Topic: How bad is your bike for the environment?

[ieism]

So we all drive these old bikes and they are basically not too good for the environment. Bikes polute more than cars anyway, and old bikes are probably much worse, like old cars. Sometimes I drive around for hours with no place to go, and all i'm really doing is killing time and the earth. Does anybody here sometimes think that riding old bikes is not responsible in that sense. Newer fuel-injected bikes are much cleaner and don't spit out nearly as much carbon dioxide, i'm thinking if i buy a new bike i might feel less guilty when I fill it up with petrol.
Any thoughts?

[heffay]

Bike polute more than cars anyway
Any thoughts?

Wrong! 
I ride my bike because it is less polluting. 
or the bus

[kghost]

Where did you get the idea bikes are less clean then cars?

Unburned hydrocarbons are a function of burning fuel.

Catalytic converters for example are made to vaporize these remaining hydrocarbon chains that have not fully burned in the engine.

Basically the more fuel you pump thru the engine the greater the pollution.

All the computer and emmision controls on cars are designed to reduce the pollution but.....they still use fuel at a far greater rate then a bike.

Fact is...a well tuned motor does not produce that much pollution to start with.....its when they run rich and the ignition gets off, the carbs or injectors get dirty....thats when they pump it out

Way fewer bikes around too.

I think I'm doing the envioronment a favor when I ride my bike.

[kghost]

WOW...you got me so depressed that I'm ready to sell my bike and buy an old Schwinn Sting-Ray. NOT

 

(if your post goes missing its not my fault  )

[ieism]

Here's something i've found:
"This indicates that HC emissions from new motorcycles are broadly inline with Euro II values. They are however worse than those of passenger cars that achieve significantly lower values than even those required for Euro 4 in 2006. There is evidence from the test data that much of the HC emission is related to carburettor technology which is still reasonably common on motorcycles but redundant on passenger cars. In addition all petrol fuelled passenger cars will have been equipped with catalyst technology whereas few of the motorcycles were. It is expected that the legislative requirements for motorcycles from 2006 will cause this situation will change."

I suspect my cb will do much worse than the bike they used for these tests. They do however stress that when it comes to CO2, most bike fare somewhat better than cars but i'm not too sure if that goes for old bikes either.

[kghost]

What I am trying to stress .....

You are refering to levels of emmisions.....

Quantity of emmisions is what we are talking about.

You think a 5.0 liter (litre) engine produces a greater or lessor QUANTITY of emmissions then say a .75 liter?

[Bob Wessner]

This seems like one of those trick questions. If you consider all things on an absolute level, the smaller displacement MC's are probably less polluting. However, if you consider it on something along the lines of say 'per liter' of displacement, the outcome might be a little different. Perhaps even more so if you through in some sort of utilitarian factor. I don't think I would let it bother me or keep me from riding. Consider general aviation pilots, are we much different. We ride as a hobby, fun, whatever. I'm not going to stop riding and I doubt kghost is going to stop flying. 

[heffay]

This seems like one of those trick questions. If you consider all things on an absolute level

you mean like dropping two masses of different weights from the leaning tower of Pisa?  it's a very interesting experiment if you haven't looked into it.   

[kghost]

This seems like one of those trick questions. If you consider all things on an absolute level, the smaller displacement MC's are probably less polluting. However, if you consider it on something along the lines of say 'per liter' of displacement, the outcome might be a little different. Perhaps even more so if you through in some sort of utilitarian factor. I don't think I would let it bother me or keep me from riding. Consider general aviation pilots, are we much different. We ride as a hobby, fun, whatever. I'm not going to stop riding and I doubt kghost is going to stop flying. 

Yeah its fun Bob but I do it for a living.

You know ...a proffession....because they pay me 

[aptech77]

        

[ic455]

How bad is your bike for the environment?

See Tech Forum thread titled "Flaming Backfires"
Of course, thanks to everone who replied to the post, the 750 no longer expectorates flames

[Bob Wessner]

This seems like one of those trick questions. If you consider all things on an absolute level, the smaller displacement MC's are probably less polluting. However, if you consider it on something along the lines of say 'per liter' of displacement, the outcome might be a little different. Perhaps even more so if you through in some sort of utilitarian factor. I don't think I would let it bother me or keep me from riding. Consider general aviation pilots, are we much different. We ride as a hobby, fun, whatever. I'm not going to stop riding and I doubt kghost is going to stop flying. 

Yeah its fun Bob but I do it for a living.

