ULEZ – four letters that have riled motorcyclists from every corner of the country for the past year. the Mayor of London and TfL were singing to the tune of less emissions and cleaning up London. The rest of us were shouting about money grabbing and having to pay an extra form of Road Tax.
But a story, recent shares on Biker and Bike seems to prove that the whole idea is nothing more than an ill-throughout farce!
The website reports that a Yamaha RD350, built in 1985 which, if TfL are to be believed, makes it a polar bear killing monster, has passed the TfL’s NOx (oxides of nitrogen, especially as atmospheric pollutants.) threshold with a score of 0.02g/kg when the minimum allowed is 0.15g/kg.
The owner of the machine is Steven Downer and in order to get the exemption certificate he had to take his bike to the only TfL approved NOx testing centre, based at Riverbank Motorcycles in London. After paying the £179 fee, the bike runs on a rolling road, while the exhaust gases are monitored through a ‘sniffer’, which is placed in the exhaust and carries the gases to an analyser for testing.
Once the test is complete, Riverbank informs the DVLA of the results, confirming that Steven’s bike is exempt from the charge. Although the site reports that the results will not update instantly, meaning that although his bike is exempt, he could be eligible for an automatic fine from the un-manned system.
Encouraged by the result of the RD350, it’s reported that Steven then popped home to grab his next favourite steed, a TDR250 (nice garage by the way Steven – we’re very jealous!) and took that down for a trip on the rolling road – and that passed too with 0.03g/kg. Still massively under the TfL imposed limit of 0.15g/kg.
Sadly for Steven, it’s reported that even a month on from the tests and the garage advising TfL the bikes are exempt, the details on the ULEZ vehicle checker. Meaning Steven could still be at risk of an automatic should he stray within the zone.
He’s reported to say: “I will not pay any fines received and will challenge them as required.”
Good on you – so would we!!!
