2 stroke engines for the public - should we ban them?
Discussion
k off out my life as much as possible and focus on improving things that matter instead of tinkering on s
Krikkit said:
tamore said:
the reason for my comments is experience of living in the peak district, which is absolutely inundated with dirt bikes at the weekends.
nothing spoils a nice walk in the hills like the stink of 2 stroke hanging in the air as a line of dirt bikes go past, accompanied by the irritating noise they make. don't get me wrong, i get exploring on dirt bikes, but just think there could be a better way of propelling them
then you get someone who has got hold of a felled tree hacking it up with a chainsaw all day. serenaded by a 2 stroke engine. lovely.
Bloody reckless walkers, wandering up and down the Peaks eroding the hills, leaving litter, trespassing on land you're not supposed to be on, you're a bloody menace.nothing spoils a nice walk in the hills like the stink of 2 stroke hanging in the air as a line of dirt bikes go past, accompanied by the irritating noise they make. don't get me wrong, i get exploring on dirt bikes, but just think there could be a better way of propelling them
then you get someone who has got hold of a felled tree hacking it up with a chainsaw all day. serenaded by a 2 stroke engine. lovely.
We never ride on a bridleway, and we often intersect or pass them, and we've never seen or heard anyone riding a motorbike on them. This is around 4 years of off road riding for me.
So this massive problem with enduro bikes in bridleways must be a specific regional problem?
Btw, the four stroke bikes make more noise than the two strokes,and, I don't know anyone with a "fruity" exhaust. The one thing NONE of us want is to draw attention to ourselves. Road riders love a loud can. Not so with off roaders.
I also have a 2 stroke strimmer. Just adding that for relevance :-)
I don't see what the benefits of such a ban would be. The pollution contribution from tools has always been tiny and the medium-sized consumer tools market is naturally transitioning from ICE to battery electric for most things anyway. ICE chainsaws may be slightly louder but electric ones are hardly quiet things! Generally speaking tools which cut things are loud simply because of how they work.
Two-stroke vehicles are pretty niche these days since they're basically not road legal due to emissions regulations; if you ban two-stroke off-road vehicles people will just buy four-stroke ones so you wont reduce the number of dirt-bikes/quads tearing around the countryside. I guess if I lived somewhere where the particulate pollution from two-stroke off-road bikes was a problem, I might have a different opinion though!
So IMO: Tools, definitely not. Off-road vehicles, I have no strong feelings either way.
Two-stroke vehicles are pretty niche these days since they're basically not road legal due to emissions regulations; if you ban two-stroke off-road vehicles people will just buy four-stroke ones so you wont reduce the number of dirt-bikes/quads tearing around the countryside. I guess if I lived somewhere where the particulate pollution from two-stroke off-road bikes was a problem, I might have a different opinion though!
So IMO: Tools, definitely not. Off-road vehicles, I have no strong feelings either way.
Edited by kambites on Friday 31st March 10:06
Fastdruid said:
Only after all diesels have been banned, not to mention all the wood burners.
If diesels are banned it will be interesting to see how heavy goods will be transported, and what effect getting rid of diesels will have on the price of well...Everything! But if we are worried about emissions, shouldn't we also be getting all petrol vehicles banned as well? the people on PISTONheads are `really' going to love that!
Perhaps the new name for `this' site will have to be commutator heads?
Pan Pan Pan said:
If diesels are banned it will be interesting to see how heavy goods will be transported, and what effect getting rid of diesels will have on the price of well...Everything!
From an environmental perspective stopping people buying cheap disposable rubbish and food which has been shipped half way around the world by upping the cost of moving things in bulk would probably be a bigger benefit than the reduction in emissions from that transportation itself. Good luck getting that one past the electorate though. 
kambites said:
Pan Pan Pan said:
If diesels are banned it will be interesting to see how heavy goods will be transported, and what effect getting rid of diesels will have on the price of well...Everything!
From an environmental perspective stopping people buying cheap disposable rubbish and food which has been shipped half way around the world by upping the cost of moving things in bulk would probably be a bigger benefit than the reduction in emissions from that transportation itself. Good luck getting that one past the electorate though. Pan Pan Pan said:
kambites said:
Pan Pan Pan said:
If diesels are banned it will be interesting to see how heavy goods will be transported, and what effect getting rid of diesels will have on the price of well...Everything!
From an environmental perspective stopping people buying cheap disposable rubbish and food which has been shipped half way around the world by upping the cost of moving things in bulk would probably be a bigger benefit than the reduction in emissions from that transportation itself. Good luck getting that one past the electorate though. Deranged Rover said:
tamore said:
should 2 stroke engined vehicles/ tools/ etc be banned for the public? the answer is yes by the way.
Only if you're offering to come round and mow my lawns and trim my hedges by hand. Otherwise you can naff off with your stupid idea.The hedge trimmer and chainsaw though, two stroke goodness. I live under the flight path for RAF Mildenhall and in a farm, between the two there is always an engine of some description to keep an ear out for, even Mrs geeks is now enjoying "Can we identify the engine from sound alone?" Then there is the windfarm opposite that really kicks out some noise when the wind picks up, presumably the OP would like all of these things banned as well?
Jaguar steve said:
Sales of new 2 stroke outboard motors were effectively stopped in the UK and EU in the early '00s because none of them met the revised Recreational Craft Directive on pollution.
Most of the ones sold prior to that have siezed solid or corroded to dust now but there's still a few in use including several of the worst ever polluting like these British Seagull contraptions which are indestructible.
They still sold the optimax direct-injected 2 strokes until very recently, they are brilliant but very complicated...Most of the ones sold prior to that have siezed solid or corroded to dust now but there's still a few in use including several of the worst ever polluting like these British Seagull contraptions which are indestructible.
2 strokes are still made, you can buy them for "commercial" use still, or places like Alderney you can nip over and buy one new!
My tohatsu 3.5 is brilliant, extremely lightweight and simple, just as a small outboard should be
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