Noisy Dirt Bike Dilemma

[Bronx]

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I have a dilemma in the area I work in.

I manage a team of Rangers and Enforcement Officers. These officers have powers to control and regulate off road vehicles (including dirt bikes) under certain circumstances. We recieve a lot of complaints about unregistered trail bikes riding on parks and reserves etc illegally. The complainants state that they make too much noise and destroy the environment (forest, bush etc). I don't agree that they destroy the environment but do agree that some can be noisy and dusty around people's homes.

There are not enough licenced off road MX tracks in this area and the ones that are here are under a lot of pressure from neighbours about noise and dust. We would like to encourage more tracks to be set up but it is very difficult because of the opposition from members of the community.

If we had more designated tracks it would minise (not stop) some of the young guys riding illegally in areas close to houses and generating complaints which come to me.

I ride adventure/off road bikes on a regular basis around my area but I keep away from areas that I am not supposed to be in. I am also careful not to upset any neighbours in the areas I ride in.

My dilemma is, how do I encourage some of our younger riders to keep their bikes away from residential areas and to be a little less noisy and how do I encourage the legal development of private tracks? In my position I am often forced to take regulatory action against bike riders when I would rather not .

My life would be a lot easier if dirt bikes were quieter .

Bruce

[ADVJake]

The entire problem is noise pollution. Noone is bothered when a pack of mountain bikers scream through walking tracks... most of the time.

a resolution could be noise regulation, make the places legal to ride on the premise that the national 94db legal limit is in place. Maybe your enforcement officers could have a decibel meter carried with them? Fine people who have bikes too loud. That will encourage them to install a baffle and continue to ride the same areas.
Its going to be difficult to open new riding areas with so many people against it.

[GodSilla]

You could think about this scenario in reverse:
In Canberra we used to have a 1/8th mile dragstrip. It would run every fortnight. The local petrolheads would spend the fortnight polishing/servicing/tuning/farkling their cars and then go to the drags for the day, and having a proper timer meant there was no bullshit.
As usual, "progress" occured and it was closed (still unused today) and the result was an explosion of street drags and suburban burnouts, a real pain in the arse and quite horrible for residents.
If you could find some way to harness their energy into a regular competition of some kind it would likely grab the smarter ones and keep them focussed and out of the woods, so to speak, and that would just leave the dumb ones to play up, and getting twats off the roads/trails is never a bad thing.
Some form of soft enduro perhaps, mixed weekends with grasstrack, enduro, motocross, trials, dirttrack (short duration events) to get the skills nicely rounded could be good, like a mini-AMA that they used to run where the champion rode multiple disciplines to win.
The problem as always is beauracracy, licences, insurance, blahblahblah, but the idea has merit.

[mcguyver]

Bruce
Talk to Brett Harman who is the Ranger in charge of the Logan City council up here. Brett also rides bikes and was having exactly the same problem you do and probabaly still does but he has tried to educate the local kids that riding in local parks and reserves etc is not on and activly ecourages to ride in legal areas such as bike parks like black duck etc. I know he was having a lot of success with what ever it was he was doing.
He can be contacted at the Logan City Coucil parks depot at Marsden. (sorry dont have his number any more)

I am sure he would be happy to share ideas etc.

[Ezzy]

Some people whinge for the sake of winging, take my neighbour for example, he hates my 5 and 8 year olds playing in my back yard cause they are to noisy, dogs are to noisy, birds are to noisy, roller door is to noisy, and the list goes on.

But for the preservation of our riding areas, and keeping the peace, both sides need to give and take.

You will find the riding near homes is just an access path to the riding area, suggest slowing down (dust) to a steady pace (noise) so they will not loose the privilege in the future.
Most young people will respond ok to these ideas and suggestions, than to be told they can not ride anywhere, they will come to the conclusion that if their in the shit no matter where they ride, they will just go to the vacant lot across the road.

As for the dwellers, ? let me know quickly, as my neighbours letter dropping has got the whole block offside.

[gsd4me]

Originally Posted by Ezzy

Some people whinge for the sake of winging, take my neighbour for example, he hates my 5 and 8 year olds playing in my back yard cause they are to noisy

Tell the old prick to STFU or you will complain to the police that he is perving on your kids. You won`t hear boo from him then.

[Pockethead]

There used to be a rock quarry near me and although illegal to ride there, the police would come and make sure everybody were wearing helmets and not on the bitumen, other than that they were quite happy not having to chase them through the streets. That quarry was heaps of fun... but ya can't ride there now.

That aside electric bikes will be hitting the popular production market in 2010 I believe and they are very quiet.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by Bronx

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My dilemma is, how do I encourage some of our younger riders to keep their bikes away from residential areas and to be a little less noisy and how do I encourage the legal development of private tracks?

the first you enforce the noise limit rigorously in a few select areas and the word will spread soon enough. it'd be even better if you could impound their bike for say 48 hours instead of monetary penalty.

at the same time as fining them talk to them about where they can ride and how they get there, whatever you do hold them up for as long as possible and speak to them as fellow riders, the more time you put in on the ground the more effective your message should be.

have you considered an education program through the local schools about riding responsibly and safely? the council should have an education officer.


the second question is something more aligned with a few of your people within council i'd reckon, the council should have land available and needs to push it through.

