Have you seen this

[Elumia]

CD, would you rather have less CO2 or less smog?

http://www.latimes.com/classified/autom ... ?track=rss

from the article, This is pretty suprising:
"Noncompliant Chinese vehicles have become such a pollution issue in California, in fact, that the Air Resources Board has just added a new motorcycle emissions facility at its Haagen-Smit Lab in El Monte to test them. The board estimates as many as 20,000 all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and scooters are shipped into California from China each month, many of them with emissions that are at least 10 times higher than the state's requirements"

That is what powers a lot of these new scooters too.

Mark

[caseydog]

Smog is more of an issue in some places than in others. Global warming is, well, global.

I bought my antique scooter mostly as a toy. I plan to use it to run some errands, too, but that's about all. The kinds of errands I'll use it for are just the kind of driving that my car is least efficient at, too -- short, stop and go trips.

CD

[Elumia]

CD, your old timer is less of an issue than the proliferation of cheap new Chinese engines. These are showing up on these 3 wheel cars that are licensed as motorcycles (and the subject of this post) and as such not subject to automotive pollution requirements. Yes, smog is a global issue. The concentration of CO is much higher in the northern hemisphere than than southern. Is it a coincidence that that is where the preponderance of vehicles are driven? Smog creates breathing problems for many people. If you believe in Global warming, warmer temperatures combined with CO and NOx's create even more smog problems for cities that have not had smog problems.

One of the articles I posted before stated something to the effect that motorcycles were 2-3% of the vehicles but responsible for 10% of the pollution in California.

My point was that for the 5-10K of some of these 3 wheel things, one could purchase a small used econobox (vw golf honda civic etc) that gets 30 MPG to do more of the same things than that scooter.

All these small engines will be addressed at some point. I can drive down the road and smell the gardener's leaf blower. By comparison the fumes from the Hummer I'm following smell like roses.

I Hope you have fun with your Passport, it looks like fun. (be safe!)

Mark

[Dixie Flyer]

Hey that Cushman Eagle was cool. That was all my brother dreamed about when he was around 14. (He's 63 now) He never did get one.

Enjoy this link for some that have been restored.

http://www.dennis-carpenter.com/ironeagles.php