Fun ON Trails

More ATVs, kids and injuries

2010-07-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

Well, this time a little girl died, caught under a full size ATV. Tragic!

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Children+driving+ATVs+recipe+disaster/3330313/story.html

This time though, the relative safety of dirt bikes is acknowledged in the MD's comments. Slowly but surely, the obvious becomes... well, obvious:

Creery said there was a much higher public health risk from ATVs than dirt bikes, although the speeds they travelled were similar. He said riders could usually push off dirt bikes that fell on top of them, but would probably be crushed beneath ATVs that weighed as much as 600 kilograms

Although I firmly believe ATVs are much more dangerous than dirt bikes (an annual death rate as high as 40 : 1) I'm still saddened not to see anywhere in the now "specialist in ATVs" comments about age-appropriate machines.

The bottom line of the entire article is that kids should not drive any kind of ATV, which is stupid, given that there are age-appropriate machines with say 50cc engines and small. Still bigger and heavier than a dirt bike, but smaller and more appropriate.

Let's face it: moronic parents kill kids, not the ATVs.

Sad but true.

Those freaking loud dirt bikes

2010-04-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

...well, mine included apparently :) I was rated at 95dB. I shall repack the muffler and it should drop under 94dB.

But I'm seriously considering downgrading my noise level to... well, Zero: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2535474

This is really bad news to all you "environmental extremists" out there trying to ban trail riding everywhere because of noise...hmm! Yeah, maybe there is some double-speak that makes noise from Zero, but I doubt it...

I'm refering to those environmental fanatics that drive their SUV with a mountain bike in tow all the way to the forest, for a 1 hr ride.

ATVs, kids, dirt bikes and injuries

2009-10-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

A few more accidents involving children and ATVs, unfortunately one of them tragic. http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1772442

The only sensible conclusion was of the OPP officer who noted that "these are large machines and we're dealing with small children".

Other comments range from completely banning children from motorized vehicles, to, check this out: banning children under 14 years of age from operating any motorized ATV, even on private property. So, they could drive a proper car but not a small ATV.

Again, a lot of uneducated folks (they can be MDs but they're obviously not educated on motorized off-roading). I don't suppose they ever saw a kid-size 50cc machine. I doubt they pay attention when in their local Canadian Tire which usually carries a bunch of the smaller ones. And what does age have to do with size of engine operated? Isn't it that size is what matters? My trained 9 year old can drive his motocross bike a lot better than many 14 year-olds will ever be able to, especially on their first attempt.

Again, lots of people start talking "motorized vehicles" and bundle dirt bikes with ATVs with race cars...

Dirt bikes are reasonably safe under direct supervision and, of course, when the right size is used. It's worth mentioning that while a 2 year old can ride a 600lb 900cc ATV simply by standing on his/her butt and pushing a button, it is practically impossible for them to control any dirt bike that is not their size.

If fitted for their size, a dirt bike will not go any faster than a mountain bike downhill, so I must ask again, why do so many people get the wrong impression?

I definitely want my kids to keep riding dirt bikes in the relative safety of the forest as opposed to riding their bicycles anywhere near traffic.

Just for the record, I don't personally like ATVs - I consider them much less safe than dirt bikes, simply because they create the impression that anyone can easily drive them and that's not the case. Just checkout the comparison videos at the bottom of our page: http://wiki.funontrails.com/about-dirt-bikes

Why SNELL may be bad for you...

2009-09-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the more is not always the better, especially when it comes to blows to the head. It seems that SNELL is making your head get more bang for the buck...

This article (a long read) explains why SNELL helmets tend to be harsher than plain DOT and that may be bad for your brains, especially for dirt bike riders, where asphalt is rare (although one could argue that rocks aren't that rare - but you won't hit them doing 150 either)...

After denying the obvious, the SNELL foundation upgraded their standard to include some of the recommendations in the article above, to M2010. Just reading their press release in the light shed by the original article, the release SMELLS of spinning from miles away.

So, especially if you're buying for kids... you might want to think twice... and the cheaper may be the better, in this case.

Anyways, whether you have the SNELL or just DOT, here's the dirt bike trails and tracks in Ontario, where you can have fun using it, as long as you actually have one...

More trouble in Northumberland

2009-03-06T11:44:00.001-08:00

This article in Northumberland Today talks about the issues with trail riding in the Northumberland forest.

From what I understand, the proposal sections the forest and limits motorized use to pretty much just double-track (access trails).

That will, of course, not be acceptable, since that will eliminate trail riding... but the Cobourg Mayor Peter Delanty is saying that the "dirt bike people don't want to compromise at all" - quite misleading!

