Global regulatory agencies have been closely monitoring tailpipe emissions from all vehicles, motorcycles included, for decades. There are studies upon studies resulting in tighter standards for all combustion vehicles. The mostrecent “Euro 6” vehicle emissions standardis the most restrictive yet.

Vehicle manufacturers need to abide by emissions regulations wherever they sell their cars, trucks or motorcycles. These manufacturers work hard to make sure the engines and exhaust systems they design fall within the set standards. What has not generally been tested and isn’t regulated, and is now looking more and more like the next target of regulation: tire wear.

Wear, Where?

我们都知道在我们的摩托车轮胎磨损significantly faster than car tires. We also know that after a day’s ride, black “road grime” covers everything. Burnout contests are a thing, and they smell terrible. But what’s in that particulate, and where does the material from your (and everyone else’s) tires go?

Studies Have Shown…

Emissions Analytics, a global emissions and data specialist firm, has releasedseveral reportsandnewslettershighlighting tire wear emissions. Their conclusions stated that emissions from tire wear were more than 1,000 times greater than the particulate emitted by (car) tailpipes.

Cars Spit It Out, We Breathe It In

On one hand, all of this testing was car-centric, so we have no real idea how much motorcycles are also contributing to the tire wear emissions problem. On the other, we as motorcyclists are uniquely exposed to everyone else’s “road grime” – it ends up on our skin, and we breathe it in. Heck, we pretty much bathe in road grime. We’re not in sealed boxes with a cabin air filter between us and the road. But what are we exposing ourselves to when we’re riding in traffic?

Tire Manufacturers Don’t Tell

Tire companies keep their tire and rubber composition a closely guarded secret. New studies show that there are loads of different compounds in tire wear and few of them are well understood when it comes to affect on human physiology. A quick internet search for studies on tire wear and elemental carbon, organic carbon, and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) will bring up all kinds of interesting research for your reading pleasure.

The More Fun You’re Having…

The long and short of it is, the more aggressive the driver, the more particulate comes off the tires. Anything a driver or rider does that increases tire wear, increases the amount of tire wear emissions. Since there are currently no regulations around tire wear emissions, tire manufacturers have not worked to reduce them. One study showed particulate from tire wear emissions from a modern car far outpacing its tailpipe emissions, by a factor of 1800. You read that right: tire wear emissions particulates can be 1800 times greater than tailpipe emissions.

While the cars tested were internal combustion, electric vehicles can be more polluting, from a tire wear standpoint. They weigh significantly more, and deliver more torque to the wheels, both of which increase tire wear.

It’s Everywhere

All of this particulate, that does not end up stuck to, or in the lungs of, a motorcyclist, goes into the environment. Organic compounds, aromatics, microplastics and “fine particle dust” all end up on our roads, waterways, soil.

With all that in mind, how do we protect ourselves from the particulate emissions spitting out from everyone else’s tires? For one, this is yet another reason to be a “shunpiker” as Neil Peart put it. The less traffic around you, the less airborne particulate, the better.

By dint of their very existence, tires wear. That is theirraison d’etre. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t stick to the road. Will tire wear emission regulations set us back decades when it comes to the “cheap, sticky, long-lasting” triangle? Tireperformance has gottenso goodrecently. Nothing that great, apparently, comes without consequences.