Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
Funny you say that. My 12 year old son told me a few minutes ago that one of that pack got hiy by a car and is having surgery tomorrow (he will be ok).
The folks who run this board will probaby delete my comment, but a quick google search reveals that there are 110,000,000 more people (that we know of) in the US in 2025 than 1985. Yikes. There goes your elbow room, there goes your free and easy youth....
Even more frightening are the google numbers on world population. Approximately 4.5 billion in 1985 VS. 8.2 billion in 2025. As these numbers climb, freedom will be just a distant memory.....
do we need to keep breeding and importing millions of people? hmmm......
Pretty sure we have established a solid foothold as a species. we can ease off a tad....
Meanwhile fentanyl takes over everywhere. Call when your house has been robbed they don't give two s**** but a chance to write tickets oh yeah. Heavy resources. Like I don't agree with the wheelie boys taking over cities and Surron kids. But spending resources on Undercovers who jump out of cars and Tackle these people just seems like they don't really want to have to confront the cartel and trafficking and real criminals that are violent nowadays so they put lots of focus on things that don't endanger them, and or they target people who they think will pay and let most the riffraff slip by them because those tickets dont get paid. At least in my state
I don't think the decrease of riding spots is limited to any particular jurisdiction, country or government. It's pretty much a worldwide phenomenon. Population density, urban sprawl and the NIMBY movement (which is human nature) probably have the greatest impact on the decrease in riding spots. You aren't going to stop those forces by putting into power a particular political party. Commercial and residential construction will likely continue to inch closer to where ever it is that you sneak out to ride. I am just as upset about it as you all but it's a societal phenomenon that transcends any particular jurisdiction. I'm sure there are exceptions, like perhaps an eco-fanatical mayor or district supervisor with a hard-on for criminalizing dirt bikes. But overall I think the issue at hand is the trajectory of sprawl and densification.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
Yup, those points you make are the main ones.
I've been riding (in my local trails) for over 5 decades now, and, it's getting harder and harder to use.
I'll have some time down due to 'body maintenance', then start riding again, to find a batch of houses have been built in a place I'd never expect them to be. As an aside, we've not had a large Bushfire in my area for a few years, and, I'd say a Lot of those houses (and older ones) will be destroyed - I really hope people are not lost in what will be cataclysmic firestorms - there's so, So much 'fuel' on the ground and, our Eucalypts turn into Fire Throwers when lit up.
I ride with fully plated, ultra legal bikes, that (I make) as quiet as possible - my CRE 500 sounds like a moped with the Huge muffler(s) I make, and all the chamber covers, are more there for noise reduction, than chamber protection. I make a point of approaching fellow riders in my local trails, with loud pipes (inevitably 450 plated bikes, with MX pipes thrown on them) to try to get them to see the sense of being 'stealthy' and quiet(er). The thing is, most of those fools are older riders, who Should know bloody better....🤬
I nowadays, feel like a near Criminal, when I'm Not disturbing anyone, nor wrecking the environment. The most our trails have changed - well, deteriorated - is from a fair few years ago, when a 4WD Mag publicized them as being a 'nearby nirvana' for 4WD use - the place got swarmed by 4WDers, and they just trashed Everything. Fences / Gates / Rock Blockages were set up by councils and Nat Parks, and that brought back a bit of sanity - in that the 4WDs can't get in. Bike usage, does buggerall damage in our rocky environment, basically. We've more problems from the mess left by my fellow MTBers, that I am always cleaning up after, and, well, the bloody Garbage Dumpers. I've caught a few of them over the years, and happily given their rego numbers to the Cops.
Why dont you contact the actual owner of the place and get permission. Lease it if you have too. Then you can post it and tell the state police to fk off next time.
Cherry hill is in beverly. Spent years riding there. Is it developed now? Rode with carl when he was an amateur, don't believe he ever made expert.
