Potentially dangerous trend of unsafe aftermarket motorcycle parts is ...

Many aftermarket motorcycle parts that riders use to customize their machines have been discovered to violate federal standards and may be unsafe. The Washington Post launched an investigation into the matter.

Rick Doyle, who used to run an aftermarket parts dealership called Hog Farm, discovered some of the products he was selling appeared to violate federal standards. Other parts not covered by federal regulations showed signs of also being dangerous.

A series of aftermarket parts that Doyle used himself to customize motorcycles simply broke. Doyle then began to research the fine print in federal law covering aftermarket motorcycle parts.

?I felt like my chest had a piano on it when I realized the number of products I had sold, as well as countless ignorant dealers,? said Doyle. ?But no one wanted to hear it. No one wanted to investigate it. The government was letting these companies sell anything they wanted.?

Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) create and enforce regulations concerning the safety and air emission standards of aftermarket parts. The laws and regulations concerning these parts are complex, often confusing, and sometimes contradictory.

Parts that do not comply with clean air standards are sold as off-road or competition parts. Many parts that fail to comply with federal safety standards, such as undersized lights and mirrors, can be sold as supplements to existing equipment, but are often used as replacements.

?I could probably go online and look at a catalog and buy a variety of things that may put my motorcycle out of compliance,? said Peter terHorst, spokesman for the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). ?The question in my mind is: Does the requirement apply to the manufacturer or to the operator of the vehicle? It?s a slippery slope.?

There is certainly a lot of resistance from riders about having a government bureaucracy telling them what they can and can't do with their own motorcycles. Advocacy groups such as the AMA lobby tirelessly in Washington to protect motorcyclist?s rights and freedoms. Other groups and interests are fighting for more regulation.

?These [after-market] parts create smog and particle pollution,? said Paul G. Billings, vice president of national policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association. ?It?s willful violation of the law. We need to go after the manufacturers and retailers.?

The NHTSA has been devoting most of it's resources in the automotive industry, with fairly little attention directed toward motorcycle safety. Most highway deaths and injuries still occur to occupants of cars, due to the sheer number of them on the road.

?We do try and make sure that we?re focusing our resources and addressing major crashes and fatalities and injury risk,? said Ron Medford, NHTSA?s deputy administrator.

Some safety experts think the NHTSA isn't doing enough.

?There are people out there selling parts that NHTSA doesn?t even know about,? said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety. ?What you have is self-policing. Whether companies comply with the regulations is basically voluntary on their part because NHTSA doesn?t have the resources to oversee them.?

[Washington Post]

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