Throttle Blog

Just wanted to pass this along. It’s an article I wrote for ATV Source Magazine that talks about a battle between a motocross track and the home owners in San Diego. To summarize, the race track has been there for over 3 decades, and now people that live next to it, (and I mean RIGHT next to it) are starting to complain.

In the article I took a very un-biased approach in the interest of fair journalism, but it is my strong opinion that a) the homeowners were told about the racetrack when they bought the house, and b) they need to shut the hell up about it already.

I’m sure Tom over at Two Heel Drive will want to read about this…

I was researching some hiking spots and came across an article titled Five ATV-Free Dunes You Can Play On.

Being both an avid hiker and an ever more avid duner (with ATVs), and considering Tom’s current topic on trail restoration, I got to thinking… how long does it take nature to repair the damage we do by walking, riding and driving?

In the dunes, I can recall many times waking up on Sunday morning at the dunes and riding for miles and miles without a single trace of an ATV trail, even though the day before literally thousands of the noisy, destructive and rude beasts plowed through and destroyed everything in sight.

I imagine with hikers, it would be a matter of hours before any trace of them are gone.

I got myself involved in a big to-do over at an Alaskan Blog while writing a post for Under My Helmet, about the use of a very small percentage of area for ATV use.

Check out ol’ Bob. He just keeps picking up on one or two keywords and going off on tangents.

It’s probably not helping that I’m being a smart-ass, but it’s not like it’s un-provoked. It’s not really getting anyone anywhere, but it’s funny tossing little points out to them and watching them freak out.

Thanks for the heads up in that email, Tom.

From twoheeldrive.com referring to me:

Thing is, one sane guy with a blog speaking to his small audience of folks who agree with his point of view is not going to a) cause any miscreants to straighten up; or b) discourage rangers, cops and other authorities from punishing everybody for the crimes of a few.

Actually, my scribes reach hundreds of new readers each day via the blogs and magazines I write for, without including return readers, and without including the forums I post in that reach thousands more. I don’t just write at Throttle Blog, though it is my newest venture.

My reason for doing this is to try to get to those who are doing this sort of thing without really realizing it. Many don’t. Mostly kids. Of those that DO realize they’re doing it, we can only hope they get their rigs taken away from them.

If you’re suggesting that I simply sit down and shut up about it, you can forget it. I will continue to speak out against those who are destroying some things I enjoy: ATVs and the Outdoors. And not for me, it’s for my kids, who love riding ATVs. I don’t care if you’re a life-long ATVer or a fanatical green terrorist, if you’re in any way destroying my right to ride, your actions are not acceptable and I will be here to tell you about it.

I have reached several people so far who have seen the error in their ways. For example, on a certain ATV Forum, there was a kid who said this:

my neigbor is threatening to call the cops on me for riding on my own lawn he is mad bout his rucking trees that are between my lawn and his lawn, is it ilegal if i’m bearly close to it hes just yelling bout dirt spreading a little. i only posted in yamaha because i am riding yamaha for life

ha ha lol i invited my 4 friends over when he was not home for a little drag racing on his yard he got pissed a big deal he wa slike i’m gonna have them take it away Blah blah blah blah i was like it was not me i don’t remeber doing anything today which got him madder but ohh well hes a dick becuz he won’t get over his wife (divorced) P.S i’m gonna do it agian he has no proof of me doing it anyway hes to retarded to work a camera

Then after I had my way with him*, he changed his tune a bit…

ok Rekd about the state patrol thingy i just solved the problem for the noise and the trees, he asked if i don’t ride when hes home and i stay away from his trees. i decided well heck he is not home often and i don’t really need the part where his trees are and i only used it to leave my trail and ride in the ditch back to my house where my trail is if ur starting to think i’m riding on private property. and he said he ain’t mad at me about where i raced on his property so even if the rangers come he won’t wanna charge me with anything he just wants to let it fly. i just hope we can get along and not have any problems

