California is home to the largest population of motorcyclists in the country, and if legislators have their way, it could also soon be home to one of the most onerous anti-motorcycle laws in America.
By a bare majority vote of 21-16 on August 30 the state Senate approved SB435 which will make it a crime to operate a motorcycle manufactured after Jan. 1, 2013 that fails to meet federal noise-emission control standards and that all new motorcycles sold after that date must display and maintain compliance labels from the Environmental Protection Agency.
A similar bill last session would have required biennial smog checks for emissions violations, but after meeting resistance from bikers’ rights groups it has since been amended to target illegally modified exhaust systems. Supporters of the bill say that many motorcycle owners modify their exhausts to make them louder, but swapping a compliant tailpipe equipped with a catalytic converter for one without emissions controls produces more smog-forming pollutants per mile.
Opponents of the measure counter that many aftermarket exhausts meet federal EPA emissions standards but aren’t labeled, and labeling on stock systems is often difficult to locate, meaning that law-abiding riders could be unfairly ticketed. SB435 has already passed the Assembly and its fate now lies in the hands of the state’s most famous motorcycle rider, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose office has not yet taken a position on the proposed legislation.
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