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Message: [QUOTE="Detonator, post: 905677, member: 44104"] While it's true that there are knuckeheads in every walk of life, land access is becoming such a politically fragile issue that it only takes a handful of reckless, rude idiots to get a trail closed. Whether we like it or not, we have to police our fellow riders or risk getting lumped in the same category. We have a politically hot situation where I live in that the 4-wheeler association has done a great job of negociating land access, has enormous membership, organization, and power, and there are lots of places to ride. However, the 4-wheelers hate 2 wheelers, and we aren't allowed to join their trail network. They coach their members to run 2 wheelers off "their" trails. We've lobbied hard about the benefits of teaming up, sharing administrative and trail maintenance work, adding to the money pot, etc., but to no avail. I have a lot of friction with the 4 wheeled crowd, and unfortuately for them I'm not shy to push back a bit. I carry a camera with me, and take pictures of all the shirtless, helmetless, beer drinking types riding with 3 of their kids piled on the luggage rack and send a date-stamped photo with GPS location to their branch of the 4 wheeler association, and I keep a log of all my less-than-friendly encounters. Banshees ripping through off-limits bogs, litter piles from trailside lunches, I photograph it all. At the same time, I also log and photo the efforts of my 2 wheeled buddies doing trail maintenance, riding with protective gear, and generally acting responsibly. Every few months I sit with the regional organizers of the 4-wheeler club and show them my latest collection of tantalizing photos and transcripts, and talk about the need for us to collaborate on the level of responsible enthusiasts, not on the number of wheels on our machines. They have used an us-versus-them argument to assuage land-owners into granting access to 4-wheelers based on the old "...we're not a bunch of motocross riding teenagers" speech. In other words, they elevate their image by trodding on ours. That's a great idea short-term, but now they find themselves with a growing percentage of loud, fast high performance 4 wheelers and helmetless clods wearing wifebeaters, and they've got a policing problem. Long story short, by default 2 wheelers have a bad rap, deserved or not. By default, nobody wants bikes on their property. "Dirtbiker" conjures up the image of an irresponsible trespasser with a shrieking unmuffled 2 stroke flying down a hiking trail, or a bunch of goons trying to get big air in the local gravel pit. My hat is off to the snowmobile and 4 wheeler associations for the level of organization and land access they have secured...at least they understand how the game works. If you run across a situation like Feanor's, I wouldn't hesitate to contact the cops and get the few rogue idiots yanked off the trail. At the very least it sends the message that all dirtbikers are not the same, and that it's the responsible, organized ones who are in control. Failing that, carry a shovel and hide his body. [/QUOTE]

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