I am trying to get riders together in the western NY region or all over NY state together to get a trail system. We have a lot of off road riders in this state with out a major trail system. Lets get together and change this. Contact me if interested and we will set meetings for our club. Email is bryanschiefer@live.com This will be the beginning to an awesome trail system if we work together and show land owners we are not out to ruin anything. Just enjoy the outdoors with a set of knobys.

 

Its tough in NY to put this together.....others have tried and failed many times.

The problem is NY does not have the kind of anti-lawsuit legislation that other states have and property owners just do not want people on their lands.

And even our state lands are riddled with "no motor vehicles beyond this point" signs all through the state forests. So a link between there is not a given either.

There is a club in the southern tier near Binghamton that just tried this, and has been trying for over a year now.... But the property owners will not yield to ATVs.

What is odd, is that I always thought it was the old "they will damage my land" story, but the more I see this happen the more I hear "ATV riders will sue if they crash" in every attempt...... I don't understand this because people for some reason don't assume sledders will sue? They let snowmobiles all over the state with impunity with no fear of property damage (which I can see) or lawsuits (which makes no sense) .....

Every year in NY more than TWICE (sometimes THREE TIMES) the amount of people die on sleds then they do ATVs yet we are still thought of as more dangerous. I don't get that.....

It seems that most clubs are resorting to closed course rides on private property. I guess this is the modern ATV world in NY State.

 

Your definitely right about landowners being afraid they will get sued. The problem I see in my area is the carelessness ATVs show when riding where they are being watched. They are not educated on proper riding techniques or just don't care, and safety is never practiced. If I didn't know how safe and fun this sport is I would feel the same way. If we get enough people on the same page we can change this bad impression we have left on landowners. Showing the younger riders proper riding techniques and older as well. Having insurance and registrations will also help.Quieter pipes for trails as well, Lets keep the noise to closed circuits. Sending letters to our politicians and making some noise about where our registration money is going. But it will take more than just one group of people from one area to make a huge difference. With today's technology we can communicate easier to each other and form large clubs. It will take a lot of people to do this. NY has had a large number of ATV sales for a long time so the people are out there. We just need to communicate.

 

Why not just join NYSORVA.org and take an active roll. They need tons of help. I am the reg 3 rep. Another good organized NY website is NYATV ONLINE

 

Unfortunately, I don't see things getting any better around here soon. Good luck in your endeavor, but as you probably know, this has been tried before. there are some strong clubs like in Oswego and Sullivan County was pulling hard to get a trail system set up for the public/pull in the vacationers $$. Sadly, I think the state could make money hand over fist if they would just open a decent public trail system. We definitely have the land for it. We definitely have the rider base for it.

 

Stay positive, i am the one from Sullivan County that has been fighting for the Trails. new laws are now in place to allow this. We also have insurance to back it. Tonight is one of our final meetings on the matter. We have secured 5000 acres for trails and the last thing left is forming a new trail committee. Ill keep everyone posted. Last year 500 miles of trails were open in NYS. Yet no one knows this because the state is ANTI ATV! - JT