Yep.. you are right.. it was Beverly! So long ago. It was developed very soon after the 70's ended from the very early 80's.. that is the very reason we had to stop going there. I do believe he did make expert, at least he told us he did. Later in life, he gained a lot of weight and his health was not so good. I last saw and spoke to him at the NJ supercross around 2014 or so. The first time Carl came to ride with us, he was on an RM100, I recall. His dad was a well to do bookie and Carl always had plenty of money for new bikes. Saugus was full of italian mafia, hitmen, bookies, etc. with new money and worked in Boston, Revere, etc. My next door neighbor was a mafia hitman.
My state and ones around it have gained hardly any population in the last 50 years. What we have gotten is tons of suburban sprawl shopping centers and rural land broken up into 5 acre lots and sold for houses that have land but not enough to do much on in the way of riding or hunting.
But the primary blame for not being able to ride where you used to is laws and lawyers.
I see the same problem with the dirt car racing I follow as well. Just a few weeks ago at one of the largest races of the year, they completely sold out. The whole time the announcers were kind of mocking the fanbases concerns about the state and health of dirt racing overall, basically saying everyone was wrong because one of the largest events of the year sold out. Completely ignoring the fact that local facilities are shutting down all across the country. Hell, my local track was one of the most well known in the country and still was worth more as a dumping ground…
All these people who make money off these industries completely fail to see where their actual dollar comes from. Big races will always have great attendance, meanwhile the local MX and car racing tracks are getting absolutely strangled by risings operating costs. These are two of the only things I’ve been passionate about my whole life, and it really does concern me to wonder where we will be in 10-20 years in both worlds.
I in part quit riding because the local bit of private land that nobody cared about from when I was a kid till my mid 30's all of a sudden was sold and the new owner didn't want anyone riding on his patch of desert. I get it, that's his right. But I had the best sand track ever on it.
I then started going out to Juniper dunes. Honestly, this might sound petty to some, but riding with the required flag on my bike is no fun. Fucking thing is flapping around and broke off at some point every ride. Usually a small tip over or a sagebrush would rip it off.
The jumps out at Horn Rapids became too big for me and that, along with the cost to ride there had me thinking it really wasn't all that fun anymore.
I used to fantasize when I was in my 20's and 30's that if I won one of those mega lotteries i would buy land all over the west and set up mx tracks for everybody to ride.
The problem with the electric bicycles is the kids are riding them in the parks, zig-zagging on the roads, riding wheelies through parking lots, etc. (Damn, some of those kids can really wheelie on the e-bikes.)
Just my 2 cents! I had the same problem here in Mississippi.
i ride along with my son & grandkids. So about 2015 i just went and purchased 50 acres financed for 10 yrs. i needed to get it paid for before turning 65 & that happened! My son & grandkids moved away in 2016 & This 65 yr old has my own playground for me, my friends & customers to have place to ride. The son & grandkids do show up once or twice a year to ride!
& i don't charge anyone to ride if they act civilized if not they have to go
Idiots on quads shut down a lot of riding in my area of Kentucky.
Man we had quite a few sick sand tracks along the Columbia river in OR WA back when I lived in the NW. that shit was so fun and really the only riding in the winter besides the indoor AX stuff that was popular back then, the early 2000s were so good. Those sand tracks got shut down. Super good era that won’t ever happen again,
That's life. I've lost scores of great riding places due to development or neighbors getting pissed. It's the nature of our sport. Just have to find new spots and hope for the best.
There's a (closed) Regional Park near my new house that I've been thinking about riding into. I MTB in it all the time and so far, so good. I hear dudes in UTVs out there all the time, so I know there's at least some likelihood of getting away with it. Maybe I'll go build a track or something.
Turn track the globe! Fuck it
I hear LEOs have a strong presence in Beaumont now also. Right across the freeway from me was a fun little track and some fun single track loops. All developed now. I remember when my son was on his 50. There was this field that was perfect for him. We used to go every weekend, order pizza to be delivered to the field. Lots of piles of dirt that must have seemed like huge jumps to a 5 year old fresh on a 50. But then the kids with bigger bikes would show up and ride close to the houses and here come the cops. They were always cool with us, they told us if we could keep the bigger kids away from the houses they wouldn't have to show up, but if they get called they have to chase us away. Never ticketed us, just asked us to pack up and leave. Cops were pretty cool back then.
