Excerpt from: Happenings
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| October 17, 2007 | | Dealers and Manufacturers Targeted | Ultra Motorcycles, Harley Davidson Dealers selling Thunder Motorcycles, BMC, and others have all been hit with fines for selling motorcycles in California that have not been certified by the Air Resources Board. Some olf these motorcycles were certified for use in other states, some of these motorcycles have engines that were certified in other vehicles.
It is important to understand the difference between monitoring clean air, and certification of parts and motorcycles.
CARB is not set up or focused on clean air, as most of us assume it is. Rather, it certifies vehicles and equipment. This is a costly approach, which prohibits use of aftermarket equipment on vehicles unless they are CARB certified. An alternative approach would be to simply set emissions standards, and to enforce compliance on the basis of emissions.
The difference is, that small manufacturers, and those who modify vehicles, can easily have them tested for compliance. Certifying particular parts and vehicles is time consuming and expensive.
As motorcycles become the target of the Air Resources Board, diversity in motorcycles will suffer because of the certification approach.
In my opinion, at a minimum, any vehicle that meets a "brightline" standard for emissions, should be legal for sale in California. It should not be the business of the Air Resources Board to restrict experimentation on how to meet those standards.
In the long run, this will make the air cleaner, while not restricting customization. It is also an easier thing to police, since I understand that spot testing from the roadside has been possible for some time.
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