Face the facts, ATV’ers as a whole are seen as outlaws and villains. No wonder. Look at the rutted trails on public land. Look at the mudholes churned up at low spots on the trails. Hear the loud pipes on some machines. The treads on some tires are so aggressive that the machine can’t turn a sharp corner without the inside wheels plowing up the soil. The manufacturers don’t help the image much when their ads show their machines ripping up the countryside or slinging mud on sharp turns. Neither do those shows on cable TV. There’s entirely too much emphasis on ripping and tearing.

I got my wakeup call when I read a posting on this forum by an ATV’er who said he wouldn’t let other ATV’ers ride on his land, because he didn’t want it torn up. That’s really telling! Those public trails are on land owned by every citizen, most of whom are not ATV’ers. And they don’t want their land torn up either.

We need a revolution in ATV riding, away from the ripping and tearing and toward more trail friendly cruising on tires that are more turf friendly. Otherwise, there eventually won’t be any place to cruise…unless you own the land.

 

That was my experience - I used to let locals ride my trails, but it got out of hand. More than anything, people came in and were destructive. What am I, stupid? When that happened, I locked the trails down, and I'm the only person who rides there now. I don't have time to be a policeman for every drunk kid with a banshee, especially when I get nothing but a headache in return for my trouble.

Like I said in the other thread, the sledders had a similar problem, and they seemed to have solved it. Not many sleds in KY, so I don't know how they did it. Can any of you sled jockeys out there shed any light on how your sport was cleaned up? I haven't seen any negative sled press in a long time.

 

As a sled jockey for longer than I've been riding ATV's, I'll give it a shot.

It's hard to come up with a reason for shutting down snowmobiles. Any sign of their presence disappears when the snow melts, so there are no permanent ruts to complain about. They go through swamps when they are frozen, so they don't dig up sensitive environments. People don't have their windows open in the winter and they don't spend much time outside, so noise is not a factor. Snowmobile clubs put up signs reminding riders that use of the trail is not a right, it's a priviledge. And, long before before 4-wheelers came on the scene snowmobilers worked to develop the trail systems. Many still remember what it was like not to have trails to ride on, and this tends to make them more careful with what they've got today.

The bottom line is that ATV'ers need to each ride like he or she is riding on their own land. And, in the case of trails on public lands, they are the landowners.

 

Back in th elate 60's and Early 70's, at least in the mid west (Wisconsin, Illinois) the sledders had a very bad reputation for being bar hopping, fence cutting hooligans who rode when and where they damn well pleased. Soon after, the sport almost died as a result. The INDUSTRY spent untolled dollars trying to change the look and feel of the riding experience from the gladiator mentality to something that was more family frendly, and it has thrived. The PR campaign must have worked. Either that or we just all got older.

The biggest deal is that you didn't have the media and every doctor, or tree hugger trying to put out of business like we see with the ATV industry. Sure the Motorcycle industry could do a heck of a better job by not making such a big deal over who's machine is the fastest, or biggest etc... and moving into a family friendly advertizement campaign... I think that would be a good thing. Take away these high horsepower monsters we have today too... A 350-400 class machine will just about do anything... anything more than that, and it is pure marketing hype.

Of course biting the bullet and admitting that we all can a nd must do a better job keeping tabs on the environement we ride in... and the damage our machines do cause. I think we could clean our house up a lot before we can expect the respect that we think we deserve....

Education can help. But it is personal responsibility that will eventually be the key to the ultimate success or failure.

 

For that matter a 185 class machine will do just about anything! it'll just take a bit longer.

 

Exactly... the problem is that kids only see the Jeremy McGraths and others on x-games on TV. Their antics have absolutely no carry over to the majority of the enthusiasts of this sport. Like it or not, utility machines, and trail riding make up the majority of riding in this country. Sure there are a lot of sport machine out there, but few are ridden to that extreme, and many spend the majority of their time on those same trail systems as the utilities. The manufacturers make it even worse by their marketing schemes claiming their models to be the most capable, most powerfull etc. ... and it obviously works. Since every yahoo who has ever bought a performance machine will slit their wrist before they admit that some other manufacturer's machine is just a little more radical than theirs.

What ever happend to the family aspect... I watch ATV television shows and really only pay attention to the scenic rides they go on. It helps me decide where to point my compass the next time I get the urge... The racing stuff puts me to sleep...

 

I wonder if lower speed limits on trails would have any affect? It would seem there would be less incentive to spend extra thousands on a muscle machine if you could only ride at 25 mph on public lands.

Speaking of bad publicity, there is an article in today's St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press about how ATV's are killing and injuring little kids.

 

I haven't had the pleasure of riding in my home state of Wisconsin. I left there over 30 years ago, and with the exception of a vacation or funeral or two, have not been back long enough to get the chance..so I can't vouch for the trails there, but the trails I have riden in Idaho, West Virginia, and Utah have all been such that if I exceeded 25 MPH, I'd be considered a fool.

Most of the time, I do not get the machine out of 2nd or third gear. Except of course when I ride the Rubicon, and God knows what gear you are ever in with that automatic.

I think we could easily reduce engine size and speeds with no negative impact other than for the duners and racers. You go too fast and you miss the stuff going on around you.. and the enjoyment factor goes out the window.

 

I'm able to ride a 2 or 3 mile strecth near the house along the railroad tracks. There are a couple ditches along there that businesses are at. So not to **** anyone there off I like to wait 4 or 5 days after a rainfall to let it dry out before riding through there. I also go slow through there. I don't want to tear up the land in front of their building cause the ditches may be legal but the business wants it to look good. I also don't ride too much in the spring after the winter thaw. It just gets too muddy doing that, and I really don't like cleaning off my machine all the time.

 

this might sound wrong but its the truth, atleast here in Western NY...People put posted signs up to stop riders...riders ride over em..ppl ban riding for atv's and not sleds..but this doesnt stop us atv riders in ny...yeah its ignorance to ppl's property but all of this isnt going to stop us die hard riders like myself...ive been chased by farmers in trucks, police in cars and wheelers...all that did was encourage me to get a faster ride to outrun them. being chased wont stop me and many ppl from riding neither will the tickets i've gotten...but riders do need to respect other peoples land when riding it, thats why we have hardly any legal areas in Western NY now atleast none i know of. im going to ride till i die, i love riding but ppl should show some respect to private land and also the state should see how many riders register atv's in NY and try and encourage trails but so far they dont in my area, so i guess we continue to ride private land and be chased and give cops something to do on weekeneds. the state, police, land owners can do whatever they want to do, but they wont ever stop riders, infact most the time there encouraging us to get a faster machine so they cant keep up with us