However, to be annoyed about the stupid, illegal and anti social acts of others is perfectly reasonable. If people want to race silly little motor bikes, the appropriate place is a race track, not a peaceful wood.
This kind of mindless, destructive use of land that does not belong to the user is one of the reasons why I am violently opposed to wider land access. If people believe that churning the soil, belching fumes and disturbing the peace is "responsible access" then the more land they are kept away from, the better
Red
Red, I normally respect what you have to say and have enjoyed many of your stickies. But here I'm afraid you are talking about an issue you simply do not understand.
I used to ride bmxs and mtbs a lot when I was younger and I came up against this situation more times than I care to remember, admittedly I had no motor on my bike but the issues are the same for anything with two wheels.
Race tracks are expensive, at the age of 13 I was working in a bike shop part time and any odd jobs I could rustle up to make enough money to keep my bike running, most of the time I was riding with a partially broken bike and prioritised repairs based upon potential inuries. I had zero spare money for tracks, which at that time cost at least £20 a day, that was my weeks wages and I needed them to fix my bike. There was also the money to get to the tracks in the middle of nowhere and the fact was that most of us didn't want to race, we just wanted to get up in the air on our bikes. For the record, race track jumps are completely different to dirt jumps and aren't really that useful for getting up in the air. The following is what happened when we tried to sort out a track of our own, the time-scale isn't exact but I remember the whole thing took about a year, please insert "about" in front of all timescales.
So the local riders, aged 13-30, got together, found a disused patch of land, found out who owned it, which turned out to be the council. First we had to get them to actually give us an appointment to arrange a meeting to discuss if the land was earmarked for anything, that took a month. Then once we found out it was truly unused and part of no plans we had to convince them that there were enough of us interested in using and maintaining it, a petition with 50 signatures of people over 18 was collected (parents were allowed to sign for unders, but only one signature per child) and evidence of similar schemes was presented. Counsellors and MPs were contacted and surgeries attended, but they didn't care because we couldn't vote. Two more months, leading us to 3 months since contact with the council and they agree that we can draw up plans to show them and come back in a month.
One month later the plans have been drawn up and we're back for our meeting, at which we're told to start building the jumps, but don't ride them, go away and find insurance companies or use a lawyer to come up with a disclaimer.
It's now 4 months since we've started our little project and it's the middle of winter, but we get down to it anyway. Those of us in school go home, then to the jumps, those of us who worked or were at uni came down on weekends.
A cubic metre of dry earth weighs about a tonne I believe, I'd estimate on average our jumps contained 4 or 5 cubic metres each and there were 20 of them, that's 100 tonnes of dry earth, not even considering drainage. We undertook this project in winter, on wet ground using whatever tools we could get, a lot of us used rusted old shovels without handles that were found on scrap heaps. There were about 15 of us who worked more than once a week, and we were determined and eager. Six weeks later we had finished roughing out the track and were ready to refine it.
I don't remember what day it was, but we came down and found the jumps gone and a lot of tread marks where they used to be. There was also a nice sign on the fence warning that vandalism would be prosecuted as would trespass, from the council. As you can imagine were were upset, angry and disappointed.
We called the older guys, who called the council, who said it was our fault for building without permission. Two weeks pass before we're allowed an "emergency meeting" at which we were not apologised to, despite providing the minutes in which they had agreed to allow us to build and a copy of the letter that they'd sent us telling us to get on with it in the meantime. They then got a bit hostile when we suggested that the diggers and drivers be sent in to help us get the roughing out re-done. That's 6 weeks work gone.
However there was hope, they were really impressed by the images of what we'd produced and agreed that we could start again by hand. But the dangerous gaps in the middle had to be filled in, I don't even want to think about how much that dirt totalled in weight. Two months later we finished the second version of our jumps and hadn't found an insurance company that would touch us. We weren't qualified to build the jumps, therefore they couldn't accept the risk!
Luckily we had found a nice lawyer who wrote us up an "airtight" disclaimer which we presented to the council, who seemed ok with it, though wanted to try for an insurance company. So we had to leave it for a few weeks til they found one and a meeting was scheduled for 3 weeks later.
That's 8 months three weeks people, to put up some mounds of earth to play on with our bikes. We were doing everything youth are supposed to: getting out in the fresh air, being creative, working as a team and staying out of mischief etc.
Come the meeting we're told that we're very lucky as they've got an insurance company for us, but the negotiations aren't done, come back in two weeks. So 9 months and a week into our great track building endeavour we go to a meeting where we're told that if 50 people use the track a year, they'll need £50 quid a year membership and £5 for each visit, for the guard and the insurance.
We explained we didn't have the money to spend, and that we'd sign the disclaimer but couldn't do the insurance. They said the legals would have to be consulted, come back in a month.
At some point before the next meeting we came down to find fencing all around our jumps and a locked gate. We called the older riders, who said we should bring it up at the next meeting. 10 months and one week in we walk out after having been told that even though the disclaimer is great, they feel that it would be reckless not to have the insurance and that since we wouldn't pay up any further activity at the jumps would be trespass and vandalism. But that they would leave the jumps up and let us try and sort insurance out again.
We continued to go at it, and it was about a 2 months later when we were riding past and saw a distinct lack of jumps on the land. They'd been bulldozed, but we didn't care any more. We'd found a secret patch of land where we could ride unimpeded, only £3.50's train ride away and were we going to ask permission? Where we ****!
The land is still derelict today and occasionally one of the younger riders gets all fired up and tries to sort something out, but it comes to nothing.
maby put some 'conveniently placed' bits of wood on their tracks and maby they will learn that the woods is not the right place to play on their bikes. sure, they may break an arm, or neck if they are not wearing a helmet (sounds likely) but i have no sympathy for these people.
pete
It's people like you that mean my mate can't ride any more or walk properly, someone set up fencing at the bottom of a landing and he broke a leg, smashed his knee and an elbow. He was wearing a helmet which probably saved his life, he was 16 when this happened and we had to get an ambulance 2 miles into our secret spot.
We never left litter, we never had fires and we never ever left glass about, because it might be us that landed on it! Also the less sign the better, because our jumps might stay undiscovered longer.
However some of the gentlemen from the local estate found our jumps and used them abusively, then some idiot put up the fencing and we didn't think to check for booby traps.
Tell me people, where would you have had us go? Is nature only for people who chop down trees and sleep under tarps? Does being a group of people who use an area make you guilty of all offences in that area? Should these offences, committed by others lead to a 16 year old boy not being able to walk properly?
Dave