when will parents learn, atv's aren't babysitters

[deathman53]

When I was riding tody, it was like stupidy galore. there were all these kids who were all over the track and not keeping their line. I was passing this kid on a lt80(I was in the left and the kid was to the right), the kid went across the the track and I nearly hit him, to avoid hitting him it almost caused me to go off the track and crash. I went the kids parents(who very conviently weren't watching their kid), and told them that they need to watch their kid and told them how I almost him him and what he was doing. they resoponsed to me very rude and questioned my riding abilty, and told me I NEED TO WATCH OUT FOR THE KIDS and that I need to paymore attention to HER KIDS and what they are doing. She said they haen't been riding long and they don't know. I responsed, I am telling you so that you know and teach them to ride safe. She got even more rude to me and her husband got involved, it ended upi they both were screaming at me, they added in how they payed $700 so they and thier kids can ride and how they should be able to what they wanted, etc. . I told them, I am telling you this so that you kids can ride safe and don't get hurt, you need to watch your kids and AN ATV IS NOT A BABYSITTER. I then left, I went to the park office and told them this, the parents were told if they weren't gonna watch their kids they were going to be asked to leave. They soon left. When will parents learn? atv's are not toys, nor babysitters, they take skill to ride and common sense. I will guarantee that if/when her kids get hurt they are going to sue the park, its people like this that ruin it for all you guys with kids that ride atv's.

[smokinwrench]

We see it all the time around here. Scariest thing I ever see is some 7-9 year old on a scrambler 500 or heavier machine. Kids ride them as fast as they will go and there feet just flop on the sides of the machine. I also see tons of kids on high HP sport machines that the kids have to lean to the side to be able to shift.

These are the same kids that crash and get severly hurt. Then the ATV gets a bad rap. We all know that it is ignorance that caused the injury.

When my kids learned to rdie we took them off to a deserted area and they rode for several hours alone, we made several trips like that before they ever went to a place that had any other atv's operating.

[Mobular]

We see it all the time around here. Scariest thing I ever see is some 7-9 year old on a scrambler 500 or heavier machine. Kids ride them as fast as they will go and there feet just flop on the sides of the machine. I also see tons of kids on high HP sport machines that the kids have to lean to the side to be able to shift.

These are the same kids that crash and get severly hurt. Then the ATV gets a bad rap. We all know that it is ignorance that caused the injury.

And isn't it funny how these same people look down their noses and attempt to preach to us how evil those 3 wheeled Satan-Spawned machines are...why they'll flip over on you, kill your family, and take up residence in the nearest clocktower from a standstill at a moment's notice!

[deathman53]

funny you said that, I got 3 comments today about how dangerous trikes are. my response to one guy was, i pointed to his quad, and said,its dangerous if you don't know how to drive it, then I pointed my truck, its dangerous if you do't know how to drive it, then I pointed the dirtbike parked nex to me, thats also dangerous if you don't know how to ride it. He agreed, Everything is dangerous if you don't know how to use it.

[Mobular]

That's right. Take the time to learn how to operate the machine properly, after all, didn't we all crash our bicycles a lot until we got a handle on it??

[wolfguy]

A while back I was at a track in South Jersey. At the time I had a very modified 250x with 350x engine. I was moving and motivating other guys to race with me. A few kids on thier little quads started to ride the track too, which was ok because it was a mixed track. The rules stated however any small riders needed to have flags on thier bikes so other riders can see them coming over dunes and jumps. None of these kids had flags and I'll tell you I came off a nice jump in 5th and damn near landed on a kid. The last thing I need is to be blamed for a kid having my footpeg imbeded in his skull.

[eh_tee_see]

Its neat hearing about atv experiences in the lower 48. Here in south naknek you have to go out of your way to find someone whose name, middle name, parents, post office box number, and favoirte color are not known by yourself. (read over that a few times i couldnt figure how to write it ) THere are literally more fourwheelrs and 3 wheelers here than cars by a long shot. Roads are dirt and they dont go any further than from naknek to kingsalmon (15 miles of nothing) and then a trail across the river in the winter over the ice (1 mile wide) There is nowhere here that it is illegal to ride your atv... we dont have any sort of designated park. But anyways what im getting at is here everyperson has a atv and every kid has one is what that means. Ansd jesus if I had a nickel for every little toothless local that has been run over, severly injured, killed or rudely been thrown into sobriety.. I would have a good 1000 dollars. Anyways so kids can literally take their atvs to as much as 20 miles away from their houses. There are a lot of deaths here related to stupidity , alcohol , and atvs. This doesnt apply soley to people of age either. Many teens here arrt due to alcohol , weed, and atvs/snowmachines. Take every horrbile trait you can imagine throw it into a blender, half bake it, and you get the best of our locals. Then give them an atv and throw them right in front of me on the wrong side of the trail. That about sums up kids in our area. Actually very little of that makes sense but my computer really needs to be restarted and im in a hurry.

[TimSr]

Most practrice tracks here have a separate track for mini's. The ones that dont will not allow mini's and adult size on the track at the same time. They alternate. I was little concerned about TimJr running the adult HS at Sunset Ramblers, even though he was not on a mini. It took about 1 lap to lay that concern to rest.