Pit Row
In the early 80's I had my choice of 4 different tracts of land in Tallahassee with free fully developed riding areas by the local racers. All gone today as sprawl slowly took them over and they were developed. We also had a local club that had a great relationship with the National Forest and we had a hare scramble series that ran monthly races and a National enduro. Also gone because politics changed the mission of the Forestry Service and instead of appreciating the work we put into creating a trail system they became hostile and shut it all down. Meanwhile the AMA was making sure that Harley riders could ride without helmets and keep their loud pipes.
I saw a group of 8 kids pull out of the Taco Bell on Arboles and just start flying towards 23 around noon. Literally going 40+ in traffic lanes. There is even a kid riding a briggs and stratton powered, open pipe'd chopper around me on the daily.
No way those things don't get banned here soon.
idiots on quads, and kentucky go together like flies on sheet. Saw them on restricted areas of public hunting land constantly
As an old dude that’s been doing this since the ‘70s…back when we just pushed an XR75 or MR50 to the end of the cul-de-sac and started riding…
You’re gonna have to go find a new location, farther out there…and you’ve got to keep it waaaaaay down on “The Down Low”.
And, yes, it really sucks when others fuck up a good thing. Sorry this happened to ya.
It's not just moto. I grew up in PA near Hershey, and I ran a trap line in the small creeks around us, and hunted wild pheasant, turkey, and white tail deer literally steps out my back yard. We often had pheasant in the garden in the morning. My hunting dog would bring baby rabbits home regularly. He never killed them, just carried them home in his mouth. Plus I had a home-built track on a local field that a farmer let me use. In the Spring I'd ride my 10 speed bike 5 miles to trout fish a local creek. Can't do ANY of that there anymore. There's houses all over, they put a massive high school where my track was, and the wild pheasant are long gone. It was a wonderful way to grow up, freedom to roam without any real fear.
Old man rant - the human species is a parasite. We are killing our host, and sooner or later it will collapse under the weight of our ever increasing population. Glad I'll be dead before it happens, but I am truly sad for my kids and their progeny.
Lots of areas I used to ride, including public race tracks, have been closed, mainly due to noise. You can thank the ridiculously loud 4 stroke for a lot of this.
Hammers post reminds me of the fishing spots I used to bike to and later ride my XR80 to to fish, swim and just explore when i was 7 years old and up.
Yep, you guessed it, cant go to those spots anymore. New ownership runs people off or the pond was leased to some rich Seattle types who come over to the dry side of the state to duck hunt.
Another public spot along the river is now gated off because there was so much trash being dumped, including a woman who got murdered. I now pack trash bags with me when i go to other spots that are still open and pack as much trash out as i can.
I don't think I was tracking you were a fellow PA boy. 👍 Probably raced Sleepy Hollow since you're from that area. I would describe my childhood in PA pretty similar to yours. Our cool homemade track that we had is now turned into a local park that has become overrun with degenerates from NY now that the internet has guided them there.
I grew up in Yakima, live near Spokane now. Things have sure changed.
I have had 2 awesome longtime trespass sand tracks turned into nature preserves practically overnite….so fast that our actual tracks became the new nature walking trails….talk about demoralizing……the areas were land locked with rroad tracks & swamps, the land owners just said, screw this & donated the lands to the towns…which in turn made them new “ Nature Preserves” ….. nobody can take the memories
I don't think Sleepy Hollow was there then. I left PA for the military in 81. I only ever raced once prior to that - my 79 RM125 at a really big track in farm country somewhere down near York. Blue jeans and boots, open face helmet. Full gate of 40 and I had no idea at all what I was doing. Track scared the crap out of me since mine was built with a shovel and wheelbarrow, so I had no experience with big jumps. Good old days.....
Sleepy was there. Sounds like it was probably Trailway Speedway you raced at. Sounds like fun! Miss those days.
Post a reply to: It’s getting harder and harder to find riding spots