Euro Compliant Retrofit Exhausts
Successive changes in the emissions ( and sound ) regulations applying to motorcycles in Europe have made life difficult for dealers and component vendors alike .
The steady evolution of European regulations from Euro 1 to the Euro 5 we have now , have had the effect of fracturing the unit volume business opportunities available to aftermarket manufacturers in general , exhaust manufacturers in particular . It would be easy for those outside the European market looking in to assume that the number of ' domestic ' aftermarket motorcycle exhaust manufacturers in Europe must have shrunk markedly in recent years , but that really is not the case . Our sister magazine International Dealer News , which is focused on the ' metric ' market , has a database of at least 63 manufacturers making exhausts of one kind or another - in one volume or another in Europe - plus countless additional brands from Japan , Asia and the United States also still selling in Europe . The common misconception is that once a new level of regulation is implemented , all motorcycles and the products made for them must meet that level of regulation . That is not in fact true . Euro 5 became binding on January 1st , 2021 , and as
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1000 degree C resistant . a result all new motorcycles have to meet that level of emissions control . However , pre-December 31st , 2020 models remain subject to Euro 4 , and aftermarket ( or OEM supplied stock replacement ) exhausts ' only ' have to continue meeting Euro 4 for the rest of their service life .
Those motorcycles have to comply with the emissions ( noise and safety ) regulations that were current at the time of their first registration as a new unit - Euro 5 is not retro-active . Similarly , motorcycles made and registered during the Euro 3 era can still use Euro 3 grade exhausts , and so on . This means that there is still a large and viable opportunity for exhaust manufacturers to sell non- Euro 5 compliant exhausts for pre-registered models . Essentially , there are three ways for an exhaust manufacturer to be able to sell legally in Europe . First , and obviously , ensure that the exhaust system meets the regulations that were current at the time the motorcycle was first sold by a dealer . However , thereafter they will only be able to sell for those motorcycles and priors . Second , only sell exhausts that meet the most recent level of emissions regulation . In theory this would be the ' Gold Standard ' business opportunity , but it is not as practical as it might sound . Each level of emissions regulation is tighter and technically more difficult to meet , with a different focus on which emissions gases and particulates are being targeted for incremental reduction . Plus , initially , the available business opportunity with
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