Personal Injury Law

The State of California's Ridiculous Plan to do Smog test on Motorcycles.

By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq.

Well leave it to the California state legislature's to come up with another dumb idea that may cost many people their jobs, will have no significant impact on air-quality, can be easily skirted, and will serve as another way for the state to take our money through backend taxes.

Welcome to California State Senate Bill 435, (“SB 435”) our State lawmaker’s idiocy at its finest. You may think that as a Biker Lawyer I would embrace more laws; wrong, I embrace laws that are reasonable, not laws that are just meant to discriminate and unjustly tax a class of citizens. SB 435 is meant to do just that, unjustly tax and discriminate against Motorcycle riders and bikers. Don’t let anyone lead you to believe otherwise.

The proponents of SB 435 are selling the bill as a means to clean up California’s air and to ensure that motorcyclist and bikers do not modify their exhaust systems.

There are many problems with SB 435, namely; there are already laws that prohibit motorcyclist and bikers from modifying their exhaust. Therefore this bill is duplicative. Secondly, it is very easy for a motorcyclist or biker to simply put their stock exhaust pipes on for a smog test, and then remove them after the test. The bill is asinine. Thirdly, motorcycles make up a tiny fraction of gas powered motor vehicles on the road today. There is no valid evidence whatsoever that SB 435 will clean up the air at all. Hell if you want to clean up the air, why not force everyone to put catalytic converters over their cooking ovens and at restaurants? Actually I better not give the legislatures any ideas. They actually sit around on capital hill thinking up shit.

SB 435 is all about hype and further discriminating against motorcyclist and bikers.

With a State already in a budget crisis, the States plan under SB 435 would cost untold millions of dollars to implement, and ad an added tax by way of fees to motorcyclist and bikers who are already pay enough taxes. As the old saying goes, you cannot squeeze blood out of a turnip.

Every Californian who cares about freedom should contact their State Representative and give them a piece of your mind, and tell them to vote no on SB 435. Our State is in fiscal crisis, we certainly do not need any more regulation that will put people out of jobs, cost millions to implement, cost motorist more money in a back end tax, with no real benefit to the people of the State of California.

It is easier to prevent a dingbat scheme like this from being signed into law, then to reverse the law once it is put into place, as we all learned with helmet laws in the State. Therefore it is imperative that we fight this proposed Senate Bill Now!

What if the law is enacted? Simple, put your stock pipes back on for the smog test. I will not give advice on what do after the test!
I am sure that many of you have sold or given away your stock pipes. Bad move. You should at all costs keep your stock pipes now. Hell why pay another 500-600 bucks to get another set of stockers simply to pass a smog test.

Smog test or no smog test, they will not get rid of us motorcyclist and bikers just yet! I just prefer not to have to pay a back end tax based on a law that has no demonstrative results and is useless.

By California Motorcycle Accident Attorney and Biker Lawyer Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2009

Full post as published by Biker Law Blog on May 24, 2009 (boomark / email).