scooter heads, help

well 1st it wont be 4 stroke's or we all will be walking, so only leave's the 2 stroke, which is most common in dirt bike's, weed eater's, and lawn mower's, and outboard boat motor's, an snowmobile's. so the chance of them being discontinued is almost impossible. BUT they have banned alot of 2 stroke's "snowmobile's & atv's" from alot of national park's, because of the cloud of smoke they leave behind. some company's have already been marketing a oil that wont smoke as bad .Suzuki built a 2 stroke car in 2002 havent seen much about it since, was suppose to get 100+ mpg.

 

EPA 420 bans motorcycles made after 2006 that aren't 80% less polluting than California models right now.

In other words, it'll run like crap, not sound like a bike, and be expensive to fix.

But the big manufacturers love it - cause the little guys can't build bikes no more.

 

Well, the EPA wants to make damn sure that that bike will cost you $10,000 new from a Big Name Outfit.

 

yeah...i think the EPA is a waste of taxpayers money...

 

well it goes in effect in 2006 , right now you can easily spend $10k on a bike, bike's havent had any revision's of emission's standard's for 20 years . car's have been smog tested since 82 "in arizona, an nevada " so it's just only fair i guess. right now your bike put's out atleast 10x the hydrocarbon's per mile than a hummer ,go figure.a 2005 hummer is 95% cleaner as far as hyrocarbon's as most motorcycles today.http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/nonroad/mcmarine/proposal/f02010.pdfso far 15 million bikes worldwide have catalytic convertor's with not much talk about problem's. it's just technology catching up .it will make manufacture's step up.

 

Bajaj only produces four stroke engines for its vehicles. These are legal in all states and shouldn't be affected by any new pollution laws that I know of. The '06 line is being released as we speak. The scooter selection has been whittled down to one offering: the Chetak. The three 3-wheelers carry over.
http://www.bajajusa.com/

 

Cadcruzer: Motorcycle pollution makes up less than 2% of the pollution put out by vehicles.

Not really worth the bother, eh? And it's one thing to have a white hot cat converter under a hood, another to have it six inches away from a fuel tank.

 

Unless something drastic happens soon, the Bajaj Chetak will no longer be available by the end of the year. Bajaj Auto, Ltd. has already discontinued production and Bajaj/Argo USA has already bought up the last of these models. They are expected to have enough scooters to last through the end of the year. The apparent reason for this decision is that scooter sales have fallen to an average of 9,000 per month whereby their motorcycle production is up to 145,000 per month. It's a damned shame in that these scooters are very durable and have the lowest emisssions of any motorcycle sold here in the States. http://www.bajajusa.com/emissions.htm

If you wish to voice your opinions, you can contact the manufacturer below at:
http://www.bajajauto.com/contact/index.asp

Bajaj/Argo's website is: http://www.bajajusa.com/

What would really be nice if there was a company that would be willing to buy the rights to produce and distribute this scooter and give it a new lease on life.

 

2 cycle engines dont smoke much many times almost nothing if the mix of oil to gas ratio is right also with any high quality 2 cycle synthetic oil smoke is almost none existing . 2 cycles are far more efficient power wise . many 2 cycle 50cc and slight above can get close to 80 / 100 miles per gallon .

 

And why should we sacrafice a small 50cc /125 cc scooter while some well off people drive a 300 thru 500 H.P SUV . just to carry some preppy guy to his office.

 

New 2 cycles are better than a lot of 4 strokes, they offer more power for the same amount of gas, in some cases, they are much more fuel efficient, and they take a lot less to maintain. But, they need to be taken care of, i.e. filling the oil tank.

 

i think that one reason to limit 2 strokes is that they are not as efficient as 4 strokes. most companies stopped making 500cc 2 strokes for the motorcycling public because they were too darned thirsty (no doubt some die hard still makes em). the problem with the two stroke engine is that the lubricating oil is burnt along with the fuel hence the plumes of smoke that pour out the end of 2 strokes. the spark plugs tend to foul up, and periodically the exhaust should be cleaned out with some caustic soda. the exhaust is actually a critcal part of the engine, when it starts bunging up with crap it affects the performance. 2 strokes usually rev high and burn the fuel badly. the advantages of them is that they are lighter , no valves and complicated timing device to pour fuel and oxygen into the combustion chamber. i'd say the four stroke is the better engine for vehicles. for smaller engines the 2 stroke is useful but many companies have started making small 4 strokes to go on lawnmowers etc. i suppose the beauty of the 2 stroke lawnmower is the simplicity, the spark plug timing is fixed and the carb can be adjusted by loosening one screw and manouvering the face plate of the carb.

the reason that the 2 stroke engine is inefficient is that it uses "clean" air and petrol to clean out the combustion chamber ready for the next cycle and in doing so wastes the "clean" fuel and air mixture.

 

Not true many large 2 cycle engine were quite efficent you forgot bikes have a gearbox . kawasaki last 2 cycle king was a 750cc triple "very fast in the 1/4 mile for early 70s and Suzuki made a 750cc watercooled triple in 1972 "know as the water buffalo" . but the american public was still atach to 4 cycles for a large street bike by late 80s and early 90s intrest in 500cc 4 cylinders 2 cycle took place "since all Grand Prix bikes are similar it was too late as emission control stop them "they were imported in canada" ..the last big 2 stroke was the RZ 350 yamaha 350cc and was water cooled and very fast the engine was used later in the yamaha racing quad "Banchi" after emiision stop importation of the street bike... and who could forget those fast RD 350/400 Yamahas twins that could give the big 750 cc a run for the money in the 1/4 mile.

 

Most scoooters run at 50 to 1 gas ratio thats very very lean on oil smoke is rare. and if you run a high quality 2 cycle you wont see nothing "smoke wise" unless on start up when they are cold.

 

Modern 2 strokes are more efficient that equivalently powered four strokes.

 

they allways were 2 cycle you get a power stroke everytime the piston does 1 full 360 dgree revolution not so with 4 cycle. thats why marine engines outboards are still mainly 2 cycles.

 

I meant fuel efficiency. And actually, there are very few 2 stroke outboars in production any more, the only one i know of is the evinrude e-tec.