Well it's good to be back. Actually no, it isn't... It's truly frightening to be back because whilst I was taking a richly deserved extended holiday aboard my friend Warren T. Klame's 365ft. schooner, The Hesperus, some
of Mr. Blair's cronies took advantage of my absence from the business of scrutinising their relentless and weaselish anti-motorcycling activities to deal a body blow to the off-road brigade. And then, the cheeky monkeys, they promptly called an election to provide a handy smokescreen.So serious was this that for once I'll spare you the usual accounts of my riveting exploits in the netherworld of salacious self-indulgence with a succession of gorgeous, pouting personal assistantes and cut straight to the chase. Well actually I won't because thanks to the combined might of the MCIA and, more crucially perhaps, the fourwheeled motorsports industry, off-road motorcycle sport in Britain was actually and blessedly not killed off by the draconian effects of the EU's Single (agricultural) Payment System back in May.
However the collective sigh of relief amongst the trials, motocross and enduro fraternities was evidently followed swiftly by a spot of collective complacency because as I tremulously scrawl these words we are about to witness the death of trailriding in the UK, a bereavement which the trade has observed with all the alarm of an ostrich confronted with a nice patch of soft ground.
Actually, that's not entirely true because along with the (strictly amateur) Trail Riders Fellowship the strictly professional MCIA was involved in year-long negotiations with DEFRA to try and limit the draconian effects - it's that phrase again - of something called the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill (NERC). And to de-mystify the acronym-fest, tucked away in this bit of all-embracing mega legislation were two clauses, 61 and 62, which would turn some 65% of rights of way currently legally accessible to off-road bikes and 4X4s into illegal, 'restricted by-ways'. Furthermore the twenty years or so allowed under the Countryside & Rights Of Way Act 2000 for interested parties, e.g. the TRF, to make claims to upgrade these ancient greenlanes into Byways Open to All Traffic (BOATs) would be clawed back to zero.
Still with me ? Well the aforementioned negotiations with Rural Affairs Minister Jim Knight resulted in what was understood to be a reduced time-frame for claims, perhaps two or even as many five years, which would then be made according to criteria that accepted some tracks were unsustainable either because of environmental sensitivity or poor surface condition. The minister also accepted in principle the TRF's and other associated 4WD organisations' claims that a degree of 'self-policing' would help to outlaw the minority of un-taxed, un-silenced bikes that had helped justify the anti-offroad vehicle lobby's allegations that dirtbikers were ruining the countryside and endangering walkers and equestrians therein.
But when NERC received its third reading in the Commons on October 11th Mr Knight capitulated to the braying of MPs who'd been fed a bunch of lies and misinformation by the trailriders' well funded and organised foes, primarily the 70,000 strong Ramblers Association. (The TRF has just 3500 members). Result? Well the agreed amendments were scrapped and NERC went onto the Lords for what will almost certainly be rubber stamping.
At which point enraged cries of 'Betrayal' erupted from the TRF et al, and some of us started to assess the likely cost to the motorcycle, let alone the 4X4 trade. Are you sitting uncomfortably? Alright, then get this little scenario:
With 65% of the unsurfaced (off-)road network no longer available to the nations's estimated 16-20,000 trailriders (and several thousand more who use the legal byways in enduros), in some areas it will be impossible to complete a day's outing without spending most of one's time riding on tarmac to and from the few existing BOATs. And those few BOATs will in any case soon become over-used and shagged-out resulting in over-zealous country councils slapping temporary and then permanent closure orders on them, complete with locked gates. So sooner or later we - and I'm obviously writing from the beleaguered position of a trailrider myself - won't have anywhere to ride, unless we break the law. And sooner or later those that decide to ride illegally will get caught because the rozzers are already clamping down on illegal riding using specially purchased DRZ400s and powers they already have to confiscate the bikes of such miscreants.
But when NERC received its third reading in the Commons on October 11th Mr Knight capitulated to the braying of MPs who'd been fed a bunch of lies and misinformation by the trailriders' well funded and organised foes, primarily the 70,000 strong Ramblers Association. (The TRF has just 3500 members). Result? Well the agreed amendments were scrapped and NERC went onto the Lords for what will almost certainly be rubber stamping.
