motorbike carbon footprint

[rsv gone!]

cossiemetro said:

YamR1V64motion said:

who cares?

worry about what india and china put out first before i worry about
my carbon footprint the uk saving is a drop in the ocean i'm afraid

Although you should bear in mind that these developing nations are the ones that now do most of the manufacturing for the west.

Anyhoo, let's stay under the radar. We don't want greenies in here.

[tfm]

Most bikes don't have catalytic converters, so they're probably more polluting than your average car?

[Steve_T]

Too late, here's one.

[Hooli]

i thought newer bikes did have cats - hence the sales of decat pipes which im sure ive seen about.

[Frik]

Nope.

[reAnimate]

tfm said:

Most bikes don't have catalytic converters, so they're probably more polluting than your average car?

um well a cat converter does not help as much as we are led to believe ... in order to clean up the gases, you lose about 5% efficiency - so while they help with emissions, they waste 5% of energy / AKA fuel.

[Biker's Nemesis]

I could be wrong, but I'm sure all the Thou's at the very least come with cat's.

[YamR1V64motion]

Biker's Nemesis said:

I could be wrong, but I'm sure all the Thou's at the very least come with cat's.

all 1000s from about 2004 onwards do, iassume the bigger bikes like the ZZR1400 would too and im pretty sure some of the new 600s do too.

[The Pits]

most new big bikes have cats. I used to have them on my zzr1400 and in fact my ZX12R had one back in 2000.

For those that don't already know (ie most of you it seems!) A cat converts stuff like Carbon monoxide (CO) into - you guessed it - CO2 so they actually pump out more green house gas than a bike without cats. This idea of them being environmentally friendly is BS as far as I'm concerned. Carbon monoxide's not very nice and lots of people used to use it to top themselves in their garages but CO2 is public enemy number one these days.

[jezzaaa]

RemaL said:

if someone did come over and ask how I am distroying the enviroment I can tell them " eh I ride a bike" does this much less damage then cars

You tell them to Eff off, mind their own business and get a life...don't pander to them, and certainly don't make them think you feel guilty about it.

[aeropilot]

Steve_T said:

This Eco nonsense is so rarely a big picture view these days. I see loads of those poxy pious's on the roads with new plates on in the city. How much energy did they take to make eh? Much more that is used by my bike to move itself several times around the globe I'll wager.

My best mate has now lived in California for 5 years now, and in that time he worked as a tyre fitter for a year or so.
You can't move out there for those silly Prius things bought by California's trendy sheep, and he found it amusing that they spouted off so much about saving the planet yet the things eat tyres at an alarming rate because of the weight of the ruddy batteries...LOL!
He said they regularily saw Prius owners in every 5-6k miles for a new set of tyres.......
And that's because the dumb owners won't pay for the correct high load index rated tyres and only want to put cheap import ones on that don't last.....that's being really eco-friendly

[Mags]

How anyone can want to compare bikes to cars is beyond me when we are less than what? roughly 5% of total road traffic in the UK?
I don't see any school kids getting lifts to school on the back of litre sports bike? (nice idea though )

Oops, some tw@t will come on here now telling me its irresponsible to take kids on the back of bikes. Well I don't have kids so don't bother...

Edited by Mags on Friday 5th October 11:10

[Fire99]

Just a quick reply..

Catalytic converters.. gotta remember total cost of ownership.. Yep they suck up emissions but they take big ol manufacturing processes to make and you gotta throw them away fairly often which is like burying a large lump of metal pollution..

Bikes use less fuel and have less parts and dont have heaters or aircon which either heat up the world or use lots of nasty chemicals..
And remember the average bike jouurney, not only does it use less fuel but its journey is normally shorter cause we dont spend hours sitting in traffic jams...

Finally.. Carbon Bloody Footprint B*llocks is exactly that.. B*ollocks. A theory that is now spurted all over the place by Politicians who just want to make our lives more expensive and more controlled by them..

the end!


Time for a horlicks..

[Lostusernamedamn]

I suspect there's a good argument for newer bikes with catalysts to have reduced road tax. The emissions must surely be as lowest as the lowest emitting cars, they create no congestion either. So why is the road tax comparatively so high?

It seems odd that a mode of transport which would seem to fall into our so-called "green" government's requirements for "greenness", doesn't actually benefit.

[SVS]

Hi everyone,

These days, I feel like a Tyranosaur as a biker. Fast, powerful and about to become extinct like the dinosaurs.

podman said:

YamR1V64motion said:

who cares?

sadly in this age, almost everyone...except the people who ride them maybe?

Almost everyone, or certainly most politicians and decision makers, care about the environment. The green agenda is an avalanche moving steadily towards us: unstoppable, but the biking community is ignoring it.

Lostusernamedamn said:

It seems odd that a mode of transport which would seem to fall into our so-called "green" government's requirements for "greenness", doesn't actually benefit.

This doesn't surprise me. The biking press harp on about an extra 2hp on this year's supersports. Bikers don't buy bikes for their fuel economy. These factors mean there's no impetus for manufacturers to make bikes greener. When legislation demands greener emissions, we replace the can for a noisy exhaust that annoys the neighbours.

Unless the biking community responds to the changing environment, we'll become extinct.

However, as bikers we aren't exactly renowned for long-term thinking. We live in the moment. And that will be why biking will be killed off. Enjoy the ride whilst you can ...

You can join the BMF. Or MAG. Or both. That will help fund those who lobby on our behalf.