*Note that it doesn’t always have to come down to exposing someone to get them to quit being a turd, but in this case, it was necessary. Here’s what I said to get him to stop being an ass…

Of all the reasons listed, I don’t see any reason for you to be on his land. If “he had a guy drive his tractor on your dad’s land”, YOU driving on HIS land is NOT legal recourse. Reporting him to the police IS. Since he called the police “10 times already”, there must be at least one police report with the LEOs there in Sobieski, Wisconsin. How hard to you think it would be for the LEOs to trace this thread back to you and charge you and your parents with criminal trespass with intent to do property damage?

Not hard at all. Especially if someone from your area reads this post and saw what you’re doing to destroy ALL of our OHV privileges, (or what few we have left, thanks to people like you), and forwarded this thread to the State Patrol, which is just a couple miles up the 41 from you.

You’ve got a lot to learn about respect AND the law. I have a feeling you will be learning quite a bit about both in very short order if you keep being a turd.

So again, if twoheeldrive is hoping I’ll quit voicing my opinion so they can more easily remove ATVs from the face of the earth, they can forget about it. If they’re trying to get nature saved, and remove the menace created by a small percentage of a very big group, I’m fighting for the same thing they are, whether they like it or not, whether they think it’s working or not.

I know it is.

Yoav Kaveh of haaretz.com reports about ATV riders destroying archaeological mounds, but makes the distinction between these few individuals and the majority of ATV riders who are responsible.

Congrats, Yoav! It’s not good to hear about the news, but it’s good to hear that you realize most of us are not like that!

I live in a small town on the outskirts of San Diego County. San Diego is a big county. There’s not many places to ride here. I have to drive for an hour to get to a place, and it’s not very 4-wheel friendly with the narrow trails. (I’m talking about Corral Canyon).

There’s a dirt track on an Indian reservation near the town. A bunch of homes were built right next to the track. Now the track is getting more popular, and the residents are trying to get it moved because of the noise, pollution and dust.

It’s a developing story, and I’m working on two full length articles for magazines, which I will post the links to when they’re published.

Yesterday I went on a small rant at Under My Helmet about a pair of renegade Riverside County Sheriff Deputies who fired shots at un-armed off roaders near Canyon Lake.

According to the Sheriff’s department, the Rhino tried to run over one of two sheriff’s when ordered to stop.

According to eye witnesses, the 2 sheriff’s approached the rhino from behind with guns drawn, the frightened rhino driver fled, a sheriff ran at and lunged onto the rhino getting drug before falling off, then his partner started shooting at the rhino.

So basically what happened is that these undesirable laws were enacted which instantly made criminals out of otherwise law abiding citizens (nothing new, I know), and now the gun-slinging sheriffs who thought they were Judge, Jury and Executioner were unleashed on these new “criminals” who shot between 9 and 11 shots at them. (Not only are these sheriff’s irrational, they irresponsible when it comes to keeping track of such things as how many shots were fired.)

Sounds to me like the cops were just pissed because they couldn’t force the people to stop. I can’t blame them, it’s natural when you’re in a position of authority to want to control the situation. What separates the quality cops from the rent-a-cops is how they handle the situation when they CANT control it.

atv, sheriff, shoot, shot, un-armed, rhino, Riverside County, off road, trail

Military Avenue reports that ATV riders at Edwards Air Force Base are often leaving the designated trails, mostly in OHV area 2. The Air Force is threatening to close those areas altogether for everyone.

While I’ll be the first person to jump up in protest of closing more OHV areas, I’ll also be the first to jump up and smack upside the head those who are riding unlawfully and for being the reason for getting even more OHV areas closed.

So if you’re riding in closed areas, especially sections of existing OHV areas which are closed, GTFO!

military, air force, atv, road closed, Edwards AFB

Lets forget about the debate of whether or not global warming is happening. Unless you want to debate why there are ice packs forming in the souther hemisphere, which begs the question, where’d they come up with the GLOBAL part of global warming.

