My son rides a dirt bike rather than an atv so I occasionally read posts at dirt bike forums. I just read another thread on a dirt bike site concerning how badly atvs tear up the trails by leaving them too rutted up to be ridden on by dirt bikers. I've read posts by dirt bikers complaining about the ruts left by atv skid plates. Am I missing something here because I don't think my skid plate could create a rut in the trail.
Actually the worst ruts I've seen in trails seem to be about 6 inches wide and a foot deep in the middle of the trail. Not 2 ruts spaced 3 feet apart either.
I know my quad tires won't fit down in there so I've always assumed they were created by dirt bikes but apparently some dirt bike riders think its caused by an atv skid plate.
I think it's a bunch of bull myself.

 

What is the name of this site? Maybe we should sort of invade it and offer our two cents on the subject.

 

Everyone thinks they know everything,but the atvers are right this time.

 

I won't mention the site here because it's a great dirt bike site that my son gets alot of good info from. I do see threads though from time to time that contain some anti-atv views. Most are just the typical posts about redneck, beer swilling, no helmet wearing atv riders. I just laugh at those because I figure the people posting are just ignorant, but when I read posts about atvs tearing up the trails I have to wonder how valid those complaints are. Do you honestly think atvs ruin alot of trails? I don't myself but I guess I'm biased. It just seems to me it would be hard to rut up a trail really badly when you're riding on 10 inch wide balloon tires.

 

Ever seen a trail that was nothing but small moguls strung together for miles(we call 'em whoops)?. I've always been under the impression these were caused by throttle happy motorcyclers(along with berms in the tight turns). Hey, there will never be enough trails just for ourselves. Let's(atv's motorcycle and snowmobile groups) all TRY and work together to keep these trails maintained. If you don't belong to any group, get out your wallet and contribute to SOMEBODY that is fighting the good fight. We have trails up here in NW MI. that get so bad that early spring and late fall are the only times you don't beat yourself up.(after they've been groomed).

 

I have to agree with this one. in my opinion, most dirt bikes do cause more rutting than atv's, of course, this is depending on the rider!

but with a little respect for each other, and some respect for the land we ride on!!, we can all get along and ride on the same trails together

 

The same thing goes on up here with snowmobilers and ATVers they actually claim that we hurt there trails even though I am an avid snowmobiler and I have never seen any damage due to atv's, we get 6 feet of snow it more than covers any ruts left by atv's. As offroad users we all need to fight together, to keep are trails open, wether we have two wheel, 3 or 4 wheels or track and skis.

 

I just passed over your post. Trails are trails are trails. I just went riding with a dirt biker and me on a Traxter. We're both 40's but we had our work cut out for us. The dirt biker loved the challenage on the trail. He just kinda made that bike work great no matter what the trail was like. I was a huffing and a winching my way but that bike without the weight worked pretty well. A man could make a lot of money and friends if he was to just put a nice big drag on the back of a small jeep about Nov/Dec and smoothed out the trails across America for the snowmobilers each year, then just repeat again in the spring before we get there. Why can't it be so? Anyways trails are trails lets keep them open and free, not segregated and costly.

Have a good ride no matter what you ride.

 

Well I ride atv's and snowmobiles to, as do most of our group and we can't see what all the complaining is about. No a skid plate is not going to cause a rut if anything it will skim the middle down if tire ruts get to deep. When we ride there are dirt bike and atv's with us and the bike guys never complain that we have ruined something with our quads. If people would take the energy they spend complaining, and use it to fight for trails for everyone we would all be happier, heck we even share a few trails with horse back riders and all we do is kill the motor until they are past us as to not spook the animals and they are fine as long as we respect them like they do us. I just wrote a big post on this type of stuff under the suzuki section entilted "our beloved sport in trouble?" go check it out because I am personaly tired of the half wit no respect pin heads that ruin it for everyone.

 

I've always wondered how snowmobilers could think that ATVs destroy the trails.
I ride a snowmobile and an ATV, and I know for a fact that nothing I do to the trails during the summer is going to have much of any bearing on what it's like during the winter. I know of a trail near here that takes me half an hour to get from one end to the other on my ATV, because its really slow crawling, lots of uneven areas, with two large, rocky drops. Its a really hard trail. I average around 8mph on that trail on my 4-wheeler.
Six months later, when we've got 3 feet of snow (at least), I can have the throttle pinned on my little Jag 440, pulling almost 70mph at some times. There are no uneven areas, no rocky drops. The entire trail becomes extremely nice, smooth, flat, and I never even pause to think that, 6 months earlier, I had all I could do to keep from dropping into the 2-foot deep ruts that are buried underneath the snow I'm riding on...

I also know of trails on which, in the winter, I have to keep my speed below 25 or 30 because the stutter bumps are horrific. At those times, I usually wish that the snow were as smooth as the clay-filled dirt beneath me. I can usually go anywhere from 45-60mph on trails like that during the summer.

You'd be amazed how much 3 feet of snow will do.