You can't ride here

[BDI]

You know I don't like stoping other people from doing what they enjoy because I don't like being told no myself. I made this trail a couple of years ago that went up this mountain side to a real cool overlook of the Las vegas vally. It twisted it's way through big lava rocks and desert plants of all kinds it was very tight and technical you could say it was pretty and garden like. From a distance you could not even see it was there it was the kind of trail that some hikers would love to take over for themselves. The last time I went there all the big lava rocks had been roled down the hill lots of the plants have been ironed out and there is no longer anything technical about it, its just a big ugly quad trail strait up the mountain side now. I guess its my fault for making a trail there in the first place.

[Danger4u2]

Off Road is Latin for erosion. Anyone that says different is lying to their self. Draper Lake Riding Area here in Okla.City was closed because it was located on the water shed that went into the lake. The silt was filling up the lake and displacing the water.  I witnessed this erosion from mostly dirt bikes from 1973 till when it was closed in 1999 or 2000.  Do quads cause erosion?  Yes, big time, because of the fixed rear axel and 4 wide wheels.  But don't count out bikes.  Before quads came out we had trails that, over the years became V shaped ravines that you could no longer ride because your feet and pegs would be torn off.  We would just switch off to the side 20 feet and start the process over.  Out in western Okla. near the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve you can still see where the wagon trains heading for Calif. went through, now that's erosion.
The Pansy issue:  Man that hurts my feelings (as violins play in the back ground) I ride a quad.  My quad is full on MX quad.  I must be a pansy because I can only hold on to it for 2-3 hours riding hard before I'm wore out.  I can ride my K5 hard and I'm good for half a day.  What I'm getting at is you have to be tougher to MX a quad than to MX a dirt bike.  I came to this conclusion from saddle time on both.  I can see both sides of the coin.  Some riding areas the quad guys ruin it some areas the bike crowd causes problems.

[BDI]

Erosion is not really an issue around hear it's giving the turtles respirtory problems that they use as a lame ass excuse to keep us from riding. I have no problem with quad riders I hate to see anyones right to ride taken away even if it's some clown on a unicycle. I can't win for loosing is all, either some tree huggers would have found my trail and had it shut down to every thing but hikers or some a-holes on quads would come and desroy it. I wish I had a big desert where only me and my freinds could play but then that would make me a hiker.

[TheGDog]

Look... Quads are fun as heck.............  IN THE DUNES!   

In the Dunes... you would have to be either a straight out 'tard... or riding ABSURDLY above your skill level in order to have a bad fall on a Quad.  I've ridden them *HARD* at PISMO... and in that environment I fully agree they are one of the optimum tools for the job.   And in that environment... I can justify an abundant population of them running around. What are they gonna hurt, right?  The sand is already sand.. so no biggie.

Somebody mentioned how dirtbike trails after a while turn into deep V's.  Yes... indeed... this is true.  My point there is...How long did it take for that to occur on a strictly dirtbike trail... vs... how long does it take ANYWHERE a quad rides before a "trail" is turned into a sort of mini fireroad.  ATV's wipe out flat a much much larger path of destruction... and they do so in record time!

Regarding that pansy comment.  Alright... perhaps that was a lil harsh, and I apologize.  By pansy I meant that typically you see people riding them that are afraid of riding 2-wheelers... or lack the skill-set to ride a 2-wheeler fast... or they consider themselves too old to "risk" riding a 2-wheeler for fear of a bad crash.  And what makes me really just not see the point in it.... is that it's just not possible to ride a quad as fast as a 2-wheeled dirtbike... except for possibly in the Dunes... and even then I don't believe that to be true, personally.  And OMG... have you seen the mayhem when Quads crash?  Those d**n things have WWWAAAYYYY more potential to take-out a bystander or two.  The flip-flop nature of an un-mounted dirt-bike *usually* would have it coming to rest much quicker than a Quad travelling at equal speed.

Another scenario I see very often is that one Quad is purchased to provide something to ride for the whole family to take turns on.  My guess is, this scenario... economics are fueling the husband to figure the only way he's gonna get his wife's buy-in for the pricey purchase would be to explain that it'll be something they all can share "as a family".  In my opinion.... "that jus' ain't right".  The riders of lower-level skill-sets need a more beginner vehicle to be learning on... not "the best bang for the back that dad could afford".  This is an accident just waiting to happen... you know... like a 12 year-old kid mounted on a top-of-the-line racing Quad.  His physical size and strength limitations prevent him from operating that vehicle safely at the speeds it's capable of reaching.  Not to mention the less-than-savvy split-second decision making process most youngsters tend to exhibit when faced with an on-coming rider on a trail. 

And that brings up another good point... have you ever come whippin' around a turn in a trail only to be met with an oncoming kid aboard his Dad's ATV?  The only way to avoid a crash is for both to accomplish stopping... or the bike to veer OFF the trail temporarily.  By proxy... the ATV just made the trail even wider than the mere width of his ride.. BOOM!

[DEZADX]

Excellent post there G-Dog.   Many o' time, up in the stoddard area, have I seen certain groups pile out of an overloaded suburban just off the freeways edge, unload one atv, and watch everyone take turns trying to impress us all with their newly bought riding skills.  Helmets optional, of course.  Just because the salesman tells you anybody can ride it, doesn't mean you can too.  There are morons in all classes of off-road recreation, some classes just have more members bringing ignorance to our attention.

