Nazi's in Wash ticket FS roads,plastic tanks MC

[HighwayChile]

assholes! washington used to be a hell of place to live and ride, it is populated with asshole nazis writing tickets, nice to see NMA looking into RICO for abuse of law enforcement powers.

http://www.soundrider.com/Apr04/usfs.htm

copy below

Law Enforcement Problem?


The Northwest Motorcycle Association (NMA) has been receiving numerous complaints from riders of WA licensed dual sport motorcycles who believe they were ticketed for equipment violations that do not exist. These complaints started coming in about three years ago, primarily from the Kittitas and Chelan County areas. Recent information from reliable sources has led the NMA to believe that ticket writing for alleged equipment violations will be increased significantly in 2004 in some of the popular dirt riding areas in eastern WA. As you know, many trails in those areas are segmented by logging or county roads that are utilized to connect enough trail segments for a full day of dirt riding. Many riders are licensing their dirt bikes (particularly KTMs) or dirt prepping their factory dual sports with dirt tires, larger plastic gas tanks, more durable mirrors, lights, etc. so they can ride both the trails and the connecting roads.


Prior complaints have stated that one particular USFS law enforcement agent seems to be on a real vendetta against WA licensed dual sport bikes with plastic gas tanks. Information is coming in that other law enforcement agents, specifically county ORV deputies (funded by your NOVA and ORV sticker funds!) intend to be very aggressive in 2004, writing citations for real or possibly perceived “equipment violations.� NMA volunteers have researched the laws and have to date been unable to find any law which prohibits the use of plastic gas tanks on street licensed motorcycles. However, one (perhaps several?) USFS law enforcement agent has been writing tickets to the operators of street licensed motorcycles on USFS roads for an equipment violation simply because their motorcycle was equipped with a plastic gas tank.


Based on the information NMA is receiving it appears that many of the County ORV enforcement officers in eastern WA are now preparing to go all out in terms of writing tickets to street licensed dual sport riders for equipment violations based on such things as non-conforming tires, headlights, tail lights, turn signals, mirrors, etc. The NMA believes that ticketing of riders for the use of plastic gas tanks will also be on the increase this year. It appears that some USFS law enforcement personnel realize that any ticket they write is almost impossible for the average person to contest and 99.9% of the ticketed riders will simply pay the fine.


The current process of contesting a USFS citation means making one in-person trip to the US Federal Court in Yakima just to plead not guilty and set a hearing date. Then a second trip to Yakima is required to show up for the actual hearing. Of course as the old saying goes, anyone who represents themselves in court has a fool for a lawyer! Therefore, a person desiring to contest their citation must also hire a lawyer for both of those appearances! One person we know of actually attempted to contest the citation with the services of a lawyer over a year ago. The court still has not responded to that lawyer’s letter for a hearing as of the date this is being written. It appears the system just took that person’s money and refuses to respond in any manner to numerous phone calls or the letter from the lawyer! Due Process?


NMA volunteers are currently working to create a list of the applicable WA and Federal motor vehicle laws and regulations for dual sport motorcycle equipment. This information will soon be posted on the NMA website, nmaoffroad.org.


What can you do? Tell your riding friends that the NMA is trying to collect hard data on what has been occurring and hopefully put a complete stop to any abuse of authority which may have been or is occurring against riders of WA licensed dual sport motorcycles. There are many statutes on the books for use against law enforcement officers who abuse their position. The Rico Anti-Racketeering Act is a very strong federal statute that creates personal liability and criminal penalties against officials who engage in abuse of their positions. The NMA needs factual data from everyone who has received what they believe to be an unjustied “equipment violation� while riding their street licensed dual sport motorcycle in WA during the past three years. There is also a real need for volunteers who can correlate this information, compile the statistics, request law enforcement logs under the Freedom of Information Act, and chart a course to end what we believe may be concerted effort to discourage the use of trails on public lands! Please have everyone you know that has experienced this type of problem contact the NMA by going to www.nmaoffroad.org and using the “contact us� function to provide as detailed of information as possible regarding their personal experience with this type of situation and volunteer to help!. They are not alone!

[cyclecat]

My Elefant and my Quota both have a factory-supplied plastic gas tank. I guess Super Cop better get hisself over to DOT and start kicking some ass because they licensed my bike for use in the US.

Idiot.

[HardCase]

Originally Posted by cyclecat

My Elefant and my Quota both have a factory-supplied plastic gas tank.

.....as does the KTM 950 Adventure and, without doubt, other bikes too numerous to list. Even the Harley-Davidson V-Rod has a plastic tank, although few of those will be found on the dirt roads and trails of eastern Washington.

MTKTM
---------
'04 KTM 950
'02 H-D FXDWG

[HardCase]

Originally Posted by cyclecat

My Elefant and my Quota both have a factory-supplied plastic gas tank.

.......as does the KTM 950 Adventure and other bikes too numerous to mention. Even the Harley Davidson V-Rod has a plastic tank.....although we probably won't be seeing many of those on the dirt roads and trails of eastern Washington.

