I’m sixty-two and love mountain biking
and recently bought a road bike since at times I do find myself often riding on the road. Anyhow, I have bum knees but biking doesn’t bother them. Mountain biking is lots of fun and takes endurance and skill to master. I’m not very good at it but still have fun and get a lot of satisfaction when doing a hard trail. It’s really good exercise and keeps me from thinking about being limited because of my age. I walk my bike often when the trail gets too difficult but so what I’m still having fun. Those noisy, stinky ATVs do have there place but not anywhere that I’m riding or paddling in. If you buy one of the Belch Fires your just bringing the noise and pollution into the forest. What annoys me is that there is thousands upon thousands of miles of roads that they can travel on, but the ATVers won’t be happy until there isn’t a square mile of the earth that doesn’t have a motorized vehicle varooming on. I guess that’s progress.
Just curious …
if you couldn’t walk very well or ride the bike, would ou just give up on getting out into the forest?
I am like you, ( but older) and would much more rather be on my mountain bike or hiking, but I can well understand someone who is not as fortunate as us wanting a way to keep in touch with ma nature.
Cheers,
JackL
I have hiked thousands of miles but
I’m afraid those days are over. Drop foot on the right, a disaster in the left foot. If I get an ATV , I will get a quiet one that doesn’t pollute, but I’ll do what I need to to stay in the woods.I also will not tear up the woods .
get it
4X4 is the way to go(no rear wheel slip)
non agressive tires
400cc is plenty
automatic tranny
plenty of racks
winch
trailer hitch
stay on the trails
dont drive like a kid and you’ll be fine
P.S. slime in the tires
Learning
Most of the kids I have seen are following their parents who are setting a bad example. The trash in the heavily used areas is sadly all too believable.
While paddling at Elephant Butte in NM we came across empty camp sites with trash stacked up and dumpsters 50 yards or less away. Probably the same people who leave shopping carts in the parking spaces at the stores.
You don’t need to walk far
to see nature. Many places, 10 or 20 feet off the road can put you out of site of anything human.
You can sit and watch the birds, or the leaves, or the scenary, or walk slowly whatever distance is comfortable, and, except when a automobile passes by the road, which can be rarely on back roads, you will also be able to hear the quiet.
With an ATV, there is never a quiet moment–for you or those within hearing of you.
I walk less far than I used to, and in the future no doubt will become even more limited.
But if I wanted engines and noise, then I’d go to a NASCAR event, not out in the woods.
Like I said there are thousands of
miles of roads that an ATV can ride and many are in the forests. I’m not anti-ATV, just would like to have some areas that don’t sound like a freeway. Should we open up the BWCA to motorboats and ATVs because some people can’t portage a canoe, or more likely, don’t want to? We can build roads to every corner of the earth so that everyone can go anywhere without breaking a sweat. Pay your money and you too can summit Everest. Do you have to train or have any skills, nah, you’ll have Sherpas carry you to the top. Sorry, I’m ranting. But it annoying that at a campfire at night you’re most likely going to hear generators not crickets or owls. To answer your question, yes, I’ll reluctantly get an ATV when I can’t get around anymore by using my own muscle power, but I’ll stay on the many miles of ATV and Jeep trails that already exist. I’ll leave the single track to the bikers and hikers.
Sorry guys for going off the deep end
about ATVs, it’s just they are a real problem out west making what use to be remote areas an easy ride for yahoos on ATVs to trash. Now you find trash piles that much more deeper in the woods. Fire rings filled with glass beer bottles, etc. I had lots of bad experience with them so it’s easy for me to focus on that aspect of ATVs and not the positive ones.
that’s a great question
I was waiting for it to come up.
I could never deny someone who’s genuinely disabled or not able bodied to access the outdoors. Having said that, I’d also like to see opportunities to get away from motorized vehicles in the outdoors and in the backcountry as the norm. I think the issue is one of the most important facing today’s park and trail planners.
Foot or Power
Paddle or power
It really doesnt matter what we want it’s what we need to get the job done.I prefer paddle-foot,Power is heavy, noisy, and you need a trailer.I have owned a johnson 9.9 on a boat and it was great when I had four or five miles to go on the lake. This spring when the rescue crew for the mountain hike-run race had a yamaha 4x4 for the rough sections of trail the only drawback I noticed was they had agressive tires that dug into the moss.Very old moss that will take years to grow back.I think better tires would not have left a trace.