anyone out there know how much longer it will be before HD has to go to water-cooled motors to meet EPA regs?

 

I don't know but I do know I heard rumors of that 15 years ago when I was selling metrics. So far it ain't happened. Maybe another 15 years???

 

My guess is 5 years.

Joe
[&:]

 

[sm=popcorn.gif]

 

bmw meets regs with an air cooled engine - don't they?

 

The way things are looking... November 4, 2008: the day after Hillary or some other extremely vindictive person takes over theWhite House. Dammit!![:@]

 

Published Tuesday|April 3, 2007
EPA obliged to rein in emissions, court rules
THE NEW YORK TIMES









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More up-to-the-minute national and world news from The Associated Press[/align]



RELATED







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More up-to-the-minute national and world news from The Associated Press[/align][/align][/align]WASHINGTON - In one of its most important environmental decisions in years, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases in automobile emissions.

The court further ruled that the agency could not sidestep its authority to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change unless it can provide a scientific basis for its refusal.

The 5-4 decision was a strong rebuke to the Bush administration, which has maintained that it does not have the right to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, and that even if it did, it would not use the authority.

The ruling does not force the EPA to regulate auto emissions, but it would almost certainly face further legal action if it fails to do so.

Defining greenhouse gases as pollutants gives a significant boost to the movement in Washington and the states to regulate heat-trapping emissions. California and a handful of northeastern states are seeking to adopt limits on tailpipe exhaust from cars and trucks.

The decision also gives momentum to efforts in Congress to adopt sweeping national standards that would require cleaner cars and power plants, the top sources of carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide prevents the sun's heat from radiating back into space.

Writing for the court's majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said the only way the agency could "avoid taking further action" now is "if it determines that greenhouse gases do not contribute to climate change" or provides a good explanation why it cannot or will not find out whether they do.

Stevens, joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, said that by providing nothing more than a "laundry list of reasons not to regulate," the EPA had defied the Clean Air Act's "clear statutory command." He said a refusal to regulate could be based only on science and "reasoned justification," adding that while the statute left the central determination to the judgment of the agency's administrator, "the use of the word 'judgment' is not a roving license to ignore the statutory text."

The court decided a second Clean Air Act case Monday, adopting on a 9-0 vote a broad reading of the EPA's authority over factories and power plants that add capacity or make renovations that increase emissions of air pollutants. In doing so, the court reopened a federal enforcement effort against the Duke Energy Corp. under the Clean Air Act's "new source review" provision.

This report includes material from the Chicago Tribune.


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That has been rumored along time now. Many thought the EVO was gonna be the last air cooled from Harley. We have the Twin Cam....so obviously that didn't happen.

I believe Harley will always manufacture an air cooled engine. However, I also believe water cooled engines such as the V-Rod will appear in other Harleys as well.

Any EFI Harley runs much more cleaner than any carburetored Harley ever did. Someday, they will all be closed-loop system which will only further help them out. Harley is definately trying here.

BTW: I think the EPA gets a little too **** about pollution from motorcycles. They tend to forget we are already way outnumbered by automobiles and we regulary get 40-50mpg range. They killed the two stroke street bikes in the US in 1979. By 1985, they were killed for good. If the two strokes were that bad...have you ridden behind a diesel in awhile? They worry about the little things waaaaay too much....and they are not going to make that much of a difference while bigger things are overlooked.

 

1) Harley will hold out as long as they can
2) Harley is already working on a water cooled engine, you can pretty much guarantee that
3) Harley will hide the rad when they do finally switch over, so the bike won't be cooled as efficiently, so it will work like crap, but us diehards will be happy, because it still looks like a Harley

 

Close. I don't know about their inline 4 but their boxers are air and oil cooled.