Space Invaders

For every licensed off-road racer in South Africa, Motocross, Enduro, whatever the discipline, there must be a dozen social riders. By social riders, I mean guys that ride off road for the pure fun of it. Have a look around the popular venues on Saturdays and Sundays. How many families or groups of buddies are out on their bikes or quads? I don’t have the numbers but I’ve been doing the social ride thing for 22 years and I can see serious growth in numbers of people sharing the turf on the weekend. Most of these guys are not pro riders, in fact with the sudden explosion of enthusiasm for the sport, a lot are novices. And this, my friends, is why I thought it necessary to share a few thoughts.

Once you have a bike and have acquired, one way or another, the necessary kit to go with it, your next biggest problem is finding a place to ride it. Many people head to their local motocross track but, unless you’re a keen racer, the social rider gets bored and looks for more. The most popular social ride has got to be the “long distance” (well as long as you can make it within your personal limits) trail. So how do these guys find their trails? Many hook up with buddies that have been riding for some time; others do their own trail blazing to find new ground. I must admit that the latter is far more fun. However, whichever option is chosen, available land in local vicinities is diminishing fast and it is important that all users of what’s left understand the basics necessary to protect these spaces.

Private property has got to be the biggest problem. It is a problem for the rider who finds his chosen new route blocked by a fence or a sign. And it’s a bigger problem for the owner of the property who has his fence or sign ignored, or even worse cut or knocked down. Private property is exactly that – PRIVATE. It is a rush to break the rules or take a short cut or ignore the fence because it’s in your way. And, yes, you will have a great ride on the day because you went where you wanted to. The thing is, the week after is a problem for you and every one else who uses a similar route. First off, you have angry neighbours that are waiting to give back in kind – not nice. Then you have same angry neighbours talking to his neighbours who used to be bike friendly. Ultimately, you have great trail ground which used to be open being closed down to bikers for all sorts of reasons that that can be backed by the law – noise, pollution, environment protection, trespassing, etc, etc. The morale of this story is simple, respect land owners’ privacy and sustain the time open ground remains open. If you do find yourself on private property by accident, behave properly. Drop your revs, don’t run from someone approaching – stop and explain and ask for the shortest route off the property. Sometimes it’s even wise to approach the owner yourself to apologize and ask for directions off the property. This usually disarms the owner and respect is maintained both ways.
Pedestrians are the next problem. They aren’t actually a problem, inconsiderate bikers are!!! Pedestrians own the space. They cannot move as fast as us, they are far fewer than us, and it is so easy to veer off the trail for us and go around them. You do not have to force them to jump and run for their lives. This behaviour leads to their complaints about us, which leads to the law or land owners called in, which leads to our land being closed down.

Horse riders are next on the list. Particularly in the local riding spaces they share a lot of the same ground. Not only to horses get right of way but often going slowly around them is not enough either. The horses get spooked easily. There are often novice horse riders in the group that do not know how to properly control a jittery horse. Stop your bike. Switch off the motor. Let the horses pass. Give them a bit of ground between you and then start up and go again. If necessary, use this as your smoke break if you have such things on your ride. A thrown rider caused by an inconsiderate biker leads to their complaints about us, which leads to the law or land owners called in, which leads to our land being closed down.

Folks, I am an enthusiast. I love this sport. I am out there more often than most think is psychologically healthy!!! Please help me to protect the areas we have left. The less time spent towing a bike out to new ground to ride it, the more time can be spent riding it.

Ride it like you stole it and keep the shiny side up

Steve “Tombstone” Lauter