Land Issues

[nigel dabster]

Apparently off road activities are banned in spain!

http://66.196.80.202/babelfish/translate_u...-marcototal.htm

[jimw]

although with babelfish you can never be entirely sure!

[jordi]

Looks as if this is the next step from the 4 metre law that riders in Spain were fighting recently.

We should all be worried over this!

Edited September 6, 2008 by jordi

[baldilocks]

Looks as if this is the next step from the 4 metre law that riders in Spain were fighting recently.

We should all be worried over this!

I agree, years ago I believe riding in streams was banned in Germany, the French 5 day is unlikely to run again due to land access problems, we have SSI over here. If Spain cant use off road then gas gas, sherco and montesa are not going to last long !

I think our days of using the countryside may be numbered but I hope we can continue for a good while. After that we need wasteland and man made sections, giving up is not an option !

[diligaf]

Dude if you read your last sentence you will realize you already have given up and the outcome is already decided RIP. If all you can do is ride in waste land and manmade i.e indoors

its time to get over trials and do what the nazi authorities want. Which is to sit in your house recycle your garbage and tend your wind farm in the yard when you aren't working and paying 50% of what you earn over to them. All this despite allowing big industry to destoy the world, they have decided to regulate the little man until the only thing that still is legal is sipping organically grown coffee on the sidewalk watching the dead fish float by. Welcome to the new world.

Luckily I live in the third world where you can pretty much ride where ever you like so long as you take a gun to shoot the would be muggers. We have also volintarily stopped riding through botanical gardens and the like when there are people there because we think its poor form.

Good luck in the first world but I think that the pencil necks have won.

[frontroomautos]

Sadly i think you are right. there is practically nowhere left to ride without having to do an event in England. Global warming is a joke, it's there yes undeniably but its a natural occurance perhaps made slightly worse by emmissions. There was never anything wrong burning fossil fuel but the worlds population is probabbly as much as 9 times more than the planet can sustain so burning fossil fuel on that scale is going to cause a number of problems yes. There is nowhere in the West left truely wild as its either built on or artificially proccured & theres nowhere to ride because theres simply no room left to allow for it. Growth Growth Growth, both economic and population wise it cant go on for ever without grim consequences, Growth is an artifical term politically & it is not always good, but I digress.

I often wonder how long Trials will go on for, its a harmless healthy sport. As you say lets all stay in our overpriced houses and recycle crap, (usually on the TV), I wonder how long the manurfacturers will continue but then again I would have thought it in their own interests too to invest in land and support clubs. I realise that this would be unrealistic to fund with their profit margins but if something isnt done in the future to secure land to use it is going to be good buy to off road sport. Personally I prefer outdoor trials to arena style so if it goes so will I to take up recycling shoelaces or some other stimulating hobby.

[ham2]

Sadly i think you are right. there is practically nowhere left to ride without having to do an event in England. Global warming is a joke, it's there yes undeniably but its a natural occurance perhaps made slightly worse by emmissions. There was never anything wrong burning fossil fuel but the worlds population is probabbly as much as 9 times more than the planet can sustain so burning fossil fuel on that scale is going to cause a number of problems yes. There is nowhere in the West left truely wild as its either built on or artificially proccured & theres nowhere to ride because theres simply no room left to allow for it. Growth Growth Growth, both economic and population wise it cant go on for ever without grim consequences, Growth is an artifical term politically & it is not always good, but I digress.

I often wonder how long Trials will go on for, its a harmless healthy sport. As you say lets all stay in our overpriced houses and recycle crap, (usually on the TV), I wonder how long the manurfacturers will continue but then again I would have thought it in their own interests too to invest in land and support clubs. I realise that this would be unrealistic to fund with their profit margins but if something isnt done in the future to secure land to use it is going to be good buy to off road sport. Personally I prefer outdoor trials to arena style so if it goes so will I to take up recycling shoelaces or some other stimulating hobby.

Well said,in plain English but I do hope you are not the New-Age Nostradamus!!

If you're gunning to be Prime Minister I will gladly vote for you.

[bikespace]

Just to bring in a more optimistic note - we've got more land than you can shake a sh|tty stick at, and if I fancy a practice, I have at least 4 or 5 areas that I could go to fairly locally.

One small problem we have is that if we start wandering off in to the hills, we're getting a little too far from home for the city slickers, and the numbers go right down.

Seemed different when I was younger, but I think maybe it's still the same in other parts of Britain. I would imagine that the more rural locations like Holgate (think my memory serves me right) are still popular.