[Trike Dude]

Its neat hearing about atv experiences in the lower 48. Here in south naknek you have to go out of your way to find someone whose name, middle name, parents, post office box number, and favoirte color are not known by yourself. (read over that a few times i couldnt figure how to write it ) THere are literally more fourwheelrs and 3 wheelers here than cars by a long shot. Roads are dirt and they dont go any further than from naknek to kingsalmon (15 miles of nothing) and then a trail across the river in the winter over the ice (1 mile wide) There is nowhere here that it is illegal to ride your atv... we dont have any sort of designated park. But anyways what im getting at is here everyperson has a atv and every kid has one is what that means. Ansd jesus if I had a nickel for every little toothless local that has been run over, severly injured, killed or rudely been thrown into sobriety.. I would have a good 1000 dollars. Anyways so kids can literally take their atvs to as much as 20 miles away from their houses. There are a lot of deaths here related to stupidity , alcohol , and atvs. This doesnt apply soley to people of age either. Many teens here arrt due to alcohol , weed, and atvs/snowmachines. Take every horrbile trait you can imagine throw it into a blender, half bake it, and you get the best of our locals. Then give them an atv and throw them right in front of me on the wrong side of the trail. That about sums up kids in our area. Actually very little of that makes sense but my computer really needs to be restarted and im in a hurry.

Hey, I grew up(4yrs-12yrs old) in Cordova, AK. The riding was much like you describe. We had a few paved road but mostly dirt and no roads in or out.

The riding terrain was infinite, from glaciers to dunes all in the same day. I really miss that. Trikes were a huge part of my early childhood and there is not better riding than Alaska.

[phreakboy]

yep its amazing but I see stuff like that all the time, when I was younger I was at my aunts house in the mountains and her neighbor kids were out riding one was maybe 6 riding a 50cc and the other was around 12 riding a banshee well they were flying around neither one really paying attention and blam, they had a head on collision luckily neither was seriously injured minus a couple bones(they were moving pretty good). Then just recently over christmas the ppl that live behind my girlfriends moms house bought their kid a kawi quad 4x4, well these kids were like 16 or so and flying around shooting down their driveway and out into the road without even looking, I told my gf that one would get hurt soon the way they were riding, well new years day one was flying down their drive way and they have two humps in their driveway about 5 feet apart and about 10 feet from the road so they were jumping the first hitting the ground and hitting brakes to try not to launch into the road off the second one, so he jumped the first came down on the nose hit the front brake and went over the bars quad came down on top he hung on and went over one more time with the quad landing on him, broke his legs, collar bone, shoulder, wrist, and forearm and last I head possible parrylization(spelling?) cost the family a $20,000 helicopter ride to the hospital and lots more in bills so needless to say the family decided that the quad was a bad idea and sold it.

[timex69]

just the other day this kid who would be about 12, who was used to driving an XR80 decided, he was tired of his xr and wanted something with a little more speed...so his parents bought him a 01 660 Raptor. His parents took it away after an afternoon once they realized what they bought their kid. Aparently they looked out their window and seen the kid doing 45 mile an hour wheelies across their back yard and they better take it away before the kid got killed. I think some parents themselves dont know how much power they are giving their kids.

just my opinion

[Bryan Raffa]

we got my daughter a 90cc 4 wheeler and repeatedly told here to go slow! she ended up running into the neighbors stockade fence and knocked it down!! she flew over the bars and hit the ground face first! boy this scard me she was ok but you could tell she was alittle shaken up! sometimes they just gotta learn by them selves just like I did needless to say she takes it easy now she knows better! thank god I can laugh about it now!

[MichiganRedneck]

well deathman, i think you handled it quite well. something had to be said to the irrisponsible parents. i hope they felt like idiots.

[350xBomb]

When I was riding tody, it was like stupidy galore. there were all these kids who were all over the track and not keeping their line. I was passing this kid on a lt80(I was in the left and the kid was to the right), the kid went across the the track and I nearly hit him, to avoid hitting him it almost caused me to go off the track and crash. I went the kids parents(who very conviently weren't watching their kid), and told them that they need to watch their kid and told them how I almost him him and what he was doing. they resoponsed to me very rude and questioned my riding abilty, and told me I NEED TO WATCH OUT FOR THE KIDS and that I need to paymore attention to HER KIDS and what they are doing. She said they haen't been riding long and they don't know. I responsed, I am telling you so that you know and teach them to ride safe. She got even more rude to me and her husband got involved, it ended upi they both were screaming at me, they added in how they payed $700 so they and thier kids can ride and how they should be able to what they wanted, etc. . I told them, I am telling you this so that you kids can ride safe and don't get hurt, you need to watch your kids and AN ATV IS NOT A BABYSITTER. I then left, I went to the park office and told them this, the parents were told if they weren't gonna watch their kids they were going to be asked to leave. They soon left. When will parents learn? atv's are not toys, nor babysitters, they take skill to ride and common sense. I will guarantee that if/when her kids get hurt they are going to sue the park, its people like this that ruin it for all you guys with kids that ride atv's.

If they are beginners then they need to be off by themselves so they can learn to ride the bike, then learn to ride the track. Im tired of people thinking that being allowd to ride is a right. Its a privilage and if you cant handle it, much live driving, then we wont let you...one way or another. However, anyone who says that an ATV is not a toy is sorely mistaken. Have you ever had so much fun with something that wasnt a toy(women are not toys...or so Im told)??? But as with all toys respect the age restrictions, (hell legos even have em) and stay within your ability (You wouldnt let a kid who has just learned what a snap-together is try and use model glue right, bad things happen).