Sorry to hear you left the hobby. Maybe with a legal place to ride you might come back?

As far as I know the LIORV is not involved with any riding areas:

From their site:

Riding Facility:
Effective March 2005, the Long Island Off Road Vehicle Association is not involved with the riding area anymore.
The land owner may allow some previous riders on the property on an invitation only basis.

There are a number of parcels that the Task Force (not the LIORV) have identified as meeting the perameters
outlined in the Task Force meetings. The decision of where it will be located is still a ways off.

 

Do you have AOL IM name?

 

No, I do not use AOL. You can always pm me if you wish to keep it off the board.
js

 

Priceless...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Which leads to 'my' argument that the community has absolutely no intention of ever policing itself, needs to be divided into those who do and don't respect individual property rights......then even further subdivided into those whithin the community willing to stand up for close relationships with law enforcement, high fining impoundments and even stupid time-wasters like helmets and general safety.

I'm sorry, but I'm not going to stand up in front of anyone who's anybody and next to some goof who doesn't <u>agree with this</u> while calling myself an "atv enthusiast". It's all about the company you keep and is exactly why these organizations like the AMA have been trying to brush this 'association' problem under the rug <u>from day one</u> (which you can do if one simply never calls a spade....a spade).

 

CTATV... I think you are missing the message... First off, Many of us live in areas where we have to travel several hours to ride our machines. That does not make it OK to just go looking for land to ride on. If you have ever sat down with landowners and listened to the horror stories they can tell about fences being cut, newly seeded fields being destroyed, lawsuits that have been brought by tresspassers when they get hurt on their land, not to mention harrassment of livestock etc... then you would get some sense of why there are no riding areas to speak of in NY. Your local trail authority has to go to those same people and ask them kindly to consider allowing them to build a trail accross their land holdings. Now, yes of course, the insurance laibility is assumed by the state... but the fact remains, the bad blood that has gone on for years is hard to get past.

None of this makes a hill of beans when you look at the legal issues of riding, and in some cases running from law enforcement. That little old lady you talk about is a resident too... and she deserves her opinion. Right now, she is playing good citizen and is on the right side of the law. We as an organization MUST take a stand and be committed to upholding the law, and preaching responsible and legal riding. There can be NO COMPROMISE on that stand. Sure we hate it... Sure it is not the optimal situation... but if we are going to have any credability when we go before legislators and government agencies, we must have a clean house and a firm foundation that understands the law, and right from wrong. Illegal riding, is WRONG period. It has nothing to do with how much pocket change I have or don't have. I earned it young man... HONESTLY, and I am not going to apoligize for that fact. Nor am I going to show you any sympathy for your whining, and I WILL support the local law enforcement who is tasked with impounding your machine. Because if we lose one bad apple, the sport is all the more stronger for it...

I feel this way for all unethical riding. and riders... It doesn't matter if they are young or old... we cannot tolerate irresponsible riders any longer... no matter what the circumstances may be. If you truely love this sport... you would find a way to work within the system and make a difference.

Remember personal credability begins and ends with you...

 

LIORV PUBLIC RALLY INFORMATION LINK

 

Nothing but good news.....as usual


Ohio dairy farmer Frank Sutliff was grinding cattle feed when he saw them again: all-terrain vehicles shredding his alfalfa fields.

When he shouted to the riders over the engine whine that they were trespassing, they smashed him over the head, he said.

"I went down, and they just started in on me … hit me, kicked me, broke my leg," said Sutliff, 46. "I crawled into the truck, drove back to the house and dialed 911."

One man paid a $100 trespassing fine. Another spent five days in jail. All denied wrongdoing.

Across rural America, angry skirmishes are increasingly common between property owners and off-roaders squaring off over dwindling open space.

Long accustomed to battling environmentalists for access to public lands, off-roaders now find themselves at odds with farmers, ranchers and a flood of new residents moving to the country for peace and quiet.

As Bob Buster, a county supervisor in Riverside, Calif., put it, "You have these two clashing visions of the countryside."

That infuriates landowners like Harlan Brown, who installed heat and motion sensitive cameras to catch off-road miscreants who created a muddy quagmire in his 100-acre Maine woods.

"Your land is not your land," said his wife, Judy. "You think it is, but it's not. It's terrible."

The clashes have made victims of riders as well as property owners.

In North Carolina three years ago, Joshua Woodruff, 22, died of internal injuries after he hit a steel cable while zooming down a private farm lane on his ATV. Farmer Ted Arnold said in an interview he had strung up the cable after making many complaints to police about trash, crop destruction and soil erosion from off-roaders. Arnold said he had liberally posted no-trespassing signs and warned off riders. No criminal charges were filed against him.

State and local officials in Maine, Vermont, Ohio, Minnesota, Wyoming and Michigan in recent years have enacted or are weighing measures to combat illegal off-roading. Homeowners say the laws do little to curb abuse, and off-roaders argue that some violate civil rights.

In California's booming Inland Empire, Riverside County supervisors are expected to vote this summer on what could be the nation's toughest law. The current draft would ban the activity on private property four days a week, even on the riders' property. Riding would be banned outright on private lots under 2 1/2 acres. Grading to create jumps, trails or tracks would require a costly permit and public hearings.

