The "Trap" thread

[honda_atc200es]

I hate traps! these weren't too bad, but still it could seriously hurt someone. i was riding to a friends house (yes illegal, yes i shouldn't do it, but i dont do it often, and i was wearing a helmet ;) )

so i go on this trail, luckily i keep it slow, and what do you know, right at the end, there is a gigantic wall of dirt, not a mound, not a jump, a wall, you would be hurtin if you hit it. so i went around it, and what do you know, there is a gigantic ditch right behind it, so i go over that and then im back on the road.

on my way home i take the trail thinking there's nothing left. i hit a hidden jump that almost flipped me end over end. so i went a little slower, and good thing i did, there was a 1 foot wide by 2 feet deep hole, purposely dug there that woulda flipped me if i hit it.

then i take another trail and a guy on a motorcycle was stopped on the side of the road. he waved his arm at me, i didn't want to take a chance stopping, then he pulled out his cell, so i turned around, i didn't want to run into police.

so, any of you have a trap story you would like to discuss?

[chris200x]

Yeah, my lunatic neighbor put a steel wire up across some trails we made behind the house. when he knew my son goes back there riding.

[cr480r]

Yeah, my lunatic neighbor put a steel wire up across some trails we made behind the house. when he knew my son goes back there riding.

Thats a good way for a neighbor to get his azz kicked..

[chris200x]

hahaa! I hit him where it hurts the most. his wallet! :D

ps.. for those of you that remeber that whole ordeal.. We havent been bothered by any of them since.

[honda_atc200es]

ohh yeaa i remember hearing about that, how could people do something like that? i mean that's just sick. how could they live with themselves if they killed someone.

i was lucky the traps on my trail werent that bad

[fabiodriven]

I'll never understand what it is about our sport that people think is so evil. Like "OHHH there's an ATV! Call the cops!" I don't know where this came from and what is so bad about what we do. It's mind boggling to me.

[DarkestGKnight]

i was riding my old honda spree in the trails once doing about 35mph and kids always go around digging holes for the bmx bikers, so i was cruising and hit one of the holes, threw me over the bars, i was fine and my bike just had some scuffed up plastic but that its.

[ATC-Eric]

Well, were you riding on private property? If so I can see why he's upset.



I accidently ended up on someones property at one point a WHILE back, (not intentionally, we were lost) Had a couple of meth heads pull guns on us. It was our first time in the area, so we had no idea where we were at that point. I can tell you after we talked our way out of that situation we didnt ride at that friends house anymore.

You were deliberatly riding where you knew you shouldnt have been.

[honda_atc200es]

the trail is public property, yes i shouldnt have been there, but murder is no solution to quad riders, i was respectful, slowed to a nice cruise and was on my way in 5 min, i wasnt roudy or there for a long period of time. as for the guy calling the cops, i was on the road, but still i was obeying the rules of the road, i used hand signals and such

riding there was against my better judgment, but my friend insisted. i dont ride there everyday, nor do i ride at all everyday. i try to keep it to no more than once a week, for courtesy sake, and for my own sake that i dont run into police.

yes i do ride for fun, but at the same time i use it for transportation, its alot easy going 50 mph on a quad than walking 15 miles

[ATC-Eric]

Okay, its a bit different being on public property. NOBODY has a right to booby trap that..........

[300rman]

I'll never understand what it is about our sport that people think is so evil. Like "OHHH there's an ATV! Call the cops!" I don't know where this came from and what is so bad about what we do. It's mind boggling to me.

its because of all the conservative tree-hugging obama lovers. they think it A hurts the land, B is evil, C hurts people, D there are a select few that cause real problems, like tearing up peoples yards, riding at 1am and making tons of noise, etc. etc.

