First a little background. Last night I went out to visit my 89 year-old mother-in-law who lives nearby in a rest home. She is a Holocaust survivor, tough as nails, who has gone through more than most of us could ever imagine. She lost her parents, grand parents and her entire village to the Nazis, escaped from a concentration camp and fought with the partisans in the forest - all while in her teens. Then she came to the U.S. without knowing a word of English and worked her way through UC Berkeley where she got two graduate degrees. I have huge respect for her and I try to see her as often as I can as she is sadly fading out. Visiting her is also a great reason to get out on the Zero so it is really win win. This brings me to the point of the story. On the way to see her last night I got in a right turn lane behind a '65 Chevy Malibu with a rumbling V8. I appreciate old muscle cars, they are from my era - my first car was a '65 Mustang with a 289 V8 and I loved that car. I was admiring the Chevy when after about 30 seconds I realized that I was having trouble breathing. His lovely twin pipes were filling my lungs with carbureted untreated hydrocarbons. I don't know about other states, but here in California older vehicles are exempt from smog regulations. There was no way around the Chevy as I was trapped by a car behind and cars on the left that were packed too tightly for me to filter through and the Chevy was too close to the curb on the right for me to get by. After another minute or so (it is a very long duration light) I was getting really nauseated and woozy and I was extremely light-headed. I began to panic and just as I was ready to hop the curb on the right to get up on the sidewalk the light changed and the Chevy blasted off giving me one more dose of poison. I let him get far ahead of me, opened my visor and gratefully breathed in some nice cool fresh air. I know that modern cars are way cleaner now but nonetheless my nasty exhaust experience has given me a new take on the Zero. When people ask me why I ride an electric motorcycle I always say that it's for the performance and I downplay the "green" factor. From now on I will also say that it's damn nice to have a vehicle that doesn't foul the air behind it.
