Issue #242 Let's All Save The Planet | Have, Walker, Mpg, Than, Which

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Issue #242 Let's All Save The Planet

Written by John Campbell
Friday, 15 August 2008
On Saturday, March 29, I basically saved the planet. The designated calendar date for Earth Hour saw me snapping off lights from one end of my Douglas fir-shaded house in Victoria to the other. Seeing that I had the responsibility for greening up my corner of the world, I took it one step further by powering down every single apparatus in the house that comes with a cord. The TV too, which was a heroic gesture because Canuck fans such as myself were still being held under a magic spell that made us believe a team that cannot score goals will somehow qualify for the NHL post season. Yeah, that’s a good one. Apparently Canada had one of the highest participation rates around the globe, with more than 150 cities registering for the initiative. This is all very interesting to me because, before March 29, I had no idea there actually were 150 cities in Canada. Still, I like to think of my effort toward making Earth Hour a success as being particularly special, and I hope you did your bit too. I realize that the event could be criticized for being more of a media stunt than a long-term plan of action designed to yield protracted benefits, but that would be missing the point. What Earth Hour was actually about was changing the consciousness of consumers: you, me and everybody else. Further into this issue, there is a news item concerning efforts from the most unexpected corner—the body that sanctions international motorcycle race competition, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme. FIM has challenged its members, individuals and affiliate clubs alike, to participate in World Environment Day, June 5. To that end, there has been an amazing response that includes the world’s top Trials riders planting trees, Enduro participants in Spain cleaning the local beach, and environmental messages being publicly distributed at the Mugello Circuit during the Italian Grand Prix. These are the most power-addicted, performance-oriented people you’re likely to meet anywhere, and now the Canadian Motorcycle Association is encouraging its members to do likewise. If saving the planet is good enough for the world’s top riders, I guess it’s good enough for me too. I think that’s why I found Alastair Walker’s March 11 editorial “We Need Green Motorcycles” so very timely and ultimately compelling. Published by the British motorcycle website, insidebikes.com, Walker’s piece is a call to action for those manufacturers who have not yet begun to commit R&D resources to the greening of their lines. More than that, it serves as a grim warning for those who fail to grasp that these are desperate times for our battered planet, and practices need to change. “To be blunt,” writes Walker, “it’s time motorbike manufacturers woke up to a grim reality; those who make innovative, two-wheeled transport that has 50 per cent less impact upon our fossil fuel reserves, and the manufacturing/distribution ‘carbon footprint’ will survive. Those who don’t bother, will go to the wall because when the politicians have finished hammering 4X4s, Porsche 911s and supermarket carrier bags, they will inevitably start on bikes.” Of that, there can be no doubt. And while I might be able to point out to the insidebikes.com editor that my wife’s DR200 is a perfectly acceptable commuter that is regularly capable of fetching nearly 90 miles to the gallon from its mild-mannered engine, this is not what he has in mind. Walker writes again: “I don’t mean 30-mph, 120-mpg, 50cc four-stroke scooters, which are made from recycled baked bean cans. Honda invented a 120-mpg commuter some 50 odd years ago, the Cub, and it’s still going strong. What’s needed are 21st century variations on that people-friendly format ... bikes with solar powered instrument panels and clocks. Truly aerodynamic, radical chassis motorcycles, which place the rider feet forwards, in a protective crash-cell.” But he’s not quite done with his wish list: “I want a commuter/adventure touring bike for 2010 which has a 500cc-ish motor, shaft-drive, running a biofuel/electric hybrid engine returning 100 mpg at a steady 75 mph. It should have QD luggage which doubles as a secure, and padded, laptop/helmet holder. It should also look and feel like something from the future ...” Walker blames the tunnel vision of today’s engineers for the current lack of such a vehicle, and suggests that there have been only two major technical advances in the past three decades of motorcycle design: fuel injection and the twin-beam alloy frame. Everything else, he says, is nothing more than a variation on a theme that dates back to the 1930s. “It is lamentable,” opines Walker, that most 750-1000cc sportbikes now cannot return, or better, the average mpg of an old Honda CB750 from 1975—modern motorbikes are now 80 lbs. lighter, fully-faired and run digital fuel injection, so what the hell is going on?” What indeed? Well, I think Walker makes points that are nearly impossible to argue against. Still, are builders and engineers really to blame? After all, they were only doing what has been asked of them for a decade at least: to make bikes bigger and faster. Would litre-class sportbikes that have now surpassed the once mythical 1:1 horsepower to dry weight ratio, but that can do no better than perhaps 30 mpg under duress, even exist if not for demand? The question answers itself. Who but the fussiest BMW rider—this is no knock against the Airheads, but after all they are the ones who have been buttonholed as sliderule-carrying nerds with equation fetishes—has ever been overly concerned with minor details such as fuel economy? So, go ahead and blame Al Gore if you like—or better yet, David Suzuki, who has always struck me as the sort of wet blanket capable of spoiling just about any kind of get-together. But they’re just the messengers. In our hearts we all know it’s time to do what we can. So, check your tire pressure, keep your bike in tune and don’t leave it idling if there’s no need. In the meantime, spare a moment in consideration of new innovations such as the lithium ion-powered Zero X machine in ‘Newsline’ this issue. 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