London ULEZ

[mike g]

Has anyone managed to get their FJ certified for NOX emissions to comply with London ULEZ requirements?
mine is a 3CV running standard exhausts, I believe a company in East London can test, modify and certify most bikes but haven't contacted them yet, seems I have until next August or it's £12.50 every time it goes out.
any experiences thanks?

[Motofun]

No idea about your concern however I gotta give credit to an innovative way to raise revenue by the city!   

[Pat Conlon]

NOX emission certification on a carburetor equipped 35 year old motorcycle? How is that possible?

Won't you need a catalytic converter and if so, how does that work without fuel injection, ecu and an O2 sensor?

I'm interested in learning what you need to do....

[Millietant]

Hardly a chance of it working, keeping the standard exhaust will make difference at all to the NOx emissions - pretty much every bike made before about 2007 (with Euro 3 Emissions compliance) is out, with a very small number of exceptions.

The limit's for petrol/gasoline engine emissions are :-

Carbon monoxide (CO): max 2.3g/km
Total hydrocarbons (THC): max 0.20g/km
Nitrogen oxides (NOx): max 0.15g/km

The weird thing is though that  the ULEZ charges for bikes etc have been in place since April 2019 for Central London and I think they were extended out to "all roads inside the North and South Circular" last year, so I've no idea why you won't be charged until next August, unless there's another even further extension of the area covered by the ULEZ.

It's been widely discussed in UK forums for a couple of years now, where people have been trying to get their bikes tested/certificated. You can get through it, if the manufacturer provides documentation that the model was designed to pass those levels, but no-one tested for those emissions back in the day, so you're not really going to get any help there.

Loads of pre 2007 bikes have had to be sold because they couldn't comply with the ULEZ emissions rules. A few people have gotten their 2001-2005 Fazer 1000's (FZ1) tested and certificated and I think some FZS (Fazer) 600's, but apparently they need to be set up really specifically to pass and there is no "blanket" certification for each type after a successful test. Every single bike has to be tested on it's own, at the rider/owners expense.

I'm absolutely certain you'd be flogging a dead horse trying to make your FJ comply and he best thing to do for your FJ is to either keep it outside of the ULEZ and only ride it outside the zone, or keep it in your garage and wait until it's 40 years old at which point it becomes a "historic vehicle" and exempt from the ULEZ.

Sorry I can't be any more optimistic, but much better brains than mine have been working on this for a few years now and not come up with any viable solution.

[Millietant]

Also, currently, I believe there are only 2 Authorised places to get your testing done in order to get certification for motorcycles where they don't come with confirmation of compliance from the manufacturer, one is these guys,

Riverbank Motorcycles Ltd
Unit 12, Riverbank Business Park
Dye House Lane, Bow
London E3 2TB

and the other is,

ULEZ Testing UK Ltd
5 Bowman`s Trading Estate
Bessemer Drive
Stevenage
SG1 2DL

[Urx]

An early fj1100 frame say 1984 with your 3cv parts transferred onto the chassis would mean you could be 'vintage' in approx 1 to 2 years time.
Obviously not a straight forward bolt on 'conversion' but probably cheaper than any other path....unless you cant do it yourself in which case a new bike beckons.....what a crock ....

[mike g]

yes, our lovely mayor has now extended it out to the M25 basically from next August despite two thirds of the consultation being against it.
as far as i understand it only the Nox emissions matter and they don't worry about the rest of euro 3, and it will be an historic vehicle in 5 or 6 years time.
Riverside have done a few old bikes for a friend and it seems tweaking the mixture did it, will speak to them soon. Just wondered if anyone has managed with the 3CV. will let you know how it goes

[Motofun]

I'm sorry...WTF?  The mayor can just make this stuff up?  I know, we're also going down this path too.  Scary sh*t!

[mike g]

unfortunately we don't have the right to bear arms, or maybe someone could sort this out!

[Millietant]

I'm sorry...WTF?  The mayor can just make this stuff up?  I know, we're also going down this path too.  Scary sh*t!

What's scary is that the majority people of London who could be bothered to vote, actually voted for the man/party who are implementing these zones now and there was no secret that their philosophy was to follow this path - so I guess there's no complaining. Maybe the silent majority will learn from this for the next time and get off their backsides and vote - but I really doubt that will happen.

I'm just glad I basically never have the need (or desire) to drive into London and I can guarantee that I won't be riding into London. There is so so much our country has to offer outside of London, especially now that it is basically a cosmopolitan twin of every other major/capital city in Europe (and many in other parts of the world too), that I'd encourage any foreign visitors to get out of there as quickly as possible and see the REAL UK - by bike, car, bus, bicycle, on foot, or even (as a last resort) by train 

[Urx]

This soooo needs a like button
I lived in London for work for a year and am so glad i dont have to do that anymore...

[oldktmdude]

This soooo needs a like button
I lived in London for work for a year and am so glad i dont have to do that anymore...

The day this forum has a "like" button is the day I will leave it!
The last thing this great forum needs is to turn into a Facebook clone.
Regards, Pete.

[mike g]

We are 12 miles from centre of London and about 10 from the M25 ring road. obviously didn't vote for this, but will need to pay it just to get into the countryside (although nearest farm land is only about 2 miles!) doubt we will ever get it repealled, he is now talking about a London wide toll road system with variable pricing and all vehicles having some sort of transponder, he will be gone in a couple of years. bring back Boris!!

[Motofun]

OK, your post got me thinking...(dangerous, I know).  You used miles in your description, not kms.  In many Brit TV shows I've seen they also seem to switch back and forth.  Same with horse power and KW.  What do most people use when just talking?  Being an old engineer I was trained in the old system so that is what I'm most comfortable with.  I do understand the benefits of the metric system and that is now the fundamental system used in our universities.

[Millietant]

Not sure I know of any Brit TV shows that use kms, unless they're produced here for foreign audiences, but you're right, in general discussion etc, we use both terms of measurement indiscriminately.

All of our road signs and all of our enforcement is done on the basis of imperial units/miles. However, school rulers and tape measures have both metric and imperial scales on them, as do car speedometers. BUT, it gets worse, in sports we use metres for some running events, but we use miles for others ; we also switch between pounds/ounces and kgs, and even between stones and kgs for weight ; we use both C and F for temperature ; airfield runways are described in both feet and metres; we use both psi and kpa for tyre pressures and ; we measure fuel consumption in miles per gallon, but buy fuel in litres.

I'm sure it's all deliberate, just to confuse foreigners who visit us