At which point enraged cries of 'Betrayal' erupted from the TRF et al, and some of us started to assess the likely cost to the motorcycle, let alone the 4X4 trade. Are you sitting uncomfortably? Alright, then get this little scenario:
With 65% of the unsurfaced (off-)road network no longer available to the nations's estimated 16-20,000 trailriders (and several thousand more who use the legal byways in enduros), in some areas it will be impossible to complete a day's outing without spending most of one's time riding on tarmac to and from the few existing BOATs. And those few BOATs will in any case soon become over-used and shagged-out resulting in over-zealous country councils slapping temporary and then permanent closure orders on them, complete with locked gates. So sooner or later we - and I'm obviously writing from the beleaguered position of a trailrider myself - won't have anywhere to ride, unless we break the law. And sooner or later those that decide to ride illegally will get caught because the rozzers are already clamping down on illegal riding using specially purchased DRZ400s and powers they already have to confiscate the bikes of such miscreants.
Quads and 4X4s will suffer similarly but for the moment I'll just point out that the few thousand trail and enduro bikes (most of which are in fact sold to trailriders) sold each year, well they won't be sold anymore. Neither will the huge volume of clothing, consumables and spares that trailriders buy in order to keep their hobby viable, and as a consequence many specialist dealers and not a few importers will simply go out of business.
From what I can understand, only KTM seem to have grasped the enormity of the threat this legislation poses to the dirtbike business, but as market leaders this isn't entirely surprising, and the trade as a whole has been remarkably slothful in lobbying the Lords to demand re-instating the amendments agreed with Minister Knight when they return the Bill to the Commons for Royal Assent.
The MCIA issued, weeks after the crucial Commons third reading, an indignant but balanced (if grammatically challenged) attack on the government's duplicity, its cavalier disregard for our personal freedoms and the prescient warning that after hunting with hounds and NERC, and with the compliant ear of the majority of urban MPs, "the peevish and shrill Ramblers lobby will not rest until they have secured everything for themselves and in the process turned the countryside into a sterile museum piece."
(The MCIA also mentioned the upsurge of cheap minibikes and quads used illegally off-road as contributing to the MPs' bile).
A few hundred letters to their Lordships - most of whom regard motorcyclists as noisy, insignificant irritants - by aggrieved TRF members will have little chance of reversing clauses 61 and 62, the MCIA's protests will have come as too little too late and that mass-market defender of two-wheeled freedoms, MCN, which only managed a few paragraphs of wildly inaccurately gibberish on the subject even further after the event will be even more ineffectual.
So as a glut of used trail and enduro bikes is poised to hit the market and sales of off-road clothing, tyres, chainsets and all the rest of it start to plummet, perhaps my loyal readers - if such there are - will wonder exactly why our trade associations managed to scare off the threat to moto-cross and trials earlier this year, but couldn't summon the energy or the muscle to do the same for trailriding ?
From what I can understand, only KTM seem to have grasped the enormity of the threat this legislation poses to the dirtbike business, but as market leaders this isn't entirely surprising, and the trade as a whole has been remarkably slothful in lobbying the Lords to demand re-instating the amendments agreed with Minister Knight when they return the Bill to the Commons for Royal Assent.
The MCIA issued, weeks after the crucial Commons third reading, an indignant but balanced (if grammatically challenged) attack on the government's duplicity, its cavalier disregard for our personal freedoms and the prescient warning that after hunting with hounds and NERC, and with the compliant ear of the majority of urban MPs, "the peevish and shrill Ramblers lobby will not rest until they have secured everything for themselves and in the process turned the countryside into a sterile museum piece."
(The MCIA also mentioned the upsurge of cheap minibikes and quads used illegally off-road as contributing to the MPs' bile).
A few hundred letters to their Lordships - most of whom regard motorcyclists as noisy, insignificant irritants - by aggrieved TRF members will have little chance of reversing clauses 61 and 62, the MCIA's protests will have come as too little too late and that mass-market defender of two-wheeled freedoms, MCN, which only managed a few paragraphs of wildly inaccurately gibberish on the subject even further after the event will be even more ineffectual.
So as a glut of used trail and enduro bikes is poised to hit the market and sales of off-road clothing, tyres, chainsets and all the rest of it start to plummet, perhaps my loyal readers - if such there are - will wonder exactly why our trade associations managed to scare off the threat to moto-cross and trials earlier this year, but couldn't summon the energy or the muscle to do the same for trailriding ?