American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 178 May 2014 | Page 64

Louis Casarez Promoted to President &
CEO of Custom Chrome
CUSTOM Chrome has announced
the promotion of Louis Casarez
to President & Chief Executive
Officer of Custom Chrome
International at Morgan Hill,
California.
Louis has been with Custom
Chrome and parent company
DIC in Korea for 15 years. He
returned to Custom Chrome as
Director of Operations after a
12 year deployment in Korea a
year ago.
Whilst in Korea Louis was a
Design Engineer for the owner's

motorcycle division, where,
among other achievements, he
was heavily involved in the
RevTech engine and 6-speed
transmission development
programs.
Also while at DIC, Louis was
involved with projects for GM,
Clark forklifts and Dana. During
the past year as Director of
Operations Louis has been
concentrating on streamlining
the business in-line with its
"focus and goals."
Louis is a motorcycle enthusiast

and MMI graduate who has
worked in many facets of the
industry - first at a local
motorcycle shop on the
Monterey Peninsula, California,
and he then spent 4 years as a
designer at Corbin Saddles, and
joined Custom Chrome in 1999
as a member of the Research
and Development department.

EPA acknowledges that
ethanol damages engines
THE U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has publicly
acknowledged that ethanol in
gasoline can damage internal
combustion engines by increasing
exhaust temperatures and indirectly
causing component failures, the
American Motorcyclist Association
reports.
According to the American
Motorcyclist Association (AMA) the
EPA statements are found in a rule
proposal issued by the Federal Trade
Commission regarding a new label for
pumps that supply fuel blends high in
ethanol.
According to the EPA, ethanol
"impacts motor vehicles in two
primary ways. First, ethanol enleans
the [air/fuel] ratio (increases the
proportion of oxygen relative to
hydrocarbons) which can lead to
increased exhaust gas temperatures
and potentially increase incremental

64

deterioration of emission control
hardware and performance over time,
possibly causing catalyst failure.
"Second, ethanol can cause
materials compatibility issues, which
may lead to other component failures.
In motorcycles and non-road products
[using E15 and higher ethanol
blends], EPA [has] raised enginefailure concerns from overheating."
The AMA says that these EPA
statements contained in the FTC
document back their long-held
position.
"The American Motorcyclist
Association has fought the
distribution of E15 fuel blends in an
effort to protect motorcycles and allterrain vehicles from the damage that
ethanol causes," said Wayne Allard,
AMA Vice President for government
relations.
"Now the EPA acknowledges that
ethanol itself is harmful to emissions

AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - MAY 2014

hardware and other components on
all motor vehicles. It is time for the
federal government to pause, take a
hard look at this product and change
its entire approach to ethanol in
fuels."
E15 is a gasoline formulation that
contains up to 15 percent ethanol by
volume.
None of the estimated 22 million
motorcycles and ATVs currently in
operation can use fuels with blends
higher than 10 percent ethanol. Doing

so could void the manufacturer's
warranty, in addition to causing
damage to the vehicle.
The AMA applauded the EPA's
decision in its proposed rule to roll
back the requirement for wider
distribution and use of E15 under its
Renewable Fuel Standard.
Earlier this year the EPA announced
that it was adopting E10 (10 percent
ethanol content) as its standard test
fuel, effective 2017, resisting pressure
to back the higher content E15.

www.AMDchampionship.com