We've not used a couple of bits of land this year, just because there hasn't been a right time for it. I suppose with a couple of days marking out and a day clearing up, the fuel costs are making a difference. Would be a shame to lose land just because we get out of the habit of using it.

I remember every farmer used to have a TY175 that would come out at a weekend. Most riders seem to work in the city/towns down here.

In summary - the land is where the riders aren't. One day we may have the biggest entries because people will have to travel - if they can afford the diesel/hydrogen.

[frontroomautos]

Well said,in plain English but I do hope you are not the New-Age Nostradamus!!

If you're gunning to be Prime Minister I will gladly vote for you.

LOL, thanks for the vote in advance HAM2...Prime minister, heh heh. On all those tax fiddles, I could afford all sorts of Trials bikes. I'd have an aircraft hanger full of them. When I am booted out I could hide away amongst the eurocrats in Brussels, do nothing but tweek the human rights bill & when I don't have my nose in the trough, discuss for the next 10 years the idea of accepting the WHOLE WORLD into the EU. I'd rather be wrong than right on this one but population trends speak for themselves. Demographically wales is less populated in proportion to England & while I agree with you bikespace as far as land availability in your part of the country, it wont necessarily always be the case for a number of reasons even discounting population for the short term future; legislations from DEFRA & NERC have had a damaging effect on greenlaning and enduro. On the bright side and there is one;if landowners and organised clubs can organise land and secure it for this purpose as well as make it pay for itself that would be a start.

Also I know the manurfacturers can not be held responsible for doing this but it would be helpfull if the industry as a collective did more to advertise and promote Trials to keep a stream of new and young riders.

Although I have misgivings politically on constant GROWTH, in the west (and most of the East too now of course) we trade globally within the same framework (free market economy) which needs to forever expand and grow....hence world population growth that will inevitablly one day have to give way to misery, and it will be misery....but ironically Trials needs to finance itself and needs to survive among the market forces too, so it too must advertise and sustain itself via the same means.....oh we could go on about this for weeks,...peaks and troughs....rise and fall....a world war would solve the problem for another 60-70 years though....

.....no of course I don't endorse that (mind you if you take a close look at current affairs, the ingedients are all there) last party to annoy Russia is a sissy...LOL.

[bigdamo]

I hate to say it but those noisey 4 strokes are not helping the matter and they where to be environmentally friendly.

[spenser]

It does pain me to hear of the problems faced by enthusiasts in other parts of the world, the only reason we have trials motorcycles is because of the size of the sport in the European countries. The sport here in North America is microscopic in comparison and therfore could not support manufacturers and deveolpment (I would guess less than 150 new bikes sold in Canada this year). To say categorically that a loss of riding areas can be partly responsible to the noise of four strokes is grossly inaccurate, the Beta 4t is a very quiet bike, a GasGas TXT 50 Boy is obnoxious and any two stroke with an inproperly maintained muffler is noisy.

Everyone in the sport must work to keep it alive; manufacturers must develop quiet, clean running bikes; clubs must create partnerships with other user groups (mountain bikers, hikers etc.) to lobby landowners and governing authorities for land use agreements; and riders must give back to their communities and ride responsibly. To carry on business as usual, ignoring the current social and political climate, will only result in off-road riding suffering death from a thousand cuts.

Spencer

[ranger17]

General observation based on absolutely no surveys or scientific data whatsoever but my own personal experience/s

[bigdamo]

To say categorically that a loss of riding areas can be partly responsible to the noise of four strokes is grossly inaccurate, the Beta 4t is a very quiet bike, a GasGas TXT 50 Boy is obnoxious and any two stroke with an inproperly maintained muffler is noisy.

Spencer

Maybe you ride right out in the back country of Canada where there is no one around for hundreds of miles.

But it is a fact that four stroke sound noisy unrestricted four stroke sound carries further than your normal trials 2 stroke sound.

(and yes the Beta is Quiet so is the montesa until you take out the restrictors from the exhaust system and a hell of alot of people do )

Alot of people complain about noisey unrestricted 4 stroke which draws unwanted attention to limited amount of riding areas.

[spenser]

Thanks for the thumbs up ranger17 and it is true that in this day of technology we can work together on solutions to our common problems from all corners of the world.

bigdamo: Yes we have riding areas in the wilderness, but the areas most heavily used are located with homes within 100 feet of our trails. We have partnered with the rock climbing community and the local trails society in the formation of a local municipal park in which we are legislated accepted users ,and in another area of town we have worked with the mountain biking community creating trails and play areas where we are now accepted users on the municipal land use plan. Both of these areas have residential areas up adjacent to them, just because its Canada, doesn't mean its a wide open playground.

Spencer