Ol'89r
LIFETIME SPONSOR
- Jan 27, 2000
- 6,958
- 45
After reading all of the pros and cons in the 'Lawsuit on your own property' thread, I just have to tell you about my next door neighbor.
They bought the house about 3-4 years ago and when they were moving in I saw them unload a couple of motorcycles. I thought to myself, GREAT!, some new riding buddies. I have been riding in this area for many, many years. In fact, I rode here long before I built my house and moved here. Some of the trails I cut myself. The riding was the reason I moved here.
I talked to the dad and he seemed like a pretty nice guy but the kids, (there were two of them when they moved in.) were the typical arrogant teen's that were too cool for anybody and they looked at me like I was some old fart that didn't know anything about dirtbikes. I told the dad about all of the awesome trailriding up in the hills and how I would take his kids on a trail ride and show them where it's safe to ride and where not to go.
Unfortunately, that never happened. A couple days after they moved in, they started riding their bikes around the neighborhood. They rode up and down everybodys hillsides and made ruts on other neighbors property. The neighbors would call me because they knew I rode bikes and told me they were going to call the police. I asked them not to and told them I would go talk to the kids.
I went and talked to the boys and asked them not to ride on the neighbors property and told them that I would take them up to the trails and show them where to ride. I told them I have been riding in this area for a long time and knew all of the trails and would be happy to take them on a ride. I asked them to please respect the neighbors or we would have the police to deal with and I didn't want that anymore than they did. Again, they looked at me like I was from the moon and blew me off.
They continued to ride where they wanted and showed no respect to any of the neighbors or myself. They started to roost around the back of our horse barn which frightened the horses and made it very unsafe for anyone in the barn. I went over and talked to the dad and he said he would take care of it. This was about the 5th time I had talked to the dad about this and while he was home the kids would not do it but, as soon as the dad left, they would terrorize the neighborhood. The mom had no control over the kids whatsoever.
One day while my wife was in the barn working with her horse, they rode around the back of the barn. Now, they were taking their mufflers off so they could annoy the neighbors even more. Well, my wife was in a 12' X 12' stall with a 17+ hand BFH, (thats a big freakin horse). The horse went nuts and almost kicked my wife. I went over to talk to the boys and soon, thanks to their arrogant attitudes it turned into a shouting match. The boys and three of their friends escorted me off of their property. That was the last straw.
Now, a few years later, one of the boys was kicked out of the house and lives in an apartment in town. The other one still lives there and has a job but still rides his unmuffled bike around the neighborhood. Now, when the neighbors call and threaten to call the police, I tell them, "go ahead and call the police. I have talked to the kids and it does no good. Do what you have to do." I have also dualsported my trailbike so, if the police come, I'm legal.
He has lived there long enough to see my riding buddies come and go and has watched as we all suit up and disappear into the hills for most of the day. He watches us load up our trucks and go to the track. He now knows that I am very involved in dirtbikes and now he wants to be my friend. He stands in his driveway and waves as we drive away. I wave back. :nener: He rides his bike around by himself and spends most of his time riding up and down his driveway. He has come to my shop and told me about problems that he has had with his bike. He knows now that I work on bikes for a living and fix most of the bikes in the neighborhood for the neighbors. But I don't work on his. I tell him to go to the local Honda shop, they'll take good care of him. :yikes:
I would love to take him up to the trails and show him all of the awesome riding up there but, it ain't gonna happen. Nope, :fft: not a chance.
So, who is suffering here? Not me. I don't mine a little noise from a motorcycle but I will not put up with some arrogant nit wit that is destroying my right to ride. If you are going to act like a jerk, you are the one that is going to pay for it. You are only hurting yourself and everyone that rides a dirtbike gets a bad name because of it. It is up to us to police these types of people before they ruin our sport. There are ways to deal with it and if we don't take the initiative to police our own, we will have no sport.
