Why not the 450?

[kmac]

California leads the world in protecting it's people. (and critters) Folks sure are safe there.

That ain't no joke...check out what we have in my county:

http://www.vote29.com/newmyblog/archives/12762

It is a large department of the Riverside county Sherriff's that have a F350 and a 24' box trailer full of Quads and KTM 450's that wear custom MX gear in Sherriff colors with logos printed n sewed on them and their entire job is to ride all over the BLM and open land areas warning, but mostly writing tickets for riding dirt bikes in areas that are not OHV/SRVA parks.

We can not ride out in the hills, but they do. To protect and serve US.....it is not like there is any other crimes that need to be focused on like a huge drug and illegal alien smuggling, gang wars, car theft rings, meth labs, and of course now, the ever present evil dirt bike kid. ::005::

 

[Dirt_Dad]

That ain't no joke...check out what we have in my county:

Believe it or not, I envy you. Your county has enough interest in off road activity that they are taking steps and spending money for equipment to enforce the proper adherence to whatever rules exist. Around here the only enforcement like that I've seen is to keep people out 100%. The trend is to completely close down riding areas, not bother to regulate them. I would love to have a strictly regulated off road riding area in my county, or the next closet country, or even the next one after that. Around here dirt bikes are pretty uncommon.

I definitely understand the desire to roam free like I did as a kid. Now I'd be happier to roam closer to home even if I need to follow some rules.

 

[kmac]

DD
if you look at the ROVE site is bleak. The off road areas are fewer and farther between than ever. If you look at their site it list a bunch of MX tracks as the legal riding areas. At least one of those is closed now {mine 2 blocks away} and the other dirt areas are a TINY OHV area in Wildomar {that is actually my zip code} but that is only a couple of small trails that you can ride all of them in about 10 minutes, and do NOT go off of the marked trail.

The next nearest area is Ocotillio/Borrego area about 95+ miles from me.

It is not that they want to regulate, I too am ok with that, but the ROVE is seriously just about writing tickets to people out riding anywhere other than the track.
So Cal is and always has been the hub of MX. All of the top teams have factories or R&D facilities here, KTM has their entire race division down the street from me in Murrieta. Pro Circuit in Corona near Troy Lee, Monster is here, Rockstar is here, yet riding anywhere is illegal. Within 10-15 minutes I can be at team Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and KTM pro factory practice tracks and watch ALL of the top guys practice on week days.

You would be shocked at how open So Cal is once outside of the LA/ OC metropolis but it is ALL illegal to ride.

The fed gov has the green sticker/red sticker program and Cali participates. The Fed Gov standards is that if a state offers a program they have to add XXX percent of open riding area each year and the Gov will match the funds, Cali charges us all a green/red sticker charge but has closed thousands of acres of trails every year.

Trust me, the state "taking and interest" in off road is NOT a good thing in Cali.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Well you have just blown my (incorrect) impression of your area being the Mecca for all off road riding. I think back to the movie, On Any Sunday, which I believe featured a race out there by you. I honestly thought you lived in wide open spaces where anyone could jump on a bike and ride for days. Sorry to hear you need to trailer up like those of us on the east coast.

I know I sound like the old curmudgeon that I am when I say kids would be a lot better off exploring on dirt bikes like we did, rather than sitting in a house exercising their thumbs. I do miss the old days. The loss of riding areas is extremely unfortunate in my view.

 

[kmac]

Totally agree with you DD.
I live in an unincorporated area of Lake Elsinore. I LOVED the EGP and Mr. McQueen was my idol growing up. I moved out here as a newly wed in '88 and used to ride many of the trails of the EGP original routes to my hearts delight. But since the 90s it has lessened and lessened.

It is still a Mecca, but not of open riding anymore, just MX/SX.

Take every kids video game away, give them a BMX bike and a dirt bike and some open space....gone is the childhood obesity issue, many of the drug problems....it is not a cure all, but couldn't hurt.

In Cali it is ALL about law suits...no one wants anyone riding on their property because if the crash they sue the land owner even though he likely had nothing to do with it. Almost all land in Cali is privately owned, and what isn't is BLM and somehow even though you and I own that land {technically} we can not use it.