UK SET TO BE ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2040...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, there’s absolutely no way you could have missed this announcement in the last few weeks… even if you wanted to. Yep, the Government are looking to put a ban on petrol and diesel vans and cans by 2040, as the UK is one of 17 EU countries breaching annual targets for nitrogen dioxide; a problem which has been made worse by the failure of the European testing regime for vehicle emissions... But what does that mean for us bikers?

At the moment, there has been no specific mention on the stance for two wheels, but either way there’s absolutely no hiding the fact that electric bikes are here to stay. Just look at brands like Energico and Zero Motorcycles who are actually fielding some more usable realworld bikes. And with the rise of races like the TT Zero, we can’t help but think that the electric wizardry is only going to be pushed further throughout the next 20 years. If you fancy an electric bike, you can even pick up a tasty £1500 grant from the government, if that’s enough to tempt you.

But it’s going to take a bit more than that to convert us at FB from the beautiful feel, smell and sound of good old internal combustion engines. It was bad enough having to wave off two-strokes, and Euro 4’s not exactly done us any favours while we’re at it. But going totally leccy isn’t exactly getting us excited, especially following a recent track outing on one of these underpowered and weighty types, but we’ll tell you more about that in another issue. For now, we’re just moping over this decision and hoping that things get a damn sight better before that none-too-distant deadline, which the High Court and the Environmental Secretary proclaimed was necessary to find a way to significantly reduce the volume of nitrogen dioxide pumped into our sky, as it is purportedly linked to as many as 40,000 deaths each year.

And now for the good news! We don’t need to fret just yet though, as motorcycles do currently meet lower emission requirements than those on four wheels. And with that in mind, we reckon we should just get everyone riding bikes. I’m not saying we’d be saving the world, but it would be a good place to start…

WE RECKON WE SHOULD JUST GET EVERYONE RIDING BIKES.