Anyway, I support global warming, such as it is. I’ll give you a quick run-down of the pros and cons as I see them. (This is not a complete list)

Pros:
• More food production.
• Lower heating costs.
• Better standard of living.
• Lower deaths due to freezing.

Cons:
• A select group of eco-wackos think:
• The Earth has already reached optimum temperature.
• Humans are to blame.
• All human growth and advancement needs to stop now.
• We need to stop or reverse the naturally-occurring weather cycles of the planet
• The sun has no effect on global temperatures.
• The earth is warming AND cooling due to mankind.
• My Jeep has such bad emissions, it’s screwing up the climate on Mars and melting the polar ice there, too.

Anything that will simultaneously inflate man’s self-importance and expose the hypocrisy of wealthy liberals not only entertains me, but makes popcorn cook on it’s own while I watch.

Just an FYI, I reported over at Under My Helmet about an article I found today slamming ATV use for youths.

Read my rant and feel free to pass it on.

I wrote about deadbeat dads and their ATV license renewal at Under My Helmet yesterday, and in the post, I brought up cell phone records of deadbeats being made available. A reader mentioned that he felt it ok to have the records made available because deadbeats need to pay what they owe.

While I agree with him that they must pay, I disagree with the means. As off roaders, I’m sure we can all agree that we’ve had places to ride “chipped away” slowly over the last 2 decades.

So I have to ask, what’s next? In an effort to curb unlawful off-road activity, everyone in the United States with a registered ATV or off road vehicle will be subject to have their cell records looked at.

According to Two Heel Drive, it’s dangerous and unpleasant to try to hike on an ATV trail.

Gee, ya think?

Ok, sorry, maybe he didn’t deserve that. Or maybe he did.

As a long time hiker and nature lover myself who Tread’s Lightly, I must admit that by the same token it’s almost as hard to ride ATVs on hiking trails, because those pesky “I deserve to be here and you don’t” hypocritical screaming green weenies keep getting stuck in my suspension. My next purchase will have to be a cattle hippy guard to help keep some of that smelly crud from getting on my shiny new paint job.

I wonder if this guy is somehow related to the hippycrite who foolishly portrayed himself as superior to other off roaders because he drives a Volvo…

Where’s the outrage? Gas is going up to record prices. Again.

By summer we will be looking at $4.00/gallon or more. Prolly more for me here in San Diego, Ca. where I saw it yesterday for $3.54/gallon for regular. People were lined up to buy it, too. Even though there was another station not more than 2 blocks away that was selling it for $3.30/gallon.

Why aren’t we mad as hell yet? We know it’s coming, yet we do nothing. We don’t drive less, we don’t complain, we don’t shop around… we just shut up and keep pumping money into fat pockets of big oil companies that are making record profits while we face an economic catastrophe of Biblical proportion.

Shop around for your gas. Tune up your car and check the tire pressure. Or park it and start taking the bus or riding your motorcycle or bicycle or horse or whatever. Just start sending the message.

gas, price, gouge, oil, fuel, economy

Please stay out of Death Valley. You are ruining it for the rest of us Volvo driving hippy/asian americans.

Mkaythks

death valley, volvo, hippy, off road, hypocrite, 4×4, jeep, truck

Have you seen the show? Typically it’s pretty good. But I just watched the Glamis edition and was quite shocked that they had the nerve to burn pallets in their camp fire.

Pallets you say? Yes, pallets.

Perhaps they’re un-aware that pallets have nails, and the nails get left behind after the fire is out. If you think it’s not a big deal, then you haven’t had first hand experience with them and what kind of damage they can do to tires or feet.

I have. On both. Leave your pallets at home. Don’t bring them to the desert unless you take them apart and remove all the nails. (Psst, that goes for ANY wood you bring with nails to burn at the desert.)

Lets hope they hear about this and don’t do it any more.