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Nope, and no motorcycle made could either. Conservatively, they pollute around 300-500% more than a modern car, even new fuel injected ones. They're basically what you'd get from a pre-'78 car except downsized which means they're really bad.
Depends on the location... but yes, emissions are required in some locations, so are yearly inspections. If you're required to do emissions for cars, then call the DMV/MVA and ask about motorcycles. Or, if you're buying from a dealer, ask them (should be done if buying used from a dealer, and exempt for a few years if new from dealer).
And Malloric is grossly simplifying things. The vast majority of motorcycles meet Euro III specs (and must to be sold in Europe, which is a FAR bigger market than the US), which is substantially similar to the current requirements for autos in the US. Most are working on Euro IV spec, since it's due in 2017... for reference, this is Euro III and IV vs autos:
CO HC NOx
Autos 3.4 .015 .14
Euro III 2.0 .30 .15
Euro IV 1.14 .17 .09
But motorcycle have more challenge with emissions due to the efficiency. When you extract more power/energy from a given volume of fuel, the output has more emissions (duh!) ~ and this is something that motorcycles do/have done for a long time. They are also very simple to work on and people are all too eager to remove the stock exhaust system in pursuit of noise, which obviously has an end effect on emissions too.
*shrug* Doesn't matter as motorcycle pollution isn't even worth mentioning when you look at the big polluters (businesses/factories) as it comes in at WELL under 1% of the total pollution contributed. If you have to pass emissions with one, simply leave it stock and keep it maintained.
For autos (Euro 6) compared to motorcycles (Euro3) to motorcycles US
CO 1 vs 2.3 vs 12
HC .10 vs .2 vs -
NOx .06 vs .15. vs (1.4 HC+NOx)
It's not that it was really that hard to meet emissions, it's just that effectively they didn't have them. Euro 2 and Euro 3 took effect in 2002 and 2006, most new bikes do meet them but you have some popular bikes that don't like the KLR650 or DRZ400. There's also the durability thing. Motorcycles only are required to meet emissions for around 18,000 miles under Euro 3. Plus I'm pretty sure no state actually tests emissions. The first thing a lot of people do is, like you said, remove the stock exhaust. My cousin has a W250R which does, or did, meet Euro 3. Thing is you have to remove the emission stuff to install even Yamaha's skid plate. So before it even rolled out of the dealership it no longer met Euro 3 emissions since Yamaha's own accessories are designed to make it not Euro 3 compliant. Given, the W250r was really an old design that got retrofitted. Maybe with a fresh design they actually design the bikes such that they're not intended to just have the parts removed before leaving the dealership.
in California motorcycles are exempt, rationale being that motorcycles constitute only a fraction of the overall vehicle count so it wouldn't make much of a difference
in California motorcycles are exempt, rationale being that motorcycles constitute only a fraction of the overall vehicle count so it wouldn't make much of a difference
Cool stuff.
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