[aussiehusky]

[quote=saab463]Bruce
Talk to Brett Harman who is the Ranger in charge of the Logan City council up here. Brett also rides bikes and was having exactly the same problem you do I have seen the local park rangers in a local park in Logan supposedly trying to catch an unlicenced rider as he took off on the back wheel. educating young riders to ride in legal areas such as bike parks like black duck etc.
i can relate to noisy bikes as my son has the same,

a) Most of the noisy bikes are Imported Chinese brands and yes he has one as well, but i have taken it upon myself to quiten it down and ensure it's safe to ride, in regards to places such as the black duck or the ORTC, these area's are not suitable for learners. believe me I have taken him there. Cheap chinese type bikes are owned by 1) parents who buy bike the bikes as there not able to afford anything better.
2) Or parents who generally buy the bikes attempting to allow there kids to experiance riding without the cost of approx $4000.00 "good Jap bike"
if the sellers sold bikes that conformed to the Db rating set out most compliants would not be made.
3) now the most common problem is parents not supervising the riding properly, all to often you here these bikes going down the local street ridden by kids with no regard to law and there own safety, most are not wearing even the minimum protective gear.
4) Most legal bike riding area's for Young unlicensed riders are generally far from a built up area and make travelling to them difficult.


I know he was having a lot of success with what ever it was he was doing.
He can be contacted at the Logan City Coucil parks depot at Marsden. (sorry dont have his number any more) logan Shire have a web address that gives directions to trail bike parks and no they are not having a lot of success dealing with the problem reading the complaints in the local papers it is an ongoing problem that the Police are even having problems of controlling.

I am sure he would be happy to share ideas. yes give Brett a call im sure he is pulling his hair out as well, but willing to pass on his ideas.

I'm certain most shires have this same issue, kids being kids of it's not bikes it's skateboards or something else, they need areas where they can ride legally and safe. No I don't believe kids should annoy thier local residents, but is not the Adults that should be controlling them and ensuring the bikes are used in a safe and LEGAL manner
Enough of my rambling and i'll pour another drink

[BikePilot]

We have the same noise problem here. Sadly the noise is mostly created by the riders. Non-MX bikes are generally pretty quite (at least here) and folks insist on fitting some stupid aftermarket crap that makes insane noise levels. For MX bikes there is a good selection of fairly quiet (<93db) aftermarket silencers. If it were me I'd fine or otherwise punish folks with excessively loud exhausts. much better to be a bit hard on them now than to let them spoil it for everyone with their obnoxious mufflers.

[BurnieM]

Originally Posted by BikePilot

We have the same noise problem here. Sadly the noise is mostly created by the riders. Non-MX bikes are generally pretty quite (at least here) and folks insist on fitting some stupid aftermarket crap that makes insane noise levels. For MX bikes there is a good selection of fairly quiet (<93db) aftermarket silencers. If it were me I'd fine or otherwise punish folks with excessively loud exhausts. much better to be a bit hard on them now than to let them spoil it for everyone with their obnoxious mufflers.

Is it about noise ?

I remember being stopped half a dozen times on my TS250 for noise. Only problem was that it was not noisey so the Police would give you some b/s and let you go 'because the neighbours had complained'. All it generated was a negative attitude to the Police.
.

[crash n bern]

It's funny, when I was 12 years old I started riding in an abandoned orchard in Wantirna, Melb. The track was policed by a group of older kids around 15 years old. Rule no 1, no loud mufflers, you had to keep the stock pipe on. Rule 2 all tracks are one way. Rule 3 no riding through the adjoining park that accessed the orchard. If you broke the rules there was hell to pay with the older kids. Outsiders who didn't obey where run out. We eventually lost the track when we where inundated with kids from neighbouring suburbs on motocross bikes who had lost their tracks and it it was too much for us to police them all. This was the early to mid '70's.

One of the older kids who did most of the enforcing had a dad that was a bike cop. So I figure that's where the rules came from.
I've pretty much followed this code of conduct all my life and refused to ride with guy's who didn't.

[TerryK]

Originally Posted by Bronx

---

I have a dilemma in the area I work in.

I manage a team of Rangers and Enforcement Officers. These officers have powers to control and regulate off road vehicles (including dirt bikes) under certain circumstances. We recieve a lot of complaints about unregistered trail bikes riding on parks and reserves etc illegally. The complainants state that they make too much noise and destroy the environment (forest, bush etc). I don't agree that they destroy the environment but do agree that some can be noisy and dusty around people's homes.

There are not enough licenced off road MX tracks in this area and the ones that are here are under a lot of pressure from neighbours about noise and dust. We would like to encourage more tracks to be set up but it is very difficult because of the opposition from members of the community.

If we had more designated tracks it would minise (not stop) some of the young guys riding illegally in areas close to houses and generating complaints which come to me.

I ride adventure/off road bikes on a regular basis around my area but I keep away from areas that I am not supposed to be in. I am also careful not to upset any neighbours in the areas I ride in.

My dilemma is, how do I encourage some of our younger riders to keep their bikes away from residential areas and to be a little less noisy and how do I encourage the legal development of private tracks? In my position I am often forced to take regulatory action against bike riders when I would rather not .

My life would be a lot easier if dirt bikes were quieter .

Bruce

Aggreed, suggest you also post on Dirt Bike World (DBW) The noise issue comes up in lots of posts.

[Marcbar]

That aside electric bikes will be hitting the popular production market in 2010 I believe and they are very quiet.[/QUOTE]


Well I for one do not look forward to the intro of electric bikes. A big part of the joy of riding your bike is the sound it puts out.

[Phil_Fong]

Dirt bikes can be noisy and I suppose invading somebodies space with that could be an intrusion.
Ham-in-the-sandwich Police do a good job around here, everybody gets a fair go.
Try living near a rifle range - fark - I dont know how people put up with that on weekends and yet people choose to live there.
Got me wondering.