MTKTM
----------
'04 KTM 950
'02 H-D FXDWG

[HighwayChile]

my quota is Nylon, my LC4 is plastic, I am not sure if they are seperating the two, but none the less LC4 plastic is good enough for DOT/EPA,

this is a clear abuse of power, what dickheads! if I get a ticket I will fight the sleazy bastards.

[motorfiveo]

I take what I read with a grain of salt. Does not make sense that USFS cops would have to write tickets for fake laws when real ones are broken on a regular basis. Maybe the law is enterpreted wrong by the NMA, or the USFS which would be easily discovered in court. God knows DOT regulations are not the easiest to look up, so that is at least part of the problem.
Federal tickets are not fun, because you always have to go to a far off federal court(in N. Dallas you sometimes have to go 40+ miles to Sherman). The good news is that federal judges tend to be fair, esp. when compared to the small JP courts in BFE areas.
It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
Motor.(go ahead and call me a nazi or whatever)

[pierce]

speaking of plastic tanks, so does my BMW R1100RS, which has been known to take a fireroad or two, MeZ4's notwithstanding.

[HighwayChile]

I trust what the NMA says, and not a grain of someones salt. they tell it as they see it. Prehaps it is as they say one individual writing tickets when he shouldnt, but to force someone to travel a long way to fight a bogus ticket....shit people bitch about sleaze LE in 3rd world countries, and this is different ?. I do know LE/FS turned in to Assholes in this area years ago, go in the wrong area, road or trail even though you are Street legal , the fines are in the thousands$$ , not cheap, not nice either.

[ShaftEd]

Wonder how those USFS leo's would handle my F650? Hell, it's got a factory supplied plastic gas tank under the seat. In the "normal" tank location, is the battery and airbox. Man, that outta screw em up!

All those boyz should be worrying about is a proper spark arrester and noise limits. That's about it.

Selective law enforcement? Indeed, happens everyday.

[Ostrich]

Originally Posted by ShaftEd

Wonder how those USFS leo's would handle my F650? Hell, it's got a factory supplied plastic gas tank under the seat. In the "normal" tank location, is the battery and airbox. Man, that outta screw em up!

I was just going to post the same thing. What really sucks for them is that the Fresno PD has about 30 F650s running around town. I wonder if they would all get cited as well for having plastic gas tanks.

[Mr. Cob]

Howdy All,

The way I understand the problem is this. "If" your bike came from the factory with a plastic tank and the "tank" is certified by the DOT, you don't have a problem.

The problem in the fucking peoples republic of washington is this, "any" motorcycle that is designated as "off road" by the manufacturer can not be be plated or legally used on the regular roads in Washington.

Brands such as KTM and ATK who are wise enough NOT to label their bikes as "off road" can be plated, many of these bikes come with plastic tanks and a case could be made that as they can be plated in stock form or with the addition of the needed safety equipment ( lights, horn, etc ) they are immune to the plastic tank BS.

However, bikes such as my DRZ400S, did not come with a plastic tank. I am using a "Clarke" 3.9 gallon plastic tank on my bike, it HAS NOT BEEN DOT APPROVED, as have NONE of the other plastic tanks to my knowledge. This is the rational the eco-nazis are using against us. Our forest service has been taken over by eco-nazis many years ago, it is a fight we are engaged in all across the State, we are LOSING riding areas every day.

I have no personal knowledge of anyone getting a ticket for the use of a plastic tank on a "street legal or legal dual sport" bike here in Washington, but I have heard of it. I do know from personal experience that the forest service can make your life extremely miserable and costly from past run-ins I have had with them concerning dirt bikes and Jeeps. This is just another tool to keep us out of the woods, all they know how to do up here is close roads and build gates.

[HighwayChile]

hell , maybe I'll make a little metal stamp " DOT Freakin' approved" give it to the NMA for fund raiser hot-stamp yer tank parties

[modrover]

Originally Posted by HighwayChile

hell , maybe I'll make a little metal stamp " DOT Freakin' approved" give it to the NMA for fund raiser hot-stamp yer tank parties

HA! You've got a money maker there!

I put a big ass plastic tank on my Sherpa (now sold) and never got hassled by the fuz. I guess it's because Vancouver, WA has so many plastic tank sport'n redneck types that motocross... most cops around here are probably related to at least one of them!

I've even been stopped by the DNR out on the fire roads without a single mention of what the F my tank is made from. I'm pretty happy the powers that be around here don't waste their F'n time on stupid shit like that!

Just for fun... remove your gas tank, fill one of those (safe for fuel) plastic bags full of gas, attach bag to front of helmet (below chin area), and run a hose to the carb. Now... ride by that same cop'a that's handing out tickets just to make him CRAZY!

OK... don't really do that.


Regards,
Michael
'89 TA
'89 TA
Van., WA USA

[Caribou Aqua Buddha]

"Wonder how those USFS leo's would handle my F650? Hell, it's got a factory supplied plastic gas tank under the seat. In the "normal" tank location, is the battery and airbox. Man, that outta screw em up! "

You could get the death penalty for that infraction.