Court Order to Halt Riding - ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

I don't really see the problem with restricting riding on 6 acres in the middle of a neighborhood. Sorry.

I wouldn't expect to be able to get away with a shooting range on 6 acres in a neighborhood either.

Well I am out here in the country in Indiana. I'm on about 2 achs and have permission to run on the farmers land. How ever there are some houses built up. A neighbor that moved from Chicago jump on me all about my loud bike. Told them sorry that I was rude. So I removed the exhaust and kept ridding. The local sheriff is 19 mi away in all directions, I am also on the 4 county boarder. Unless someone is getting killed, their not comming, all the DNR wants is to see my bikes paperwork. Anyway my neigbor leaves me alone and I put back on my EXhaust...

My buddy owns a 120 acre farm where I ride. There is a 20 acre wooded area where we ride trails. A new subdivision of $400K homes popped up next door and 1 of the new residents came over and complaned about the noise, which was typically 2 bikes for 1-2 hours on a saturday afternoon. My friend, the land owner says if forced to stop riding, he will sell his land to the condo developer who has been hounding him to sell for the past 5 years! The naging neighbor walked away. :nod:

Well I would have to agree to that. If it changes here I probaly do the same. I like how a nagging neigbor complains because they want to change a area that has been the same for years. Its like they want it to suit them. I seen that from time to time. They stay quiet about the vilont ganges and drug dealers or theives but point the finger at the guy on the dirt bike / ATV. What dangerous outlaws we become, were the worst.... :cool:

bsmith said:

It's not just bikes. Had a friend with a old Farm House, and a Barn. Only had a couple horses. Town moved around her and all the new Million dollar homes did not like the little farm any more. So did all the could to change the zoning to no livestock.
I've even been turned into the EPA for manure run off into the wet land, even though I also own the wet land. Then turned in for a well going bad, again not my fault.Then I was turned into the county because my dogs barking broke the noise ordinance. I lock my dogs up at 10pm so I can sleep, so I proved it wasn't my dogs, and that the loon just was after me.

People just don't want you to do anything, and I guess I'm no exception. The guy I currently hate is the Ultralight guy. He just bought 10 acres and put up a shop. No house, just a place to come and fly his little 2 stroke ultralight.

I can put up with the Commando who shoots for 8 hours a day once a month to the east, or the Airman and his buddies skeat shooting to the north, or the neighbor kid on a KTM 65 going round and around for hours to the west, and even my mother-in-law to the south, but I feel my privacy is violated every time he flys over. I got 2 ponds, and about 10 acre steptoe that sticks up between them, I do beleive he thinks it's cool to circle the hill, and come out right above the house!
I swear the next time he flys right over my house we are both going to end up in the ER, me for a stuck foot and him due to a severe impaction :ohmy:

Last year I was out cutting wood, on anther farm down the road, about 2000 acres and I'm in the middle of it, this SOB found me, and circled, I felt like a dying man in the desert being circled by a buzzard. All this area and he hunted me down!

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I think if I were you I would talk to the skeat shooters North of you and asking them to do you a favour and shoot the S.O.B. out of the sky for ya. LOL

Higgsy said:

I think if I were you I would talk to the skeat shooters North of you and asking them to do you a favour and shoot the S.O.B. out of the sky for ya. LOL

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:laugh: :laugh: :rotfl:

Buy a gross of bottle rockets and light them all at once!

James said:

I don't really see the problem with restricting riding on 6 acres in the middle of a neighborhood. Sorry.

I wouldn't expect to be able to get away with a shooting range on 6 acres in a neighborhood either.

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What do you mean by "restricting"?

I just bought a place with 3 acres, in a rural area (to my east is 16 empty acres, then a gun range. To my west 2 houses on a few acres each, at most, then 63 empty acres. My neighbor to the north has 17 acres and horses. Across the street is a large subdivision of expensive homes - $250k & up). I am not allowed to ride in my own yard if it creates a "track" - which, by the town's definition is any part of the ground that is disturbed from riding on it. They have an actual ordinance for this - you need a "Special Use Permit" to have a "track", and you need at least 20 acres to get the permit (recently raised from 10). I have ridden in the yard with the kids, and numerous complaints filed. I've spoke to some of my neighbors, and so far, they seem to be ok with the riding so long as 1)it's only at certain times/on certain days, like the gun range, and 2)we don't ride the "loud" machines (like our mx bikes).

