Illegal Offroading

[opfermanmotors]

In Pittsburgh, in Clairton there is an area called the glassport dumps.  There is a bunch of riding up there, it's all public land and people were riding there a long time. (I never rode there tho when I lived here, I had permission from a local farm called Trax Farms and so I rode on their land).

Anyhow, recently the mayor of the city rides his quad up there and only allows his friends to ride up there.  If he sees anyone riding up there, he calls the cops on you.  My friend was up there and the cops came and actually told him this (and they let him go that time)!  Can you believe that the mayor thinks he owns the public land there?  I told him if I lived here and that was happening I'd make sure I had my helmate cam and get it all on video and post it online.

[riffraff]

This is kind of interesting. Where I live, as long as you are riding on dirt, you are good, there will be signs up that say, No trespassing, but those signs are only there so you can not sue the city. The city could really care less if you are there. If you get hurt on someones property, and try to sue, the defendant can simply state that you were trespassing. A local track has signs up that say No trespassing, yet there is a motocross track there, and it has been there for 40 years, if the city didn't want you trespassing, they would take the track down. Anyways, it kinda sucks that all your guys' riding area is being taken away, I guess I am lucky because I walk for 2 mins with my bike, and I have access to unlimited trails.

Same here, less than 1/2 a block away and I have more trails than I could ride in a year and 4 tracks within 30 miles, one of them I can ride the bike to

[Coop]

In Pittsburgh, in Clairton there is an area called the glassport dumps. 

I rode there a couple times. But like you said the last couple guys I know that rode there (on dual sports) the cops showed up and ran them off. I didn't realize it was the mayor though, that's crap!

But almost everywhere I rode ten years ago is gone now; either posted or turned into a mini mall or condos.

[JETZcorp]

It used to be possible to ride on Powell Butte here in Portland way back.  As long as you walked your bike there, you could ride the trails.  My dad was apparently on a first-name basis with all the cops in that area because they'd catch him riding his '74 Maico (which was new at that time) on the sidewalk.  It started fairly innocently, just sitting side-saddle and going along in first at idle.  Then the revs built up slightly, then a reach down to bring it up to second.  Pretty soon, he was on the sidewalk in 4th gear, legs danging casually to one side, passing cars at 45 without really realizing it.

But of course, Powell Butte is now restricted to no motorized vehicles, which makes it great for the bicyclists.  If you have a bicycle in Oregon, you are a god among men.  You can ride in the main traffic lanes, in the dedicated bike lanes, on the sidewalks, through a random field, on dirt roads, on any hiking trail, up any mountain, and so on.  The only time you'll ever get hassled is if you are slowing traffic too badly (keeping me 10 under the limit downtown apparently isn't "too badly," though), or if you go on the freeway, or happen to get onto the Indian reservation.

But add a motor to that, and you're through.  It was so bad, at one point, that bikes weren't even allowed to ride gravel in the McCubbins area where I ride now.  If you wanted to go on a ride, you could only go for fifteen minutes MAX without having to re-trace your steps.  The result of that was that everyone stopped going there, and now they don't have enough budget for their army of Men in Beige.  Outside of the actual campground itself, it's basically anarchy, which is pretty cool.

[opfermanmotors]

Don't even get me started on Bicyclers!!  I hate bicycles and bicycle riders!  If they're out riding in the desginated riding area like a park or something, that's fine, but stay off the road.

The reason I hate them is simple, they think they own the roads, they hog the roads, go slow, get in your way and think they always have right of way.  If you get too close they will hit your car with their hand. 

If you're a pedestrian, they also have no respect, you also have to get out of their way when they come flying down the sidewalk.  They have no respect for pedestrians or cars.  Then they don't obey any of the traffic rules and they also do a hodge podge of rules, if a pedestrian rule benefits them, they take it, if a road rule benefits them, they take it, they basically do an intersection of all the rules and use it to get their way, oh ya, and if that isn't enough, they make up their own rules on top of that. 

[Hondacrrider]

Well, this is an invitation to you all, come up to Northern Canada in the summer time, and have access to all the trails you could ever want, you can even ride on the road if you want, when the cops show up, drive off into a trail on the side of the road and drive away, the cops here are too fat to get on a quad and chase you.

[Hondacrrider]

As for the pedal pushers, I am one too... and I admit, I ride on the sidewalk, and I ride on the road, and I mix up rules...but, I don't have to buy gas, and I get around pretty quickly, being able to take short cuts no one else can take.

[JETZcorp]

No matter how much you hate bicycles in Portland, there's no way you'd dare touch one.  If a bicycle rider runs into your car at 190 miles an hour (it doesn't have to make sense, just roll with it) and cuts your car in half, but the rider comes away un-harmed except a scratch in the paint on his bike, the car driver is still screwed.  The Oregonian will say it's another cars-running-over-bikes epidemic on the loose, and they'll take you to court in your full-body cast and that jury will rake you over the coals for what you did to that poor bicycle.

By the way, there's still a lot more of the Super Hunky story to go, but I've not had the time lately.  I'll take it up again when I can.

[factoryX]

oh god, portland its horrible. They tried to make it legal for bikers to ignore stop lights LOL. be careful with some road bikers(hipsters with fixies)
check out these bar ends, lol

[opfermanmotors]

No matter how much you hate bicycles in Portland, there's no way you'd dare touch one.

