Green Vehicle Guide - Bikes Omitted

No.


IIRC, engines running on leaded fuel are relatively non toxic in
terms of emissions. Some bloody goose of a rocket scientist got it
in his head that rising levels of lead in people's blood was due to
lead in the air the result of burning leaded fuels. So leaded fuel
became The Enemy(tm), and Must Be Abolished.

Bring on unleaded fuels. The trouble with those is that when you
burn them, all kinds of evil evil and truly toxic things comes out
the back. Enter catalytic converters, they promote a reaction amongst
the evil things that cause them to turn in to relatively harmless
things like water and carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc.

The bit where leaded fuels actually have nothing to do with the
price of fish in china has been ignored, mostly because it would be
a very politically embarassing thing to have to back down from, so
we're stuck with it. (It turned out that once people stopped
painting cots, toys, and nursery walls with lead based paint, kids
stopped having the funny things happen that happen when the level
of lead in your bloodstream gets too high. It's kinds that whole
aluminium saucepan and deodourant story all over again - a lifetime
of wiping brut and mum under your arms and eating boiled vegies
cooked in aluminium saucepans *won't* give you old timers disease,
'cos even though its been linked to aluminium, aluminium from those
sources doesn't accumulate in ways that cause old timers, but
I digress)


So yeah, cat converters are really pretty important whilst we're
stuck on the 'unleaded is good' malarky.


At least that's the conspiracy theory that I subscribe to.


GB, "I find your ideas interesting and I wish to subscribe
to your newsletter"

 

"GB" wrote:>

Thanks GB & IK for that info, been rather interesting, I had only a very
basic idea on what they were for and the article I originally read told
about most bikes not having cat converters so that's why they were seen to
be not so clean compared to cars. But it seems that the tide is turning and
bikes are comming out with them so maybe, just maybe those who are doing
comparisons for their data-bases will retest their theories and then they'll
see that motorcycling is much more greenhouse friendly and more efficient
than the car.

I mean to say, even with my humble old tech 500cc kwaka er5, a bike that's
been tested at around 0-100kph in 4.8 sec (these figures were from a
Brittish site i found once) and gets well over 20kms to the litre. What kind
of car would you'd have to buy to get that kind of efficiency? I doubt if it
even exists. My bike used 12 litres for 280kms on last fill-up, for the same
kms, my V6 Magna would've used about 35 litres. Thats a big difference in
fuel used and greenhouse gases saved, Cat converters or not!!

Cheers

DJ

 

Yes and no. Lead can bio-accumulate and that is the problem.

Yes and no. Aromatic chemicals that don't undergo combustion remain or can
be modified by combustion. This isn't true for just unleaded petrol.

So lead from fuel was never a problem?

Actually it does (accumulate), but not very fast. It is linked to the K(sp)
of Al. The link to the disease process you refer to is tenuous.

It has many more problem than lead did, I agree.

Hammo

 

California has the toughest emissions laws in the world if I'm not
mistaken, hence compliance to their standards used to pretty much
assure acceptance every where.

The new Euro3 laws which come in in 06 are very tough also, and
mandate the use of cats (among other requirements) and hence most bikes
on the market will be built compliant to those laws, even removing the
cats for the markets which don't require them (ie Oz) will leave pretty
damn clean engines.

JL
(and with regards to the original post I'd say we just got forgotten as
usual, no malicious intent to attribute non green status to bikes, just
not on the radar)

 

Strongly suggest you include John Anderson, as Deputy PM and a bike
rider (he's apparently going to be in the January 06 celebration ride)
he'll be about the only sympathetic ear you'll get in canberra

JL

 

I wonder if I can bung one into the GS's pipe. That'd be pretty
funny.

-----sharks (Miaow)

 

Um, dude, John Anderson retired something like three months ago now. The
new Deputy PM is Mark Vaile, the guy who negotiated the free-trade
agreement with the USA.

 

Ahhh crap. That Vaile guy oughta be dragged out and shot.

JL
(this new speak where phrases mean the opposite of their normal meaning
sux, I mean at least if they called it the "bend over here it comes
again from the americans" agreement at least it would describe it
accurately)

 

said....

The irony of that was that he was the Transport Minister...

Bob Brown used to ride bikes if I remember correctly. Not sure what his
position on them is, these days.

 

That is my impression, yes. All heresay though, must
confess I can't back it up with actual references.

Perzactly. I dunno where the Al that is suggested to be linked to
old-timers comes from, but it doesn't seem to be from deodourant
and saucepans.


G

 

"Agreement to ratify Australia as the 52nd of the United States"? (or
whatever number they're up to now?)

GB

 

Problem is though, it's less environmentally friendly due to noise pollution!

 

Pretty sure we're the 51st state (something like 48 lower states plus
Alaska and Hawaii? It irks me that I know this much about the US...)
NZ, as an unofficial annexe of Australia could become the 52nd though
so there's no point moving there to get away from John Howard.

 

It is an interesting read and I can agree with both sides. Lead is
particularly nasty to growing kids and so any move to eradicate it from the
environment is to be encouraged.

At one time it was kicked about as being plausible. The amounts from the
antiperspirant and cookware _had_ the potential to be delivering the amounts
that were believed to be required.

I believe it was from cutting people open once they were dead, the usual way
that amazing discoveries are made [1].

Hammo
[1] No, it'll make Godwin win.

 

It's called the Law of Opposites:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8481.htm

Gary