You never know who your neighbors really are. They could be a City Councilman, a County Supervisor or just some ol' dirtbike rider looking for new riding buddies. It's best not to pizz em off.
Ol'89r
They bought the house about 3-4 years ago and when they were moving in I saw them unload a couple of motorcycles. I thought to myself, GREAT!, some new riding buddies. I have been riding in this area for many, many years. In fact, I rode here long before I built my house and moved here. Some of the trails I cut myself. The riding was the reason I moved here.
I talked to the dad and he seemed like a pretty nice guy but the kids, (there were two of them when they moved in.) were the typical arrogant teen's that were too cool for anybody and they looked at me like I was some old fart that didn't know anything about dirtbikes. I told the dad about all of the awesome trailriding up in the hills and how I would take his kids on a trail ride and show them where it's safe to ride and where not to go.
Unfortunately, that never happened. A couple days after they moved in, they started riding their bikes around the neighborhood. They rode up and down everybodys hillsides and made ruts on other neighbors property. The neighbors would call me because they knew I rode bikes and told me they were going to call the police. I asked them not to and told them I would go talk to the kids.
I went and talked to the boys and asked them not to ride on the neighbors property and told them that I would take them up to the trails and show them where to ride. I told them I have been riding in this area for a long time and knew all of the trails and would be happy to take them on a ride. I asked them to please respect the neighbors or we would have the police to deal with and I didn't want that anymore than they did. Again, they looked at me like I was from the moon and blew me off.
They continued to ride where they wanted and showed no respect to any of the neighbors or myself. They started to roost around the back of our horse barn which frightened the horses and made it very unsafe for anyone in the barn. I went over and talked to the dad and he said he would take care of it. This was about the 5th time I had talked to the dad about this and while he was home the kids would not do it but, as soon as the dad left, they would terrorize the neighborhood. The mom had no control over the kids whatsoever.
One day while my wife was in the barn working with her horse, they rode around the back of the barn. Now, they were taking their mufflers off so they could annoy the neighbors even more. Well, my wife was in a 12' X 12' stall with a 17+ hand BFH, (thats a big freakin horse). The horse went nuts and almost kicked my wife. I went over to talk to the boys and soon, thanks to their arrogant attitudes it turned into a shouting match. The boys and three of their friends escorted me off of their property. That was the last straw.
Now, a few years later, one of the boys was kicked out of the house and lives in an apartment in town. The other one still lives there and has a job but still rides his unmuffled bike around the neighborhood. Now, when the neighbors call and threaten to call the police, I tell them, "go ahead and call the police. I have talked to the kids and it does no good. Do what you have to do." I have also dualsported my trailbike so, if the police come, I'm legal.
He has lived there long enough to see my riding buddies come and go and has watched as we all suit up and disappear into the hills for most of the day. He watches us load up our trucks and go to the track. He now knows that I am very involved in dirtbikes and now he wants to be my friend. He stands in his driveway and waves as we drive away. I wave back. :nener: He rides his bike around by himself and spends most of his time riding up and down his driveway. He has come to my shop and told me about problems that he has had with his bike. He knows now that I work on bikes for a living and fix most of the bikes in the neighborhood for the neighbors. But I don't work on his. I tell him to go to the local Honda shop, they'll take good care of him. :yikes:
I would love to take him up to the trails and show him all of the awesome riding up there but, it ain't gonna happen. Nope, :fft: not a chance.
So, who is suffering here? Not me. I don't mine a little noise from a motorcycle but I will not put up with some arrogant nit wit that is destroying my right to ride. If you are going to act like a jerk, you are the one that is going to pay for it. You are only hurting yourself and everyone that rides a dirtbike gets a bad name because of it. It is up to us to police these types of people before they ruin our sport. There are ways to deal with it and if we don't take the initiative to police our own, we will have no sport.
You never know who your neighbors really are. They could be a City Councilman, a County Supervisor or just some ol' dirtbike rider looking for new riding buddies. It's best not to pizz em off.
Ol'89r
