Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1960's

r-. ~ 01 Q" ~ ~ ~ ~ Last week a reader called Cycle News, asking if It was true that bikes were banned from riding on public lands. We said we hadn't heard at it, but we'd check it out. Calls to various desert outposts found that no one had heard of it there either. But District 37 President Ron Sloan confirmed the bad news. "The law is on the books, as of January 18th," Sloan admitted. One or two California cross-country events have already been cancelled voluntarily by Callfornia clubs, rather than risk a showdown with the state Director of the Bureau at Land Management. At present, the Bureau is enforcing its new "law" selectively, apparently at the whim of powerful cattle and conservation interests. A northern California club was threatened by BLM Director J. Russel Penny with "a court order to shut it off," because sheep on public grazing land in Panoche were lambing. Sheepmen said the bikes "would disturb our sheep." The club obligingly called ott its event. "Penny's law" first appeared in the January 18 edition of the FederalRegister, appended to a mining regulation. Its shadow cl secrecy was sharply etched by the introductory paragraph: MThese rules involve matlers relating to public properl;y and are not required to be puWshed as proposed rule making. Accordingly. these regulations shall become effective on the dale of publication in the Federal Reels ler.· It we are to believe that anti-motorcycle bureaucrats can get away with such a hoax, it means that you cannot legally ride your motorcycle on any public land, and it you have done so since January 18, you have already broken the law! Readers should understand clearly that the sneaky law applies to every state in the U,S.A. Jdaho has already felt the squeeze, and after this is published we shall probably hear from other states where It is already happening. Translating it into plaIn English, the "law" under the heading OUTDOOR RECREATJON, Operation of Motor Vehicles reads: the Bureau of Land Management will designate sites and areas for the operation of motorized vehicles (bikes, dunebuggies, 4-wheelers) in order to isolate motor vehicles into certa1n areas of public land. Operators must "maintain safe speeds and drive in a prudent and safe manner." So much for racing in those areas. In addition, you can be restricted to established roads and trails within the areas, and of course you have to use spark arresters. To throw an event, you have to get a conditional use permit from the BLM agent, which means you have to send in a request well in advance, along with a map or diagram In triplicate of the proposed route, and you may have to post a bond to Insure litter clean up and removal of course markers (including lime?), as well as covering up tracks and providing insurance for riders and spectators. Few clubs could meet the stipulations of this regulation, even if it were loosely Interpreted. What is more, state ordinances also apPly, meaning, if they want to insist, all ott-road bikes have to be streetlegal. There's more, and it's just as ridiculous. The crime of riding on public land can get you and your family 6 months in jail and a $500 fine, if they want to get nasty about it. Can this really happen in America? The answer is NOI The ultra-conservationists shall not get away with it, if America's still the country I think it is. Their secret is out, now. No wonder they are afraid to tell the public. The socalled regulation is lllegal by every test THE NEW IMAGE By Chuck Clayton of democracy. The anti-motorcycle fanatics lost little time introducting legislation that would deliver the final blow to off-road motorcycling. In a proposal submitted by Dr. Wm. H. Wake of California's BLM advisory board, he urges bikes be kept out AT CAN YOU DO? Anti-motorcycle politicians are tlYing to regulate us off the road, wllil e at the same time thei r fellow bureaucrats want to bOx us off of public lands. We ask evelY Cycle News reader wIIo values his freedom to infonn this new~ paper of any local a'-t to curtail motorcycle riding on public land. Please get the name, address and phone nlllllber, if possible, of anyone wIIo haras~ es you while minding your own business on public land. Meantime, continue to ride and enjoy your motorcycles, and keep reading Cycle News. of any landS unless they are marked for use by motorized vehicles, or unless written permission to ride there is carried by the rider. Interestingly, Dr. Wake's original notes read ·'ridl.ng" but this bas been crossed out and changed to "driving". He would further require that all bikes be licensed and registered even if never used on the street, and would make It ~ j misdemeanor for a dealer to let a bike :>. off his premises without being licensed. U But that's not all. Every dirt bike would also have to have a muffler, spark arrester and automatic gas shutoff" in case of upset." And Dr. Wake ends with the recommendation that all persons riding (driving) a motorized vehicle be licensed and that a safety program be enacted prior to issuance of a license. Conservationists can be forgiven a measure of concern over the future of public lands. But their own studies show that motorcycles have caused Insignificant change on the desert in 30 years at racing and playing there. Their plan is to put us into two desolate areas, which, as they well know, would soon play out. Concentrated motorcycle usage does cause devegetation and erosion. But the way our events run now, the coUrses are seldom used more than once a year, and the desert renews itseU. Rather than isolate the motorcycles, the Bureau must helP us maintain the freedom that we have now. Representing the AMA at the annual meeting of the California State Advisory Board's annual meeting last month, Ron Sloan delivered an impassioned speech on behalf of de-concentration. His reasoning Inspired the board to appoint an ad hoc committee to make resolutions and form user groups to advise on the plan. So enforcement of the mickeymouse "law" will probably be sporadic until the committee, at which Sloan is a member, has had time to make its resolutions. Meanwhile, your publisher has contacted secretary at the Interior Htnclde in washington and advised him at the trick his bureaucrats are playing. We shall pursue this point until the perpetrators at this land grab, that would kick 5,000,000 citizens ott their public land, are exposed and defeated. Legislation Issue

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