem with it.
While dirt bikers and ATV fanatics can brag online all they want about how nice they are on the trail they are generally rude, loud, polluting, smelly and personally obnoxious. For every rider that stays on the trail and does volunteer trial maintenance there are dozens that leave beer bottles, chip bags and shell casings scattered across the landscape. That is when they aren't chasing hikers and horsemen off the trail with their high speed antics.

The planet cannot afford motorized sports any longer, it's time they were phased out and shut down. Even to get to the trailhead requires that you use large trucks and trailers wasting far more fuel than hikers that can get there in a Geo Metro. It would be nice if the guy in my neighborhood who tows his rock crawler with his Hummer scrapped them both and got himself some nice hiking shoes.

Climate change is real and you don't have to believe in it; it believes in YOU. Ask the people of Atlanta or Australia how nice things are when the planet doesn't like you any more.

There are some NICE trails near my house, on PRIVATE land, "NO TRESSPASSING" signs don't keep the kids off the trails. I'ved hiked these trails many times, yeah I KNOW first hand of land abuse!

It would be really nice if people would mind their own business as well. I assume you have permission to hike on the private property that it seems you think nobody except you should do anything with? Have a hard time grasping that other people have different interests than you?

How could anybody living in Australia ever think the planet liked them in the first place anyway? The place is pretty much a desert, which is why it was so sparcely inhabited when it was discovered. Then a bunch of people are dumped there or move there and then complain because they don't have enough water and it is too hot. They are their own worst enemy IMO, if you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen, not every continant on this planet is ideal for humans.

You want to talk about a gas sucking pig, compare the Hummer to a typical truck/trailer combo to get said horses to the trailhead, and then factor in the diesel to make the feed and hay and riding a hayburner isn't quite so cheap or "green" either. Hooves are very hard on the landscape too, most of my riding trails were cut into the landscape by hooved critters (cattle and deer). I know owning horses is anything but cheap or easy, my parents have two... thanks to my allergies all I use them for is an excuse to play with a tractor to feed hay/move manure when I am home. If I get much more personable than that I have breathing problems and break out in hives... needless to say horses are not for me and more than likely never will be.

Where I ride my bike (1976 Honda XL-350), it is on our own land, so if I make a mess, I get to clean it or live with it until someone else does (not likely). Public property is very rare here, so if the owner doesn't like what you are doing out comes the sherrif (if they are lucky and don't get chased by a shotgun instead)

Hiking is fun, but it is also fun to open up a bike once in awhile too, you oughta try it if you haven't before you bash it. Not every rider is a drunk redneck, just like every hiker isn't a tree hugging hippie. There are idiots granted but banning vehicular hobbies isn't the answer.

I normally just putter along to look at stuff though when I ride anyway, it seems every time I hit third gear I find something creative to run into.

 

[OilPatch197]

Um, my Father was a dirt bike rider, what I said above is true of him, nothing but a careless jerk when he was in his twenties! Fortunately he settled down.

Yeah, meh, I've heard the stories, it is fun, but with a great price. A price that is worth paying?

Again there are a FEW responsble riders out there, it only takes a few bad folks to ruin it for everyone.



85_Ranger4x4 it is fine if you do it on your land, but really we got neighbors that own a 200 acre woods, and when their kids were young, they made ATV trails.....

the word got out and you never know who you will meet on the trails, what can the owners do other than spend $$$ to fence the place in. No Tresspassing signs? haha.