Off-roading "is increasingly dangerous, destructive and very difficult to control, except at huge public expense," said Buster, the Riverside supervisor. The county has long been a mecca for professional dirt bikers and weekend amateurs, and riders are outraged at the attempt to rein them in.

"That is total insanity," said Ed Waldheim, president of the California Off-Road Vehicle Assn. "Off-roading is the most incredible family sport there is, and to deny a kid riding on Sunday … that is repressive, totally crazy."

Clashes between riders and residents have been frequent in subdivisions that are being carved out of open space, on private property near national forests, and in rural areas — including northern New England and the California desert — where snowmobilers, school kids on dirt bikes and others were once free to barrel across unfenced, unposted land.

"Back in the '60s when I was growing up it was like the whole desert was wide open," said Brian Klock, spokesman for the California State Parks' off-highway vehicle program. "I literally would ride anywhere…. There were no signs, no maps, the only thing I knew was when you got near a residence sometimes the landowner didn't like it, and he would be out there with a shotgun."

Phoenix, suburban Atlanta, towns across Connecticut and the outskirts of Colorado cities all have seen urban sprawl bump up against popular cross-country routes, said Russ Ehnes, executive director of the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council in Sheboygan, Wis. "The problem is the town spreads out and the trail stays put," he said.

Inland California is a particular hotspot.

"My 23 acres near Twentynine Palms are being massacred by off road vehicles," M.J. "Mac" Dube, the ex-mayor of Twentynine Palms and an aide to San Bernardino county supervisor Bill Postmus, said on a recent Saturday. "At 1:15 in the morning they were spinning around two feet from my bedroom, and I'm sick and tired of it."

Dube spoke at a February conference in Joshua Tree entitled "Desert Communities Under Siege — Take Back the Power."

Speaker after speaker told of sleepless nights, clouds of dust and rocks, cut fences, hurled curses and threats, and return visits by off-roaders to carve permanent ruts in their yards after they had complained to sheriffs.

When Philip M. Klasky, co-founder of Community ORV Watch, hears the familiar guttural rumble in the Mojave Desert's Wonder Valley, he climbs a ladder to his roof to locate the trespassers on his 15 acres.

"Many, many times … I've stood in front of two growling ATVs on my land and said 'you are trespassing.' They just continue on their way …. They tell you time and time again, 'This is a free country, I'll ride any place I want,' even though they're on private property.

"They have complete carte blanche to go wherever they want because there's nobody available to catch them," he said. "It is a complete Wild West situation."

Riders can and often do leave police in the dust. With two officers per shift to patrol 5,200 square miles, and more serious crimes taking priority, Capt. Jim Williams of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department admitted it took up to four hours to respond to a trespassing complaint.

As the pastime's popularity has skyrocketed, access to public lands has also shrunk.

Since the Bush administration took office, federal land managers have rolled back some closures. But since 1980, half of 13.5-million formerly ridable acres in the California desert alone have been lost, according to the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Commission. There are an estimated 100,000 miles of dirt roads and trails across the state, but most require a lengthy drive to reach, says Klock, the state parks official.

"There's no place to ride," said Ryan Macdhubhain, 16, of San Marcos, a mud-splattered teen who wears rivets in his earlobes and a white bandana over his spiky black hair. "It's ridiculous."

Macdhubhain was riding his Suzuki motorcycle in Riverside County on a recent Sunday when he was stopped by sheriff's deputies while he was on private undeveloped land. He said it wouldn't quell his love of the sport. "I go off riding really hard and get it out," he said. "It's adrenaline."

He said he tried to avoid riding near peoples' homes, but sometimes strayed. On some occasions, those encounters led to yelling matches with property owners — even though Macdhubhain said he tried to treat unhappy residents with respect if they did the same with him.

Lobbyists and manufacturers say off-roaders are a law-abiding bunch tainted by the actions of a misguided minority.

"A very, very small percentage of people can do a lot of harm … But it's a small percentage," said Mike Mount of the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America in Irvine.

Hogwash, said George Buchner, now of Tallahassee, Fla., who said he was "run out of Michigan by off-roaders" who broke his nose, threatened his life, ran over his wife's leg and destroyed his trout stream.

Buchner said although he sometimes dealt with a polite family that got lost on his land while riding, most were "25-year-old motor heads high on pot with a belly full of beer."

 

The above is happening all across the country. It makes a person want to throw up... Why are we fighting so darn hard to ensure that our grandkids have a sport to enjoy when we have stuff like this going on? It makes no sense.

For one thing, I do not represent the hooligans.. and I do not think most ATV enthusiasts would knowingly follow this destruction creed... and I do take offense to be included in the group by the media trying to say that all ATV enthusiasts are hooligans... but it becomes harder and harder to convince the non riding public (I.E. the LANDOWNERS) that we want to be their friends.... and can be trusted...

Maybe we need to take things into our own hands.... the Minitemen in AZ are now watcing our borders and protecting them from illegal entry... maybe we can start doing the same and start policing our own. WE as responsible riders must take the initiative. We can't leave it up to the authorities any longer. I am not talking being a vigilanty, but we can help direct law enforcement to those that are breaking th elaw, and assist them in getting rid of the bad elements.

 

BUMP