Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
ARE EMISSION CONTROLS<br />
SPOILING THE FUN?<br />
By: Sean Hendley<br />
Credit: Stephan Marais – KTM SA – for<br />
his knowledge, input <strong>and</strong> assistance<br />
with this article.<br />
Like it or not – change is a-comin to<br />
our industry. Sean popped down to<br />
kuier with KTM Groups technical man<br />
Stephan Marais for a chat about emission<br />
control laws <strong>and</strong> the effect it is<br />
having in the motorcycle industry…<br />
He says:<br />
We are told that we are killing our planet<br />
with the emissions from our internal<br />
combustion engines - <strong>and</strong> in an effort to<br />
save us all from extinction a whole lot<br />
of rules, regulations <strong>and</strong> policies have<br />
been passed into law regarding said foul<br />
gasses.<br />
And! We all know the effect that has had<br />
on our industry. Way back in 2014… or<br />
thereabouts, new homologation laws<br />
were gazetted in this country <strong>and</strong>…<br />
POOF! Just like that all sorts of bikes<br />
were outlawed, <strong>and</strong> everything had to<br />
have a catalytic converter fitted into the<br />
exhaust <strong>and</strong> that was the end of loud<br />
pipes <strong>and</strong> the general perception was<br />
that was also the end of all our fun…<br />
OR is it?<br />
We wanted to know what this whole lot<br />
was all about. This emission thing has<br />
brought about a new era of motor engineering<br />
that government school educated<br />
old timers like us do not underst<strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> cannot fix ourselves.<br />
Cat vs Decat, Fuel injection <strong>and</strong> electronics<br />
packages vs carbs, points <strong>and</strong><br />
condensers, (basically IT Tech mechanics<br />
vs busted knuckles <strong>and</strong> spanner grease<br />
monkeys).<br />
2 stroke vs 4 stroke, (Thank the Good<br />
Lord above they haven’t forced diesel<br />
tech on the motorcycle market yet – oh…<br />
wait, Diesel is also a swear word these<br />
days). But electric tech is lurking in the<br />
sidelines. Silent running bikes. WTF?<br />
This is quite a wide, involved <strong>and</strong> pretty<br />
complicated topic as it turns out <strong>and</strong><br />
varies from manufacturer to manufacturer<br />
<strong>and</strong> from model to model from the<br />
same br<strong>and</strong>. Here, we just scratch the<br />
surface <strong>and</strong> have left out quite a bit of<br />
some possibly interesting bits <strong>and</strong> bobs<br />
which we might explore at another time<br />
in other articles. The fact is. Laws are<br />
forcing changes to the traditional way of<br />
motorcycle thinking.<br />
2 Stroke vs 4 Stroke<br />
Now! Make no mistake – we are huge<br />
fans of 2 strokes <strong>and</strong> were particularly<br />
traumatised by their demise when the<br />
new homologations laws were introduced<br />
way back when.<br />
88 <strong>DIRT</strong> & <strong>TRAIL</strong> MAGAZINE <strong>DECEMBER</strong> <strong>2021</strong>
Change language