I have heard that the reasons that Honda discontinued the R because of 1. lawsuits because of the cpsc consent decree and 2. because of emmissions. So what was the main reason. I keep hearing about the emmissions thing a lot lately. If Honda won't make a 250R because of pollution, then why do they still make CR125, CR250, CR500. Are these low emmission 2-strokes? Don't they pollute as much as a quad 250? If this is the real reason I don't see how it's fair that the quad got cut out first. Just curious.

 

What is the CPSC consent decree?

 

I am pretty sure the CPSC is the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the consent decree had to do mostly with the three-wheeler ban. Anybody have any info on this?

 

Yes, you are right...

Originally the 250R was discontinued due to the CPSC, various lawsuits, and a shrinking sport market.

Now, finally the sport market is growing again, but still no return of the 250R... one word - Emissions...

Yes they still do build 2 stroke dirtbikes, but these are considered "Closed course only" bikes. This is also how they get around EPA noise restrictions. These bikes currently get them a lot of exposure as far as the racing circuit goes. Many ATV manufacturers have stated that they will not build a "Closed Course only" ATV. They don't believe there is enough market & the pro level races aren't nearly as good exposure as it is in the dirtbike market, so there is very little factory support.

In fact the manufacturers would like to keep ATV racing quiet. This is basically what they got in trouble for with the CPSC. Supposedly marketing ATV's "Irresponsibly". As you can probably guess, supporting racing would probably counter any claims that they are now marketing safety in the eyes of a bureaucrat.

You will start to see the disappearance of the 2 stroke motocross bike over the next few years. It will happen, it's only a matter of time. You can also bet all the manufacturers are diligently working on new high performance 4 strokes.

 

Greetings,

A Concent Decree is basically an agreement between the government and a company that says: "OK we may have made some mistakes here, we won't admit to doing anything actually wrong, but we will voluntarily change our ways -- and if we do change things, you government guys have to leave us alone." Its a way to settle things without prosecution/persecution.

On of the leading credit card companies recently entered into a concent decree which required them to change the way they conduct their telephone sales campaigns. HMOs also have a number of recent high profile concent decrees regarding their "management" policies.

If you're really interested, you can usually find the whole text and commentary of these things on the Justice Department's web site.

 

There is a ton of info at
http://www.cpsc.gov/

 

Excellent info guys. Thanks a lot. If only we could have a closed-course quad.