This exhaust law in California, does it also apply to automobile and truck exhausts?
If not then it is unconstitutional and will most likely be overturned eventually. I know that the AMA is all about having equal rights for motorcyclists as other motorists. The law cannot single out one form of privately owned and operated vehicle for compliance and not include others. That is why I would also expect motorcycles to require the same state safety inspections as cars, and if cars are emissions tested they should have to meet that as well.
Here in NH we do have an annual safety inspection for both cars and bikes. Costs all of $20 for bikes and takes about 5 minutes, no appointments needed at most stations. Cars made after 1996 need to not have a check engine light on or stored in memory. Cars made before 96 are not OBDII, so are exempted from emissions testing, as are motorcycles. I would imagine at some point they will start looking at the check engine light on bikes, but since there is no OBDII type of standard, they won't be reading the memory any time soon.
We used to have tailpipe emissions testing on cars and trucks, but it ended up being an excessive burden on the inspection stations as the required equipment was too expensive, too unreliable and the testing ended up costing the stations more than what they were taking in from fees. That's why they changed over to the OBDII test only.
Of course, we are the "Live Free or Die" state. California's motto is "Eureka, I found it," which is in reference to the 1849 gold rush. So we'e all about fighting and dying for freedom here, and they're all about gold digging out there.