[honda_atc200es]

see i pride myself with being as courteus as possible. yes i do go fast, and yes i am loud, but its reasonable hours of the day, and i ride past, i dont stay in one spot, so that shouldnt be an issue especially since there are cars louder than my quad.

i also hit a wire fence trying to turn the quad in a rush (bad tierod, so horrible turning radius) so i plan on writing a letter of appology with $20 in it

[tanks350x]

That person is lucky that they didn't hit that cable, In mass where I live, last, or two years ago, an ATV rider wasn't so lucky I think the kid was in his late teens, it was just getting dark, he was on his quad going too fast, He hit a cable strung across 2 posts or something, and got decapitated.. Poor kid never had a chance.. It was either in the Freetown state forest, or over by the Fall river dump.. not sure what kind of trail it was being public or private

[honda_atc200es]

thats horrible, i hate hearing things like that happen to people

[300rman]

my buddy goes to school in the U-P, and there are usually a decapitation or 2 a year done to the snowmobilers.

[The Goat]

when i was little I caught an electric fence across the neck one summer. luckily I wasn't going but about ten through high grass.

not only did it hurt, but it was shocking me the whole time.

[Dirtcrasher]

My house and track are private property, and I could care less who pulls in my yard to enjoy it unless they are a thief or friends with thieves.......

I also find it "mind boggling" that people are so upset about ATV's. If I have to go along someone's field to get to a main power line, I do so at a slow speed and relaxed body position.

Maybe it's wrong, but I'm not throwing in the towel on my sport until it hurts too much to ride. By then most of the riding will be gone, there won't be any riding areas for our kids and the only people with any land, the remainder of fuel or anything else of value, will be the rich :(

[firehart]

I think that if its private property and they don't want riders there they should do it legally by posting signs and putting up visable gates. None of this sneaky wires and traps.

[cody2]

Around here a teenager died because they put up a wire across the trail and he was going pretty fast and hit it, that kinda stuff is just stupid. There was a big mound of sand in the field by my house so i hit it as a jump on the kfx lol.

[Dammit!]

I think that if its private property and they don't want riders there they should do it legally by posting signs and putting up visable gates. None of this sneaky wires and traps.

Many people will just go right around gates and right past signs. Traps should be and are illegal but good luck catching the people who do it.

There are a lot of bad apples in the off roading community. Unfortuntely, those people ruin things for the rest of us. Loud pipes and irresponsible riders are what get riding areas shut down and piss off property owners. We also get blamed for garbage dumping but in my experience it's rarely the off roaders that are doing that. Most of the time it's some assclown in a truck that's too lazy and cheap to take his trash to the dump.

I had to deal with a lot of crap growing up riding in Ohio. In retrospect a lot of that crap we had to deal with we brought on ourselves. Not always though. I did try to make peace with a local farmer to get permission to use a little strip of his land just to get from my neighborhood to the woods I used to ride in most of the time. He said no and was quite a dick about it. That guy used to load his shotgun with salt or something and actually shoot at people. His being such an ass lead to people tearing up his crops which lead to the cops being called constantly which lead to a lot of chases and dangerous situations. That guy never put up any no trespassing signs either. Not once.

I blame a lot of this problem on state and local governments. When there are no legal places to ride, people will ride anyway. There was plenty of state owned property near where I lived but it was never declared open to riding so we'd get the cops called on us constantly when we would ride there. A legal riding spot would have saved everybody a lot of headaches and prevented some of those dangerous situations.

[SYKO]

when i was little I caught an electric fence across the neck one summer. luckily I wasn't going but about ten through high grass.

not only did it hurt, but it was shocking me the whole time.

omg dude.... im sorry but I cant help but laugh at that!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[honda_atc200es]

ok now here is a controversal question that i figure ill bring up before it actually happens to me. now lets say your riding on the road going to a trail or something, and you do this alot. not to the point of obnoxiousness but, just to get in that ride. the trails you go on arent posted with no tresspassing signs. now on the way to the trail a cop flashes his lights, do you A pull over, or B haul ass to the trail and try to get away? i would stop, but then what if my quad gets impounded, i have no insurance and no title/registration, but i do live local. how do you think a police officer would react if i stopped?

