"Small displacement motorcycles don't burn cleanly and pollute a lot.
Acknowledge that fact and move on with your life. Don't try to justify
it by pointing fingers at someone else. That's just childish."
Acknowledge that fact and move on with your life. Don't try to justify
it by pointing fingers at someone else. That's just childish."
Yes. Let's move on. When people report on the pollutants from motorcycles being XX times worse than the amount from cars they (IMO) have an obligation to address the lack of public priorities as the reason for that difference. One of the biggest demographics sought after by the motorcycle industry are those primarily interested in speed. This puts efficiency in the background. Despite car companies like Volvo abandoning the two stroke engine cycle (for example), it remains in many new motorcycles - especially recreational vehicles. I'm sure this is all carefully articulated in the report.
The important part
to remember is that in general, cars and motorcycles both use the same engine technology (i,e. Carnot or Diesel cycle). The huge difference in the power/weight ratio give motorcycles a promising future in conservation - even if regenerative breaking is incorporated into all modes of transportation and the energy of acceleration/deceleration becomes less wasteful.
Engine efficiency for motorcycles is not something that needs to be developed. It just needs to be transferred from automotive technology and there has to be a public interest in doing so.
Mike
John Hayes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
John Hayes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Burak_l wrote:
> And finally I hope they do not research how much is waisted in car races
> like formula-1, Lemans endurance etc...
> Those machines are loud and very very thirsty. Probabily one of them during
> 1 race pollutes more than a typical rider
> can manage whole year.
With regard to racing, it isn't that black and white.
First, you seem to be conflating wasting resources (eg burning lots of
fuel) with the amount of pollution produced. They aren't necessarily the
same thing. You can burn 10 liters dirtily or you can burn 100 liters
cleanly - they are different issues.
Second, even if a single team in a single race uses more fuel or
pollutes more that a single private individual in an entire year, you're
still comparing (for F1) 10 teams (2 cars each) by 19 races to millions
of riders/drivers every day over the course of a year. You're talking
about a drop in the bucket.
On the plus side, racing drives innovation. Consider the FSI engine
technology Audi developed for the their R8 LMP (LeMans Prototype) car.
Now you can buy lean burning FSI powered cars at Audi dealers.
Likewise, the brand new Audi R10 LMP has a V12 TDI powerplant that gets
over a 100 hp per liter. That kind of performance out of reliable diesel
is amazing. An I expect those advances in diesel technology will show up
in VW and Audi dealerships within 5 or 6 years.
Racing also has the ability to prove to people that renewables aren't
just some crunchy granola lefty tree-hugger pipedream. Demonstrating
that renewables can perform is critical in the PR battle with the oil lobby.
For example, the IndyRacingLeague - and thus by default, the Indy500 -
is switching from methanol to renewable ethanol for the 2007 season.
That's a huge win for renewables.
As mentioned above, the Audi factory team is running a diesel powered
LMP in ALMS this year, although I suspect Audi will be using
petrodiesel, at least to start. However, that won't be the only diesel
in ALMS this season - D1 Oils plc is sponsoring a biodiesel powered Lola
LMP that will run b5, b20 and b50 blends.
But yes, on the negative side, racing does waste resources. According to
formula1.com, "During a typical season a Formula One team will use
over 200,000 litres of fuel for testing and racing." That's a lotta fuel.
And don't get me started about the the fact that NASCAR still uses
leaded gasoline.
Still, I think you're throwing the baby out with the bath water and
having an emotional reaction to a study you don't like.
Small displacement motorcycles don't burn cleanly and pollute a lot.
Acknowledge that fact and move on with your life. Don't try to justify
it by pointing fingers at someone else. That's just childish.
jh
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