Still Worth Buying and Older Bike? Emissions?

[CorriganJ]

Hi all, I have been living abroad for 5 years, just come back to the UK, and notice there are starting to be more clean air zones and low emissions zones.

I was wondering what the general feeling was about if it's worth buying an older bike still, or if it will become impossible to drive them soon? I don't live in a major city, so I guess it's not an immediate concern, but it is on my mind - will older, more polluting bikes get banned or made impossible to drive in the next few years?

Specifically thinking of buying an old Transalp 600. Not a super expensive bike, so I guess if I get a few years out of it then I've "got my money's worth" so to speak, but still, seems silly to buy something if I know that it's going to be phased out soon.

So, is there still fun to be had in old bikes? Cheers!
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1991 RD04

[MCN]

The kunts have recently introfucked LEZ in Scottish cities. Presently, motorcycles are exempt from LEZ charges.

The situation is not static as we have kunts for kouncilors all over.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Easy-X]

The lead on taxing the poors emissions surcharges is London/Genghis Khan and I've heard no noises so far that the classic vehicle exemptions will be scrapped. And every other city is playing "follow the leader."

If I were to speculate the thing to keep an eye on is whether the current 40 year rolling "vintage status" with regards to MoTs is frozen by 2030 - that would be a central government decision. Otherwise heading past 2030 would mean seeing something like a Golf Mk3 as vintage. Remember, no one gives two fucks about motorcycles it's the classic car lobby putting in all the work.
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Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[Mario_Kempes]

Nightmare where I live in Barcelona.

Anything from before 2003 can't be used weekdays unti after 8pm. No fee nothing. Just completely banned.

No classic exemptions. I have a ´65 Vespa that was my daily ride around the city. Reliable AF and cost about 10€ in petrol every 6 weeks or so. Only did about 800 kms a year in it and now it just sit in the car park all day every day.

Next year it's being revised. Think it's anything from before 2006.

Thing is, because of the climate, motors last forever with a bit of maintenance. It wasn't unusual to see immaculate mk 1 Fiestas and Golfs (not xr2s or GTis, just normal runabouts) cutting about. Now they're all scrapped.

Should be based on mileage covered (among other factors rather than just a cut off based on year of manufacture.
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2018 Speed Triple 1050 R
'65 Vespa 150S

[Bhud]

It's an immediate concern. I live close by the border of where the expanded ULEZ will be, and it was a few years ago when cameras went up everywhere along many streets, without explanation and without anyone even seeming to notice. They are not ULEZ cameras but as I don't know what they are, I assume they will be an anticipated part of a future infrastructure which will involve all sorts of restrictions, road pricing, etc. Every city in the country is getting the infrastructure installed to make it easy to go from "I'm alright Jack" to "what happened to my exemption" to "what do you mean I can't ride it any more under any circumstances". I like to think I can see these things coming a few years in advance. If the technology can do it, then the battle is getting it up there and installed, which they've done. The easiest bit is a sudden pulling of the rug under your feet by a political move, so I expect that's probably a done deal and is being saved for last.

Here is the current UK government policy on CAZs:

https://www.gov.uk/clean-air-zones

It's just a website. It is what it is until they change it. It's an unstable situation. Like Twitter changing to "X" overnight - one day, just like that, BOOM. All different.

It may still be worth getting it, just to enjoy for the next couple of years. But in the meantime I should expect it will affect you because an unfavourable policy shift is a few keystrokes away, and it's a small country and the outskirts of cities are important means of getting anywhere on a bike, even just for leisure.

[stinkwheel]

Most of them pass the emissions test if you have them tested privately anyway. They are testing for nitrous oxides, not hydrocarbons. There's a guy on the Practical Sportsbikes FB group whos 1980's yamaha 2-stroke passed the London ULEZ test.

Nitrous is particularly bad from engines running a lean burn for reducing unburned hydrocarbon emissions and fuel efficiency. Older carbed bikes tend to run on the rich side anyway and didn't give a shit about efficiency, it was all about stuffing as much fuel in as you could burn so you got the power output. Anyone whos followed a group of 90's sportsbikes having the tatties thrashed off them will have noticed a pervasive smell of unburned fuel.

I'm also reasonably sure you could tweak the carb and timing settings before putting one through the test in the style of VW defeat devices.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.