I know, for some reason if you have a bicycle its a license to be a *.  And if the bicycler hits a pedestrian, it's the pedestrians' fault for not walking fast enough.

Funny story, a friend of mine thought it was legal to hit bicyclers if they didn't wear flashing lights on their bike.  Another friend, who rides his bicycle to work then asked "so, what time are you leaving today so I know when not to leave". 

Naturally, we made fun of him.  So, if he doesn't like someone he can just shoot them and then put a bicycle laying next to them without flashing lights and say "Officer, he was on a bicycle without flashing lights, it's legal" and get off.

[maicoman009]

Not to get off of the bicycle subject but just recently were I live in W.MD. a man on a street bike (crotch rocket) was riding intoxicated & without a motorcycle license so yes he was definetly "illegal" but he had a passenger on his motorcycle and fortunately the passenger had the riders helmet on and the rider was running from the police at a high rate of speed and the crooked cop who only was able to become a cop by using his stepfathers last name(the cop had to use his stepfathers last name because he had criminal charges in his own last name for assaulting his girlfriend) used his police car to rear end the motorcycle and he ended up killing the rider and seriously injuring the passenger! The rider was breaking the law but it's NOT like he murdered someone or harmed a child or anything serious like that so I don't understand WHY the stupid cop hit a motorcycle rider w/a passenger on the bike from the rear? Anybody in their right mind would have to know that the rider & passenger on the motorcycle would more than likely be killed! The ONLY semi good news I've been told about this travesty is that the "crooked cop" is on unpaid leave & the passenger on the motorcycle is suing the City Police. I'm NOT a cop hater at all but it's cops like that that give good police officers a bad name! Sorry I had to vent about that because the pig I mean cop involved should have NEVER been allowed to be a cop in the first place......  

[MyckMcClung]

sorry folks I kinda skimmed everyone elses replies to this.
This crap pisses me off to no end!!!
$1200 fine for illegal off roading??
I've spent  more than that getting 5 of my bikes legal to ride on National Forest OHV areas. Not to mention the OHV saftey courses for my kids, thier safety gear, and Annual OHV passes for all 5 of us.
That asshat should have his truck confiscated and publicly crushed to show other dumbass arrogant ignortant redneck retards that this type of behavior is the reason they are putting gates, like the one he ignored, up in our national parks and closing millions of acres of previously ohv accessable land.

[SachsGS]

There are strict laws here in western Canada about operating motorized vehicles in alpine areas to prevent damage to fragile meadows and other high country features.Prior to these laws we would access the meadows with our trials bikes and a person would be hard pressed to ever know we were there.Lately some of my friends have still been sneaking into the meadows and I have heard some hair raising stories about them being chased back to the timberline by forestry helicopters.

The Vancouver Sun once ran an article about extensive forestry clear cutting in northern British Columbia.A logger from this region wrote back and said that if his memory was correct the largest clearcut in western Canada was greater Vancouver.

When we were kids I think all the local cops had to be put on Valium in order to deal with our motorcycling antics. 

[JETZcorp]

I think the whole thing has gone to the point of hysteria.  I mean, I've seen people outraged because someone cuts a corner on a hiking trail, which causes some grass to die in a 1x3 foot region to die.  I'm sorry, that's just not an environmental issue, and neither is a set of tracks.  I still maintain that the Forest Service has done more damage to the forest in its attempts to keep riders out, than the riders themselves could or would have ever done.  Granted, we've got some 30-50 horsepower machines with knobby tires that can do some limited terraforming if used violently enough over a long enough period of time.  So what to they use to stop it.  A BULLDOZER!  And then after they've BULLDOZED the dirt that they're trying to keep bikes from "damaging," they send in a team of men with CHAINSAWS to cut down LIVE TREES in order to block the road or trail.  And not just three trees, I'm talking one tree every ten feet down the trail, and you can walk down the trail for five minutes and it continues onward.  I've also seen trailheads cut off during the heat of August by massive piles of tree limbs, essentially tinder, complete with dried out red fir needles that would go off like a fire bomb if the sun glinted off your watch.  And then when the forest burns down, they preach to the riders about spark arrestors!  Up in the Washougal area, there are a lot of guys who do bit 4x4 action with their trucks and such, and it's developed into a small-scale war with the forest service.  The off-roaders go into an area, the cops put up a gate.  The off-roaders go around the gate, the cops destroy all the forest around the gate to keep them out.  The off-roaders go around the destruction, so the cops go and destroy more forest.  It's clear that the forest service simply wants this form of recreation to be wiped off the face of the planet, and they're willing to cut and bulldoze on a massive scale to achieve that goal.

[TMKIWI]

A local council over here has just opened up a recreational park to both active & passive sports.
It is 1650 hectares divided into 4 corners to keep everybody apart.
Sports include Motosports (Trail & Trial riding),mx,4WD,Gun Club,Equestrian & Mountain Biking.
It is set in a large forest area well away from housing and the "noisey" sports are kept at 1 end away from "fragile" people like mountain bikers & horsey people.
It is funded by a Power Company & the Council with a full time Ranger.

Now THAT'S proactive management for you.