Off-road motorcycles and quads....

There's a huge Off-road park about twenty miles down the road.

I know I'm just an old fart, but I don't get it. Tearing around the desert and crashing into each other just ain't no fun to me. But..... being a let-live kinda guy... I just want to leave them alone to do their weird thing.

Problem is... they just won't leave the rest of us alone. Every weekend and holiday, thousands of them converge on that park and stir up enough dust and two-cycle exhaust to ruin the air quality for the whole valley. Asthmatics have to stay in the closed-up house or leave.

And I resent the resources spent to clean up the casualties. Over the New Years holiday, there were 4 life-flights, thirty ambulance calls, and 8 arrests.

Not to mention the enormous use of fuel to get there and run those machines.

If I operated a private amusement park and had a record of air-quality violations and a casualty/arrest record like that, the government would close me down.

Can anybody clue me in about how/why this goes on?

happily works with these "enthusiasts" to fight any controls on their "sport." Apparently, the Republic will fall if they lose any more territory to despoil.

At least they can't run up and down all the beaches, state and county parks, and winter farmland any more.

Snowmobiles around here have been limited, too. When we actually got snow, I think someone's cow got whacked, and that brought it to the surface.

(And bumper cars at the amusement park are considered unsafe...)

Are you trying to be obtuse?

I said "I just want to leave them alone to do their weird thing."

I also said that their fun ruined the breathing for everybody and cost everybody in terms of resources spent to care for their casualties.

Are you incapable of understanding that their tearing up the desert keeps anyone else from enjoying it?

I understand that some people can only have fun by tearing things up, but to expect people who want to preserve and conserve our environment to like that destruction is beyond me.

alltogether.

Vehicles belong on roads.

I've got no use for anyone who thinks it's "fun" to tear up our public lands, and I have no respect for them or their so-called "sport...."

These parks have no speed limits or any other sort of controls. I bet if the cops enforced speed limits and other safety regulations, most of these people would go elsewhere.

The whole point of motor sports is "go as fast as you want/can". MX tracks and designated trails do have strick rules. When your on an MX track, you to wear these basic safety gear. A helmet, goggles, gloves, boots made for motorcross, long pants. Their are other safety gear that can be worn is you choose to, like chest protector, and ankle braces etc etc... Its the same deal for trails, and usually your only allow to go in one direction so their is no head-on collisions.

MX tracks usually have water lines all around the track to keep the dirt moist, so dust wont float up in the air. Regular parks with single trails and such dont. I am involved in the sport, I have an 03 Honda CRF450 dirtbike.



I try to do my part in keeping the trails clean, while most of us offroaders are good people, their are also alot of assholes too who cut up and ruin it for the rest of us. And at the same time their environmental groups who are after us for alot BS reasons.

As for 2 cycle exhaust, yes it can get obnoxious, though their are still alot 2 strokes dirtbikes, bike makers like Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki have completely switched over to 4 strokes except on the smaller MX bikes in the 85cc class. Honda so far has been the first the produce a 4 stroke alternative to their CR85, which is the CRf150R. Problem is, I dont think their would alot of buyer for it because it costs 1 thousand dollars more than the CR85.

Fuel usage, 2 strokes do use alot of fuel! They can burn through 2 gallons of gas in about 2 hours or so. 4 strokes can burn 2 to 3x less. Going by the trip meter on my bike, riding on trails I usually get up to around 65 miles on a 2.5 gallon tank, thats 26mpg.

You want to do something about people getting hurt? Open more offroad parks. Alot of parks have been getting crowded becuase of the closers of other parks, thus the open parks getting more crowded and then you have more people getting hurt.

Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Rec Area. They're going to expand it by 32,000 acres soon. There is NO water to spread to kill the dust, and certainly not on that scale.

The rules read..."It is illegal to drive an OHV at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent...." (Sure...) "Don't drink and drive." (Riiiiight!)

Thousands (and thousands) of people from LA and San Diego descend on the place on weekends.

You sound like a trail rider.. and a sane one at that. The are major trails in OW, but anybody can ride anywhere... and they do. When you're way out in the dingweeds, and hauling ass across the open ground, it's easy to come over a hill and meet another rider coming over the other side. Easy to ride off a dropoff, too.

A ranger I know who was assigned there for two years said he did CPR 18 times during that time. He has horror stories that made this former combat Marine gulp!

My favorite story is the one I saw on TV where an 8yr old kid was in the ER after a crash out there, and the docs were curious about the tape on the kid's gloves and hands. Parents said "Oh... his hands keep slipping off the hand grips, so we taped them on."

Most of the off-roading community is in the western states, so it is big problem where your at with all the hazards their is in that region. Not only that, but a growing population, other parks getting closed, and parks left open getting crowded.

Most of the people that get hurt in my area are a bunch of rednecks on utility 4 wheelers doing stupid shit. Parents that let their 10 year old kids ride a huge 700lbs utiliy quad with no supervision, and no safety gear what so ever, and I see them riding up and down the road all the time:mad: Personally I think, big utility 4 wheelers like that are way more dangerous than a dirtbike, a 700lbs four wheeler than do ALOT more damage in an accident compared to a 200lbs dirtbike.

Theirs an MX track just 5 minutes away from me, and 80% of the riders that go to that track are from Virginia, while the rednecks that surround me here, ride through mudholes and do doughnuts in the farm fields with a beer in one hand.