You know ...a proffession....because they pay me 

Oops, thought you had your own plane also. Bet if you did, you'd fly anyway.

[super pasty white guy]

When we're looking at the impact on the enviroment, think about the amount of energy and raw materials that go into producing a new car/bike.  We're riding bikes that were 30 years old, not just following the consumer culture and buying new.

Dave

[ieism]

Ok, so the people that did that research are just trying to mess with my head. They're just want to turn everybody into a treehugger, and I happen to be an easy target.

And you're saying; as long as I have my bike running great and my carbs are adjusted as good as electronic-injection (not going to happen anytime soon, but I like a good challenge ) these old bikes are not that much worse than new ones.

[Rsnip988]

Why not just install an afterburner to ignite the extra fuel expelled...

Looks cool and good for the environment

haha

RKS

Ya Freakin Hippie

[cmorgan47]

i get nearly--if not over--twice the millage out of my bike as my car....and my car is a 2.0L focus; not that shabby environmentally.  it gets better millage than my wife's hybrid.  if i had to guess, i may be polluting slightly more than the hybrid as it has many other emission controls and much less than my focus.  and a hell of a lot less than my jeep J20 (which has been dubbed "valdez") but it only goes out when i have to do something "Trucky."*

when i look at the other vehicles on the drive in, however, the urban assault vehicles that dominate SE michigan and my selfcentered country in general, i have no problems spending a saturday afternoon "drivin fast and wastin gas."

*i really think the downfall was when they started making trucks comfortable.  there's several people i work with who commute in full size trucks 150 miles per day and i have yet to see a damn thing in the bed.  they spend more on gas in a month than i do on car payment, insurance, and gas combined and cannot be made to understand the money they're pissing away on the "rugged man" image, or the ridiculous idea that they "need" 4WD because it "snows so much here."  seriously, buy a small FWD car and rent a truck that one day out of the year that you actually need one.

[anubiscycle]

This whole question can only be answered by 4 gas analyzer results. The numbers do not lie when it comes to this. Not so much engine size to Co or HC PPM (Hydrocarbons - Particles Per Million) emissions ratio. But the real question, what are the numbers coming out of a given tail pipe? This does not matter if it is a big gas sucking hog of a truck or a scooter. If the scooter is two cycle and using cheap 2 cycle oil it just might be putting out more garbage in the air than that gas sucker.

What are the hard numbers coming out of the tail pipe? More is more, less is less regardless of engine size.

[heffay]

hey ism... your last comment was in relation to a carbed bike and an FI bike... but, your earlier comments were in relation to a carbed/FI bike compared to a car. 

so, there are really a few questions here that you're asking.

i'm pretty sure all of the carbed bikes sitting in the garage are "stinkier" than the one FI vfr.
but, every bike i have in the garage is probably less stinky than the car.
and cmorgan is absolutely right!  a jeep j20 is the epitomy of stinky wheeled travel... just sold mine last november because i was spending 80 dollars on a tank of gas that would last 2-3 days.  and that was with a brand new carb that had been dialed in!  the short stack exaust that was really just a glorified header probably wasn't much help either   

so, you're mostly correct about the carb vs FI... just understand the bigger the motor (bike vs car vs truck) usually returns a similar ratio of stinkyness   

[mic-57]

I've stopped thinking about it. If you listen to the naysayers the cows and lawnmowers are going to destroy the environment any way.

[Bob Wessner]

Let's not forget the occasional fuel overflow, battery electrolyte drip, and those drips of contaminated motor oil. Oh, forgot, none of these leak oil. 

[old750]

http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/esthag/2006/40/i01/html/es0481023.html

[nickjtc]

http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/esthag/2006/40/i01/html/es0481023.html

Very interesting. Arguments over, I suppose!

[kghost]

I am such a nerd I loved that link 

[ieism]

hey ism... your last comment was in relation to a carbed bike and an FI bike... but, your earlier comments were in relation to a carbed/FI bike compared to a car. 

Yeah that's true. I could only find comparisons of newer bikes with FI compared with cars, so I also wondered how different our bikes were. I don't own a car, so if i'm not driving my bike i'm riding the bus or a bicylcle.  

@old750: That's a great article! That was the kind of stuff I was hoping to find out.

[heffay]

me too ism... only bikes for me as well.  when it snows (yesterday) i ride the bus... or just don't go to class (today) 

the gf has a car though, which helps but, we can really only go to class together, not return (very different schedules).  so, i ride the bus back home.