Now, we have not ridden at crazy hours, or all day, or anything like that. The most we've ridden was 3 1/2 hours (on the first really warm day after winter) in one day. Yet, due to the complaints, the town has enforced it's ordinance. We don't ride now, and it sucks. I've talked to the town about it, and here's what they said: "You can ride on your property, so long as it doesn't make a track.". They have admitted that it's a noise issue, but that they have no "enforcable" noise ordinance, hence the track ordinance. Total BS, if you ask me. I have told the town, as well as some of my neighbors, that I'd be willing to have certain "restrictions" on the riding (times, length of time, days, etc.) and that I'd install the quietest exhaust that I could get for the machines - but they still stand fast on the requirements of the Special Use Permit (20 acres)!

So, we can ride the loudest machines on our property, and nobody can do a thing about it, SO LONG AS IT DOESN'T DISTURB THE GROUND! But, I can't ride any machines, even if they are in "stealth mode" if they create a "track", until I have 20 acres!!! WTF???

I really don't think I'm being unreasonable at all - hell, if I had the money, I'd buy the 63 acres to my west.....

Oh, and did I mention there's a GUN RANGE less than 1/10th mile to my east? Uh, hello, noise???? Aren't these people used to it yet????

This thread really hits home for me, I live in the interior of B.C. and due to the huge increases in realestate prices in the Vancouver area baby boomers can retire a bit early, sell there house down in Vancouver and buy a house up here at a relative bargin. The problem comes in when the bring there city attitude with them, we haven't had to many serious problems yet but I am sure its coming, I have already had a few heated battles with so called enviro sensitive people regarding the safe use of OHV's. The real issue is that these people are educated, well financed, and have a ton of spare time since they are retired making it hard for a guy with a family to fight them. Best thing you can do is make sure you make it an issue with your local politicians, push the point and make the politicians stand up for your rights. If all else fails dress in your best Phantom Duck outfit and wheelie through down town.

where i live, anything goes. people go screaming around town on their bikes and no one seems to care. i guess there isnt a track that holds races around here regularly, just a track a guy made that only about 5 or 6 guys use.

sixds said:

where i live, anything goes. people go screaming around town on their bikes and no one seems to care. i guess there isnt a track that holds races around here regularly, just a track a guy made that only about 5 or 6 guys use.

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Where is that, sounds like my kind of town. :nod:

Same thing is going on here. My friends had tracks in their backyards and would ride them all the time...until the county make it illegal. They now have to own 10+ acres and then pay a $500 a year permit to legally ride on that track. 10+ acres doesn't seem like that much but up here, that could run you in the millions of dollars, not to mention that we live in the largest Ponderosa Forest so there are thousands of trees to remove. It just isn't a viable option for anyone other than a multi-millionare with alot of money to blow to just ride.

I can't stand people who do this. Luckily I have 180 acres to bomb around on, but I feel bad for people like this who have to put up with bull crap. It's my property, how should other people be able to dictate what I do on it?

DieselTech said:

What do you mean by "restricting"?

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I guess I mean anything from no restriction to full on you cant ride on your 6 acres period.

I am not saying the laws they write or the way they go about doing it makes sense most of the time (as evidenced by the stuff you mention).

You could be super responsible about noise, dust, and appearances...but the next guy often isn't. If someone buys a 250k house in the middle of a "neighborhood" (as in the typical housing development in an incorporated town with improved roadways and utilities - for example) I can completely understand their desire to not live next to the 6 acre guy right outside the neighborhood that wants to SX in his backyard...just like I don't want to live next to the guy with 10 pitbulls and 4 junk cars in his back yard.