[Danger4u2]

G-Dog, I agree with all you have said with the exception of the pansy part. I will admit I've seen allot of pansy but none on dirtbikes.  Motorcycles cause erosion but quads do 3 times the damage.  The track I made on city property by the river, it was kind of a no mans land, had severe erosion.  I made the track through the fields and woods on my quad.  Then I go at it with the bike.  I make short cuts and loops that only the bikes can fit through.  The quad part, lots of erosion, the bike part 75% less erosion.  And after 3 seasons of building this track and 1 season of getting to ride the completed track,  guess what killed all the fun.  Irresponsible parents buying inexperienced kids a couple of quads.  One of them broke his neck and now they are suing the city.  Why is it people do something stupid, get hurt and then it's someone else's fault?  Arrest and impound of you vehicle if you get caught riding in the area.  In Okla. we have had a rash of kids getting killed on quads, most on private property.  The Government is going to legislate age and cc restrictions for riding quads on state land.  I will also agree with you on the amount of damage an out of control quad can do over a dirtbike.  Crash a bike and it doesn't go to far, if you crash a quad and it stays on the wheels no telling how far it will go and what it may crash into.  Here's a short video of me worming out (oilfield term for doing something stupid) on my old quad back in 2003.  This is why all quads should have a tether kill switch.  Have fun watching this at my expense. Lucky for me it went right and drove up onto the rocks and died.  To the left was a 15 foot cliff into the river.  Just click the picture to play the video.
P.S. Your typical day at work is great.

[maddoggy]

danger, that's some very funny video there. i can't count how many times i've done stupid things like that on my quad. i even ran over my own foot once and it ripped me right off the quad in short order. now for the serious part. i ride both a bike and a quad, i have an equal amount of fun on both of them. one of the things that pisses me off more than any other thing about recreation is seeing people out there tearing things up. don't get me wrong, there are some places that you could ride anywhere without harming anything at all, and in a place like that i would have no problem riding wherever i wanted. here in wyoming most places have beautiful mountains that are a blessing to have close-by, but there are alot of tree-hugger types here that are trying to choke down the motorsports enthusiests. when i see someone riding off trail, the picture that comes into my mind is a post or gate across the trailhead reading "ROAD OR TRAIL CLOSED" and most of the time the cause of the closure is a bunch of butt heads doing whatever they please in Gods Country. i do my absolute best to stay on trail, if the trail gets eroded or rutted out then use some of the taxes that americans pay, fill it in and start over. that's all i got to say about that.  MADDOGGY

[TheGDog]

Excellent post there G-Dog.   Many o' time, up in the stoddard area, have I seen certain groups pile out of an overloaded suburban just off the freeways edge, unload one atv, and watch everyone take turns trying to impress us all with their newly bought riding skills.  Helmets optional, of course.  Just because the salesman tells you anybody can ride it, doesn't mean you can too.  There are morons in all classes of off-road recreation, some classes just have more members bringing ignorance to our attention.

Isn't it extremely intriguing that the "certain groups" DEZADX is oh-so politely referring too... most often seem to be either Latinos... or 909-type White-Trash sportin' flat-billed "designer" trucker mesh-caps? 

[js]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcpjH_F1I-c&feature=related

[k5abuser]

its allways a few that ruin it for the rest of us that try and respect the land we use for fun . so we can try and do more but the stupid people reproduce to fast . the tree huggers have bugged the state reps so much that they just give in and shut the land down to all just to shut the tree huggers up . well ill help you tree huggers out .  how about i save a tree and just wipe my azz with a spotted owl   !!!!

[n2682]

 im only 25 guys so forgive me for my lack of experiance here but when i was a lil kid in the town of comstock.mi were i grew up i would see 50 bikes a day ride past my house there were some pritty serious trails by are house. and some gravel pits that were open to public riding well by the time i was 15 and had a 250 i wasnt allowed to ride in the pits and most of the trials were turned into house's so we built dirt bike tracks and rode were we could tell the cops eventually came over and said your not allowed to do this anymore so we were breakin what laws but the bad news kids sold drugs on the corners the cops would drive past them and give us a ticket i dont see what the big harm is with riding dirt bikes quads as long as u arnt detroying others property id like to know what you older guys think and why this has came about i got into alot of trouble as a kid for enjoying a legal hobby and i never could figure out what laws i broke if any that i was ticketed for even lost a bike i got brand new a month before? any input on why riding has came the evil thing to do

[js]

move west young man. once you hit the rockies its national forest and BLM land, millions of acres of riding. stay on the trails and have a spark arrestor and you'll never have a problem. buy a fishing lic. you'll be covered if you need search and rescue teams to come find you. If you dont buy a fishing lic you can be billed for the rescue. If you ever get the chance take a week trip to MOAB utah. its like riding on another planet. its a spring or fall riding area. too hot in the summer.

[maddoggy]

i just have to say, if you're riding off-trail on national forest land and you get busted up, you deserve to lay there and suffer. don't be whining when nobody comes to get you. when people ride off-trail they just ruin the legal riding for the rest of us that try to obey the rules. off-trail riders leave behind tracks, and then some tree huggin' granola son-of-a-&#$@* will take a picture of the tracks and show some local government official. that government person is then obligated to do something about it. and there you have it---EVEN MORE RIDING RESTRICTIONS FOR EVERYONE!!!!!  MADDOGGY