Publisher’s Notebook

• Lowering the Vroom in Malibu •

ANNE SOBLE

Whether California’s state legislators are willing to risk the wrath of a sea of seething motorcyclists to respond to longstanding constituent concerns about bike noise at levels that interrupt conversations and rattle windows from Pacific Coast Highway through the Santa Monica Mountains and beyond, will be evident when SB 435 reaches the next rung on the legislative ladder at its scheduled airing before the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, August 4.

The measure, authored by local State Senator Fran Pavley, would make it an infraction, punishable by a fine of up to $100, to operate a motorcycle without a readily visible [noise standard] stamp that proves that the bike’s exhaust system complies with federal Environmental Protection Agency standards.

This is all about noise—a major environmental pollutant—with the issue as it relates to motorcycles being largely the modification of bikes with aftermarket parts, especially straight pipes that are capable of taking decibels to the max because those bikers equate noise with power—the biker’s and the bike’s.

In SB 435’s language, it “would be a crime for a person to park, use, or operate a motorcycle, registered in the state, that is manufactured on and after January 1, 2011 or a motorcycle, registered in the state, with aftermarket exhaust system equipment that is manufactured on or after January 1, 2011, that does not have the EPA stamp.”

The motorcycle lobby, ABATE, the American Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education, has already killed an effort to include a motorcycle smog check provision in the bill, in return for which it agreed to remain neutral on the EPA stamp issue. However, the überpowerful American Motorcyclist Association is still soundly against the bill, as is the Harley-Davidson Dealers Association.

While civic-minded motorcyclists urge fellow bikers to tone down the pipes, others want to kill any attempt at noise restrictions. Noise is an ingrained part of biker culture, and modification is big business. Those opposed to controls intend to fight.

Local residents and all others in California who support controls on the eardrum-busters need to let members—all members—of the state legislature know where they stand. Several Malibuites have told me that the law is so long overdue that, of course, it will pass. Since SB 435 has already been watered down appreciably, if the clamor for killing it outright is as loud as the bikes the law would attempt to regulate, don’t bet on it.