[SYKO]

just be cool and they should be cool... I got caught one time, only becouse my quadzilla ran out of gas and he was a dick then.... but all the other times when I was cool they were cool and let me continue and just mainly told me to be safe and dont f up anyones land.

[Dammit!]

I only stopped for them one time. Everybody else I was with took off (which is what I normally did but this time I was curious). He gave me a ticket, chewed me out and told me to push the bike home or he'd impound it. I was on a small dirtbike at the time. If I was on a trike or quad it probably would have been impounded. I never stopped for them again after that.

Out here in AZ I only had a cop come out once. He didn't have his lights on he just waved me over. I went over and shut the bike off and this guy was actually cool about everything. Maybe because I'm not a punk 14 year old kid anymore. lol. He asked for my permit which I didn't have and didn't even know was needed. He told me where to get one, how much it cost and to stay on the existing trails or I'd get a ticket. That's it.

Cops are just people. Some are going to be cool with you, others might be complete pricks.

The problem with running away now as opposed to back in the 80's is, now they have a thing called felony evasion. Running now is risky business. Back in the day the worst that could happen is a couple tickets and an impound fee.

[200x Basket]

to be honest if you cant to the time dont do the crime :)

if you are breaking the law then you SHOULD get into trouble.

[300rman]

if you are breaking the law then you SHOULD get into trouble.


no. if you are bothering people while breaking the law, then you need to get in trouble. if you arent disturbing anyone (someone seeing you on the ATV and flipping cause its a ATV dont count cause they are being dicks) then noone should get in trouble for anything.

see the quote in my sig about law punishment

[ATC-Eric]

I wont run, the consequences for running far outweigh the consequences of stopping and being polite. Ive been stopped on a bike once, the cop was cool, told me to keep my speed down, and keep off the road. What Ive found when dealing wtih cops, and trust me we have no shortage of hotheaded cops here in St. Louis, if your polite, and respectful, the police usually respond in kind. Like stated they are just people, their not all out to get you.

Had the police called on us at my buddy property after I got the Tri-Z, the police came, and ended up just shottin the breeze about the bike. I offered him to take it for a ride, no dice, he was afraid of it :lol: . That would have been epic though, getting a picture of a police officer that responded to a noise complant riding my Tri-Z around.

[honda_atc200es]

yeaa thats what ive always assumed, and im polite by nature anyway so hopefully i wont have any problems. but im still going to be as cautious as possible if my dad hears the cops were called, ill never get to ride in wallkill again

[brapp]

i hit a cable strung acrost the trail abotu a foot of fthe ground on the 450r abotu a week after i got it and ended up havign to replace the entire assend cause i wheelied last second and cartwheeled hardcore.

[ATC-Eric]

Man that sucks brapp.

[fabiodriven]

when i was little I caught an electric fence across the neck one summer. luckily I wasn't going but about ten through high grass.

not only did it hurt, but it was shocking me the whole time.

Was that the same day you saw el chupacabre?:lol:

[Andrew_250R]

I have never hit a trap or seen one. There is a kid in my home town that has people wanting to put traps out though. He rides his dirt bike in the ditches on our land and has a trail through it. He also hauls ass through town and doesn't watch for other cars. The cops have been called and have talked to his parents. He knows we don't want him on our land. He still rides on it, and when we catch he just runs home till we are not around again. The big deal is that my parents are farmers and they cut the hay in the ditches and bail it for the cattle. Just because someones land (public or not) is convenient to ride on doesn't mean you should be riding on it. Sometimes if you just ask for permission first people will be fine with you riding on their land from what I have seen. On the other hand if they catch you riding there without permission then they will be pissed and never let you ride there.

