Tickets Being handed out in AR?

[Hayden]

Talked to a friend at work today that gave me a bit of info. He went down to Wolfpen Gap to ride 4 wheelers this last week. He said that on the east enterence of Wolfpen Gap there is a county road that goes down to Little Missouri Falls. He said there was a cop sitting down the county road that was handing out tickets to 4 wheelers and bikes for being on the road. I though that I would mention this to the group as many of us ride this area. Im wondering if they are starting to crack down on this? I have run to Oark before with non tagged bikes in the group with no issues but.....it may be something we are going to have to watch in the future.

Hayden

[MacWildcat]

Thanks for the heads up. We have reinforced with our group this weekend that their bikes need to be street-legal.
If someone gets caught it's their own fault now.

[xr-nut]

was just there last weekend and had the above mentioned bike riding on about 4 miles on the highway. while we did not see any leo's during the trip, im aware that taking the mentioned bike and its rider on the highway is illegal and probably dangerous. i was told by the folks at byrds that the law says we can cross or drive on roadways only to connect trail heads. was the road he was writing tickets on a paved road or a gravel road?



this was taken from the forrest service website:
Operation of Vehicles

Obey all traffic signs. State traffic laws apply to the National Forests unless

otherwise specified.

here is a link to a publication put out by the usfs. on the first page it lists rules/regulations for operating a ohv on usfs roads. again im curious on what type of road he was writing tickets on.

http://www.fs.fed.us/oonf/ozark/recreat ... BC_001.pdf

[Hayden]

You know Joe I really don't see us as dangerous. We are way more geared up than any 4 wheeler than I have seen down there. Not only that this area has always had people running around on Bikes and such, so are very aware of it and used to it. Not only that, like you said we are mostly just connecting trails or getting gas.

I'm interested in the links. Thanks ill check them out.


T

[troy]

I guess I don't have a lot to contribute, and things are always changing. I've definitely received a lot of alerts about government-related attacks on off-road recreation in general and specific prohibitions in the Wolfpen Gap area.

A few years ago, I asked the owner of Turner Bend store about the legality of true off-road machines on Hwy 21 coming to get gas, etc. He said that the local law enforcement including County are fine with it--just don't do anything stupid like ride wheelies down the road, donuts, etc. However, he cautioned that a State Trooper, although rarely passes through, would not be so lenient.

In my personal experience, except once, I don't think I recall ever seeing any law enforcement except an occasional forest ranger. The one time--I think it was a County Sheriff sitting in the driveway to the Oark School during a "renaissance fair". The area was packed with cars lining the street and folks walking everywhere. We had a pack of about 5 bikes. One rider was an almost 12 year old kid on a small KTM. In front of us were a couple of 4 wheelers, no helmets, and 2 up on one of them. The sheriff did not come after us as we rode right by in front of him.

Joe, do you remember this story any clearer or different? Wasn't that a Sheriff?

[xr-nut]

hayden i didnt mean "we" to be all of us riding down there. i meant "we" as me and my 12 year old. and only dangerous becuase, while he can ride well offroad, he isnt accustomed to the "rules" of the road for riding on the "highway". but having said that, since he has ridden numerous times there and "connected" trails via paved highways, im not worried about his safety.

troy you remember the details well. i was sure nervous about the long ride back in the dark. he is almost tall enough for a big bike, one that has lights and i can tag!

its the same story everywhere. i remember years ago at perry lake the corp put alot of new gravel in the parking lot. at the time i had a 650L and it was tagged. my oldest was around 4 or 5 and was riding a little xr50. we would park next to the cable "fence" and to enter the riding area id pick his bike up and sit it over the fence then ride mine over to the entrance. the corps ranger was quick to point out the NO RIDING IN PARKING LOT signs. i was quick to mention that since this motorcycle was legally tagged in kansas to operate on ALL legal roads, i could ride it around the parking lot all day if i wanted to. he went back to harassing the quads. ah............good times.....

btw- i picked up a HD Hero, and have hours of HD video from the WUDI ride last month!

[Hayden]

HA!! funny you say that. I picked up an HD Hero last week too. Got a 32Gig card with it also. Moab in a couple of weeks will be a hoot. Plan on getting lots of video. Now if they would just get spare batteries sorced so I can have a couple of spares.

Nice that there is 3 of us now that have these. Seems for a while we never had Video of the guy taking video




Hayden

[xr-nut]

t- when i bought mine i found an extra battery and bought two 32 gig cards. i can shoot all day long!!! only trouble im having is that it records in mp4(the supposed world gold standard for video!) and not a single pc in myhouse(of which there are 4) will play them. something about codec or some crap! i downloaded a free player off the net and have been able to watch them that way. pc's....what a joke. have fun with it! j