You could say I’ve been a little slow to get aboard the “Go Green” bandwagon. Really slow, even. It’s not just that I don’t drive a Toyota Prius, or that I don’t bring my own canvas shopping bags when I buy groceries. I just started recycling two months ago, and still sometimes space out and let the water run while I brush my teeth. Hell, I know it’s old fashioned, but I think every visit to the toilet still warrants a flush.
I realize now, thanks to a persistent and growing multimedia campaign to “GO GREEN” that I am thoroughly un-green. I’m not even in the late majority group of green-goers, or even a late adopter. I’m a mere straggler left behind the green movement, and it’s high time for me to join team green and get in the game for the big win.
For years I’ve been a motorcycle enthusiast, but only recently have I been commuting to work on two wheels, and solely to avoid the regular thrashings at the pump. Out of financial necessity, my weekend toy has been pressed into service as daily transportation. At 40 mpg, the savings are substantial, and as any rider will tell you, motorcycles have many other perks. They’re sexy, easy to park, and fast. The power at your fingertips is as incredible as the sensation of the wind in your face. Put simply, motorcycles are a whole lot of fun.
But are motorcycles green? The thought first occurred to me as I prepaid $15 for a few gallons of premium (more than a week’s worth of fuel for my ride) on pump 7. As if on cue, the guy with the Suburban on pump 6 lamented his $75 investment in petrol and it hit me like a chromed out custom Harley-Davidson: motorcycles must be green. How could they not be?
Basic math proves that I’m no longer an eco-insensitive villain, but a champion of the green cause; even a role model for others seeking to join the green movement. It’s simple, really. If I get 40 mpg and Suburban Guy gets 12 mpg, and we both have a 5-mile ride into work, which one of us is giving old mother earth the beating of her life? He is, of course
But it’s not that simple (it never is) and after 20 minutes of Google research the wind that had filled my forest green sails died out. You see, while gasoline powered bikes can achieve amazing gas mileage, some up to 70 mpg, it seems they create more damaging pollution than most gas- guzzling SUV’s. According to the EPA, an average motorcycle releases 20 times more pollution per mile than a new car, and produces 90 times the hydrocarbons per mile of a typical passenger car.
While passenger cars and trucks have been the target of ever-stricter pollution control legislation, and for the most part all come standard with exhaust-scrubbing catalytic converters, fuel-injection technology, etc., motorcycles have continued to fly under the radar in this country. Elsewhere in the world, bikes are made to run on everything from alcohol to biodiesel and even compressed natural gas. Here is the US, gasoline-burning bikes, most with old carburetor technology, and nearly all without catalytic converters, are the norm.
Make no mistake- there are traditional motorcycle companies that are taking initiative to build more eco-friendly gasoline powered models. BMW motorcycles of North America, for example, installs advanced pollution control technology on most new models before they ever leave the factory in Deutschland. You can view the new 2008 models at www.bmwmotorcycles.com
But if your desire is truly to go green on two wheels, it’s not going to happen on a gas-powered machine. At least not in 2008.
Right now there are companies developing electric bikes that are as quiet as a laptop and emit no harmful emissions whatsoever. Brammo sells a model called the Enertiabike (www.enertiabike.com) that looks as futuristic as its name suggests. The eco-friendly folks over at Intelligent Energy are currently hawking the ENV electric fuel cell motorcycle (www.intellligent-energy.com). Online comments posted by motorcyclists mainly ranged in tone from skepticism to ridicule.
Of course there are going to be tradeoffs when ditching gasoline for a battery, and I wasn’t a bit surprised to note the ENV’s sad performance stats: “0-50 in only 12 seconds,” according to the website. My gas-powered 1200cc pollution-maker can get there in about 2. I know which one I’d like to be on while merging into traffic on I-77. And it’s hard enough to get noticed by gadget-distracted motorists on a motorcycle as it is. I can only imagine how defensive you’d have to be on a “ghost bike” that makes no noise whatsoever.
Look, ride a gas-powered motorcycle because you want to leave Buick-driving, left lane blocking grannies in your dust. Ride one because you’re bored by the safety of driving around surrounded by steel and plastic. Go buy a bike because you’re having a midlife crisis and don’t have the budget for that Boxster convertible you really want. Or do it to keep a few bucks in your pocket and thumb your nose at those smirking executives over at Exxon. That’s perhaps the best reason of all.
Just don’t buy one because you want to go green. You won’t be any more green than I am when I brush my teeth in the morning.
~ Matt Kokenes
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