California aims to be an idealized state. Sometimes a little too much, in the opinion of some motorcyclists.

The state has some of the harshest emissions requirements and rules on what aftermarket performance can and cannot be sold or used on the roads. If you’re wondering what is allowed, your answer is mostly nothing.

Mostly nothing, except for maybe adding some subjectively cool chrome doo-dads, and maybe an aftermarket seat. Surely there’s no harm in that, right? Wrong!

Starting in the fall of 2018 you may have noticed a little blurb on the websites of some of your favorite motorcycle manufacturers are adding a scary little blurb to their product pages:

That’s right. Your chrome foot pegs could kill you, man. But that’s actually nothing new. This has been the case for years. So why are we only reading about this and seeing these labels now?

Introducing Proposition 65

Proposition 65 also prohibits California businesses from knowingly discharging significant amounts of listed chemicals into sources of drinking water. Proposition 65 requires California to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. This list, which must be updated at least once a year, has grown to include approximately 900 chemicals since it was first published in 1987. p65warnings.ca.gov

Proposition 65 isn’t actually a new-age nanny-state thing. It first became law in 1986, and voters approved it with 63% to 37% margin. We’re not sure why the motorcycle aftermarket is only being touched now, but it comes down to one of two potential reasons:

1. These manufacturers have only been assessed recently and therefor needed to become compliant, or 2. As the list of chemicals increases, one of the chemicals used by the motorcycle manufacturers only became included recently.

The latter is more likely, but in any event, we have to wonder if motorcyclists will notice the warnings, and whether or not they’ll even care.

Edit: It’s interesting to note that Amazon vendors selling Kuryakyn and Mustang seats don’t seem to be following the rules. Naughty naughty. I like that.

COMMENTS: Do these warning labels change your opinion on the manufacturers?

Are you less likely to purchase chrome, performance, or comfort accessories with these labels?

Once you add a bit more copy, we’ll give you a list of related content here to which you could link in your post.