Motorcycle enthusiasts in California should take note, your legislatures aren’t eyeing up your bike because they like what you’ve done with it, but are considering another round of two-wheeled legislation.

According to the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) a key California State Assembly committee has endorsed a proposal to require motorcyclists to have EPA-compliant exhaust systems on their model year 2011 and newer motorcycles.

It was only on Monday June 28^th when the Committee on Transportation voted 8-4 to approve Senate Bill 435, introduced by Sen. Fran Pavley which would make it illegal to ride a motorcycle on the road built on, or after, Jan. 1, 2011, that doesn't display a federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) label certifying the exhaust system meets sound emissions standards.

Riders caught riding model year 2011 or newer motorcycles without this stamp would be issued "fix it" tickets by law enforcement officers. The measure now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for further consideration.

"Many EPA labels are very difficult to locate on motorcycles," said AMA Western States Representative Nick Haris. "This proposed law could lead to a flurry of tickets for motorcyclists who have legal exhaust systems on their machines with EPA labels that can't be easily seen. It's unreasonable to expect a law enforcement officer to easily locate an EPA label, and it's simply unfair to expect a motorcycle owner to partially dismantle an exhaust system alongside the road to prove the label exists.”

Haris and the AMA are urging concerned California motorcyclists to contact their state lawmakers and urge them to reject Senate Bill 435.

This isn’t the first time the esteemed Senator from Oxnard-Los Angeles has had motorcycles in her crosshairs. It was about this time last year when Pavley (pictured right) tried to introduce the same bill requiring the EPA stickers. Originally including smog tests for motorcycles built after 2010, the bill was watered down to the sticker requirement but still couldn’t make it through the legislature.

The move by the AMA to fight the latest proposed legislation isn’t the advocacy group necessarily coming down on the side of the ‘loud pipes’ lobby, but feel their own approach to the matter is the better way.

In September 2009, the AMA developed model legislation for use by cities and states seeking a simple, consistent and economical way to deal with sound complaints related to on-highway motorcycles within the larger context of excessive sound from all sources. The group feels the model legislation offers an better, objective method.

"Requiring that a motorcycle display a readily visible EPA label isn't the correct way to address concerns about excessive motorcycle sound," he added. "The only objective way to determine whether a motorcycle complies with sound laws is for properly trained personnel to conduct sound level tests using calibrated meters and an agreed-upon testing procedure."