First, like I said above, trail riding takes place on the single-track, not access roads. The OFTR has offered to put signs on all trails, be stewards of the forest and work with the forestry to avoid eroded areas on an on-going basis, not a one-time basis.

Second, he's implying that a compromise has been suggested, i.e. the trails left after this would be reasonable compared to what it was before. That would be called a "compromise". However, the currently proposed 90% reduction in single-track trails is not a compromise.

Third - electric dirt bikes are already in the stores and no doubt will be more pervasive in the next few years - at that point a dirt bike is not much more than a bicycle. Will there by another commission to give them access everywhere again? Ye

ah - right! Way to go - thinking far in the future, folks!

Lastly, he's (purposefully ?) confusing trail bikes with ATVs and sleds. Again, trail bikes thrive on the single-track, deep in the forest, i.e. trails that ATVs and sleds couldn't care less about.

And, by cramming trail riders in less trails, the overuse of these remaining trails will not benefit the forest - but that's obvious to anyone, really. What's not that obvious is that by limiting the trail riders, they're basically pushing away the one organized group that is inclined to help steward the forest - for example in the Simcoe County!

If the issues are indeed noise and pollution - there should be limits on noise and pollution, of course - not on all usage (i.e. restrict trail usage).

See more details about dirt bike riding in Northumberland Forest.

Get some education about trail riders in one of these places:

OFTR
The local club - here you can learn how they got $26,000 in donations for the local hospital - talk about involvement

More facts, from the comission's research:

8% of forest users are dirt bike riders (easy to pick on them, eh?)
92% of forest users say that quality of the trails is GREAT or OK.
52% of adjacent residents using the forest are motorized (ATV/dirt bike/sled)
3 out of 19 complain about noise
4 out of 19 would restrict nearby trails to motorized use
75% would not restrict anything

There's (as of right now) 1,274 signatures on the petition.

Given these facts - what are basis of the severe restrictions proposed on the trail riders? I mean it's obvious it's easy to pick on them, mayor - but is there any other reason?

Why a new dirt bikes website?

2009-01-28T18:14:00.000-08:00

Why have another site listing the dirt bike trails in Ontario? Because the few that I found so far are either incomplete or not to my liking.

What's not acceptable? Here are a few hints:

pages written black on white or similar shades are not acceptable to me. That's how paper is simply because it's easier to make! It is not good for the eye.
just a simple text description - that's nice, but a picture is worth a thousand words and a video ... well, is that worth a thousand pictures?
some charge for maps, well, I don't know about that. Not today, when all you have to do is turn on the GPS and just ride, eh?
some charge a membership - nice revenue generation but is that really useful for the client? are there that many trails as to make it worth? nah!
etc...could go on and on and on...

Plan your next ride

It is hard to figure out where to go riding our dirt bikes. How the trails look like. Is that one more interesting for this weekend, or the other one? I ended up spending hours searching forums and websites and in the end only have an incomplete picture of where to ride.

My simple use case is this: where should I go riding this coming weekend?

To answer that question, I simply want to look at a map of all dirt bike trails, see what's where and find out more information about each, i.e. photos, videos, other user's comments etc.

Other than that, I should check the calendar of events, to see if there's any that I'd like to participate in, coming up.

That's the aim of this new website: to fill this gap, organize information to make it easy to plan one's next ride. In the end we'll have as much information as can be had about each trail nearby.

Besides the trails, for newbies, we figured we'd find and map all local dirt bike clubs, to make it easy to identify the one to join. Also, the shops, dealers and stores to buy dirt bikes or accessories.

While searching the internet, we found some tracks as well. We're trail-riding oriented, but figured we could list the dirt bike tracks we found as well - not all riding is on the trail.

Keep it hidden?

There's some people out there that use loud bikes unrespectfully on trails and screw it for us, the majority of trail riders.

Some of them really think that 10 more decibels do give them 1 horse power. Well, besides the fact that you get more by messing with that wind box or the sparkly peaks, not to mention the screws in the wind pipe etc, they should keep those bikes only on the race track, where they belong!

Those that are not showing respect to the other trail/forest users are just the morons and the bullies that one would meet in the local Tim Hortons, cutting you off and just being loud and obnoxious.

Because of these pricks, there's many of us that would like to keep the location of the trails under wraps. Well, I find that this hurts us more than it hurts the pricks. It is hard to figure out where to go riding. How the trails look like. Is that one more interesting for this weekend, or the other one?

Why should I bother buying a (quiet) dirt bike, or plate it, or pay for insurance, and only go riding in approved places, if I don't know the approved places? If all I know is that I'll get chased by cops and get a fine anywhere I go?

...will continue this another time