Was just wondering whether anyone else has been keeping up with developments on ULEZ (which is now in force in London, and probably coming soon to a city or large town near you).
As you may be aware, if you can get accreditation/certification from an approved testing station, you can get exemption from ULEZ no matter what sort of bike you ride or how old it is. It has been assumed by most, to date, that air-cooled carburetor-fuelled bikes stood no chance.
However, I found out two interesting facts recently. First, someone had actually put an old 4-stroke 1980s bike through an approved TfL testing station (the test costs just under £200 I think). The bike passed, and they sent their certificate off to TfL and got a letter back from TfL, exempting them. The fact they did this got me thinking about doing the same for my 600 Diversion...
So I looked it up a bit more, and found this extremely interesting factual titbit from MAG:
http://www.mag-uk.org/en/newsdetail/a7405
In short, the article says that when TfL set their NOx limit, they excluded motorcycles (lumping them in with old diesel cars, etc.) based on their misreading of modelling data that they had available to hand. The data they relied on actually said that most motorcycles would pass the NOx emissions limit that TfL set, yet TfL claimed the opposite. However, despite claiming the opposite, they still hold to the figure of 0.15g provided by that modelling data, and will exempt any bike producing less than 0.15g.
This means that you could put your older Diversion through an approved emissions test, and if it passes, get an exemption certificate.
This is important, because (to date) TfL have been providing group exemptions for motorcycles made just before Euro 3 came into force (i.e. 2006-2007). In other words, one guy proves his Ninja passes the test, by paying up £200 and getting his certificate, then other Ninja owners can rely on that ticket he paid for and shares with them, and write to TfL and get exemption for their bikes. I don't think TfL will do that (at the moment) for our bikes, which are a lot older. We have to get individual bike exemptions.
Now, the only approved emissions testing centre up and running at the moment (others might be in the pipeline) is in Bow, East London. I was thinking, if someone could get their bike through that test and post about it here, it would be a very helpful indication of whether it's worth it to put our bikes through this test.
FWIW I've already written to Yamaha and they told me they had no data and so could not provide an emissions certificate for my bike.
So, who's going to be first to get their Diversion tested?
