In the October '10 issue,
SR senior editor Andrew Trevitt covered some important political topics (Late Braking, "Sound Off") that have future ramifications for all motorcyclists in the U.S. One particular Senate Bill that was making the rounds in the California State legislature - SB 435 - carried significant consequences for motorcyclists in that state should it make it past the Senate floor onto the governor's desk. Authored by Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), the bill (also titled the "Motorcycle Anti-Tampering Act") makes it a state crime to ride a motorcycle with an exhaust system not officially approved by the EPA - in other words, any exhaust system other than stock.
At the time of Trevitt's article, SB 435 was reportedly still in the labyrinthine legislative process, and prevailing opinion was that it would not make it past the governor based upon the previous versions of the bill that were killed off before they even reached the committee phase of lawmaking. Unfortunately, that was not the case; we suddenly received the news on September 28 that Governor Schwarzenegger indeed signed SB 435 into law.
Making use of a seldom-enforced 27-year-old federal regulation that prohibits the replacement of the stock exhaust with any unit not officially approved by the EPA (every stock motorcycle exhaust since '83 is required to have the federal noise/emissions regulation approval wording stamped somewhere on its outer surface certifying compliance), SB 435 now makes motorcyclists riding in California on any motorcycle manufactured after January 1, 2013 with a non-EPA-approved exhaust in violation of the California Vehicle Code and subject to citation. Because a "mechanical violation" of this sort is considered a "secondary infraction", citations for this violation can only be given if the motorcyclist was pulled over for another reason (don't get a false sense of security from that; an officer can cook up any number of legal reasons to pull you over). First-time violations can be subject to fines of $50-$100 if proof of correction is not provided, with subsequent violations resulting in fines of $100-$250.
Before some of you begin choruses of "well, that's what you liberal commie tree-hugging, tofu-eating Kalifornians get for living there," it should be noted that similar ordinances exist in cities such as Denver and Boston, and there have been numerous attempts at legislating these types of laws in other cities and states. Note too that while Pavley is a Democrat, Schwarzenegger is a Republican; don't think that this is something that can simply be ignored by voting another party into office. This is not some isolated incident of overzealous environmentalism; noise is now being considered an element of pollution in the same league as smog and greenhouse gases. One need only examine the continuing battles that airports - and even racetracks that were built in previously unpopulated areas - wage with encroaching neighboring communities on the subject of noise.
The version of SB 435 that was signed by Schwarzenegger (who claims to be an avid motorcyclist) is actually a very diluted version of the original that was tabled by Pavley back in '09. That version actually intended to have motorcycles subject to the same smog checks that automobiles must undergo every two years. When that was quickly rejected, Pavley modified it to require EPA-legal exhausts on all motorcycles built after '11. That bill was again rejected, so she amended it to only include motorcycles built after '13, where it somehow made it through.
What this situation demonstrates is that all it takes is a determined senator to push a poorly researched bill through legislature into law. You can cry all you want about the "loud pipes save lives" myth, or try to use the Oakland, California's P.D. motorcycle unit's use of louder aftermarket pipes as some sort of example, but the fact remains that the more we annoy the public with overly loud exhausts, the greater the chance that one of those people we annoy will be someone in political power.
Probably the most profound quote on this subject comes from our interview with Erik Buell in this issue: "I hate noise - well, on the racetrack I love noise, that's one thing I go there for - but riding on the street or out in the woods, I hate noise. I don't want to bother anybody; I can't stand riding a noisy bike, and I hate riding behind one. I just want to go fast, and the more I bother people, the less likely it is for me to be able to do that."