If you have 6 acres and the next guy has 6 acres and you both live in the boonies surrounded by farms or factories or whatever...I can see where that's different. Your situation sounds more like this than the town neighborhood I envision

James said:

You could be super responsible about noise, dust, and appearances...but the next guy often isn't. If someone buys a 250k house in the middle of a "neighborhood" (as in the typical housing development in an incorporated town with improved roadways and utilities - for example) I can completely understand their desire to not live next to the 6 acre guy right outside the neighborhood that wants to SX in his backyard...just like I don't want to live next to the guy with 10 pitbulls and 4 junk cars in his back yard.

If you have 6 acres and the next guy has 6 acres and you both live in the boonies surrounded by farms or factories or whatever...I can see where that's different. Your situation sounds more like this than the town neighborhood I envision

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Well, unfortunately the "next guy" was actually the first guy, and he got in a court battle with the town over his track. That's why there's now an ordinance that specifically addresses MX tracks.

I live in a rural area. Yeah, I'm probably the poorest guy in my area - but I'm not a nuisance or the "trailer trash". My lawn stays mowed, there's no junk in my yard, no loud parties, drugs, etc. Is 3 acres enough to ride on? Well, it's not ideal, but it's do-able. My intent was to try and purchase a few acres to my east to get to about 5-6 acres, which is definitely enough. Now I'm considering selling and moving elsewhere........

Yeah, I am struggling with the same issue. I could locate way out in the boonies where I know I can ride (for a while) and drive 1.5 hours to work everyday...or just drive 1-1.5 hours to someone elses track. It would be nearly impossible for me to get away with riding on any affordable sized tract of land that would be close enough to work. If we could conquer the sound issue, it would be 10x easier.

The hassle really takes the fun out of it.

The crazy thing is this: I can drive not even 10 minutes away into another town and there's 2 people that have tracks across the street from each other! It's ok in that particular town, but not mine! And I'm the one with the shooting range next door.....

The problem, as I see it, is the people that live here vs. the people that live there. I've got the "more educated, more affluent" folks near me. The same ones that work in the city but try to live in the "country" so they can get some "peace". They move in next to a farm, then complain about the smell.....

Honestly though, I think that I can probably work something out with most of my neighbors if I try really hard to appease them - it's the town that concerns me (zoning laws). The land in my area ain't cheap, so that's why I'm thinking maybe it's better to move. I'd buy some land in the boonies (so it'd be cheap to get) to ride on, but then I gotta pack up the bikes & transport them to & from, etc. It would certainly be a pain in the ass.......

I have 5 acres of woods and im going to make a trail. There is a neighborhood behind us but the trail would be in front of the house. The neighbor to the left has 20 acres and im guessing he wont care, then a neighbor with 10 acres to the right doubt they will care. I am just worried about the million dollar houses that just went up behind me. Theres like 3 houses behind me 1 of them already suided us for burning down our trees from an accidental fire. I am going to only ride it from like 1-5 so that they dont have a reason to complain. Do you guys think a 4 stroke will be too loud?

what was the result of the tree burning suit. if they won - you are likely screwed. if you won, they will likely try again but you may win - esp since they are doing frivolous suits like the tree thing...

regardless you need to be observant to what they are doing. like when you want to ride one saturday afternoon but notice they have chairs out in the back yard for their daughter's wedding - you may want to pass on riding that day. :laugh:

We just bought 4 acres in Maryland cuz we all love to ride and of course ended up with an old crappy miserable neighbor who I swear MAYBE leaves his house twice a week for church, well he started spying and was taking pictures of us riding and turned us into the county. The county guy told us "the riding has to stop" and the cops, they have no clue what the laws are for this! I looked up the laws for riding atv/mx on ones personal property and it says you must be no closer than 300 feet from a residence and can ride only from 7am-10pm (much more than I thought). Our neighbors who board a couple of horses ride ALL the time and can do so becuz their bikes are considered farm equipment so now were raising chickens!!! and put up trees and things so the neighbor cant really see how far we are from his house--I'm sure it's only a matter of time though!