[Macs]

I live in the city and ride alot of the ditch lines. When i was growing up they had a big ban on this. Cops constantly chasing us. They wouldnt stop there. They kept a record of the times you ran and would eventually find you. I and some friends went to Juvenile for a short period because of this. They have since put a ban on riding any atv, dirtbike etc etc. Even if is just to drive them on a trailer. So for years and years you would never see any riding. Well a few years ago we built tons of new neihborhoods on the outskirts of town. I live in one of these areas now. When i moved there you could hear atv's riding around all day long back on the ditch lines. So i started doing it to. If a cop saw you, he would just wave. I am not sure what happened but now it is perfectly acceptable. I would even ride my quad down the rode to the store. No problems whatsoever. I think as long as we keep it sane they will continue to allow it. But i know it want take long before we have some kid, doing 50, with no exhaust ruining it for everyone.

[brapp]

its allabotu respect i ahve respect for the local land owners and the neighbors and alot of them allow me to ride but ijust cant have toomany people or it gets a littl enervous for the landowners.

[Dammit!]

You know what's really weird? I have seen several sport quads (raptors and a yfz) riding on the streets around where I live. Just the other day I saw one going through an intersection. There was a cop directly behind me that had to have seen him and he didn't do anything. And this is a big city. The street I'm talking about is 3 lanes one way, 2 the other plus a turning lane. I tried to see if the quad had a plate. Didn't see one. I don't think there's any way it was legal anyway but I see it enough to make me wonder.

[honda_atc200es]

You know what's really weird? I have seen several sport quads (raptors and a yfz) riding on the streets around where I live. Just the other day I saw one going through an intersection. There was a cop directly behind me that had to have seen him and he didn't do anything. And this is a big city. The street I'm talking about is 3 lanes one way, 2 the other plus a turning lane. I tried to see if the quad had a plate. Didn't see one. I don't think there's any way it was legal anyway but I see it enough to make me wonder.

its because the cop is afraid the guy might try to run, which would endanger the public, a big problem in major cities (theres a vid on youtube about it) mostly the cops just write down a description and try to catch him while hes off guard

[Russell 350X]

I've never had a problem with land owners. I have a lease for 6000+ acres to ride on 1/2mile up the road from my house, plus another 300acres I have permission to ride on. I used to ride down the road, until the local crazy neighbor tried running me off the road with his lawn mower, and called the State Police on me. I now haul my bike 1/2mile up the road with a truck, because I don't want any more problems with this guy.


Anyways, if its public property, no one should be putting traps up on the trails, purpously trying to hurt/kill someone. Go to somebody about that.

[RedRider_AK]

We havent been bothered by any of them since.

That's good to hear! Sucks about the trikes being damaged, I remember thinking that your Z was minty fresh!

Anyway, about my experience with traps, not so many that I remember in Alaska, but in my mountainbiking days here in Russia I have found 1...

My friends and I found this decent little singletrack in the middle of the city, it's in a forested area that separates two roads, and it's pretty steep. There was a foot path through it but we widened it out about 3 feet wide so that bikes can pass through. Anyway, there's a fair-sized step-down at the beginning (maybe 4 feet high and 10 feet long), after which there are some trees you dodge, turns, another small jump, some logs buried in the ground halfway (kind of like a ghetto whoops section) and then a double drop and quick exit straightaway. Right before the double drop there's a turn that's blocked by a bush, so you can't see what's going on until you're right up against it...

Well, one day I'm blazing through the trail (first person down, as always) and making pretty good time, when I round the turn to the double drop and what do I see? A freaking 2 foot wide stump of log, layed directly across the trail, right before the drop! My eyes were approximately the size of saucers, I imagine. Good thing I have hydraulic brakes and 2.5" wide tires, I stood that bike up on it's front tire and nearly went headfirst over the log and down the drop.

That pissed me off, I feel really sketchy whenever I go down a trail now because I don't know if there's going to be something bad like that stuck somewhere... and prerunning trails sucks because you have to pedal all the way back up to the start and by the time you do that, you're too tired to go all out again. :crazy: I want a chairlift, dammit! And while I'm dreaming, a new bike wouldn't be too bad either! :naughty: