Post by MotoBill on Jun 13, 2008 20:21:07 GMT -6
If you've gotten the latest issue of CycleUSA then you may have seen this. It was written by the D-23 pres and I think his message is worth repeating:
"From the back of the pack,
The word is out now on sound testing at our Minnesota points events. While there are pros and cons to the issue we know that without lowering our exhaust levels motocross as a sport will wither. I know tomany of you that may sound dramatic but believe me it isn’t. I have been continually amazed by the short sighted thinking of the manufacturers and the AMA. They will all tell you the biggest threat to our existence is the sound issue yet they will not act on it. We have seen in our state, legislation in one county that banned riding on private land. We just this month received notice of another ban in Harris MN. A land owner received a letter from the County Sheriff Todd Rivard that stated the following, “upon reviewing a satellite photo from the Chisago County Zoning Office it showed an obvious dirt track on your property. This letter is to inform you the City of Harris adopted an ordinance in 2007 banning dirt tracks for recreational vehicles… if this track is used you must stop using it”. We learned at our board meeting in early May that Chisago County is preparing this ordinance for the entire county. Riding has been banned in Riverside County CA home to some of the Japanese manufacturers’ American headquarters. This trend will not end until the public feels the noise is no longer a nuisance. The issue is in our hands as riders and racers. We get the noise level down or we loose our riding rights. Whether we agree with it or not does not make any difference. The public at large does not want to listen to noisy dirt bikes. Since we are currently having issues in MN with sound levels and we are fighting on several fronts to stop the rising tide of riding bans on private property District 23 promoters by vote of the board of directors are mandated to sound test at all points paying MX races.
A minimum of 20 amateur level bikes chosen at random will be tested at each race. 20 is the minimum and the goal is 10 percent of all entries. The penalties for not testing will be fines and loss of points races in the subsequent season. The vote was unanimous. In short we do not want to lose our sport and our riding areas and facilities. I can appreciate the problems this causes some racers. New bikes that don’t meet current AMA noise levels. After market systems that don’t even come close to meeting current standards, it’s a bummer to spend all that money and find out the system is not legal. As has been stated here many times do not spend money on a system until you are sure that it meets the rules. 99 decibels +/- 1.5 Dba. It is hard to enforce and harder to comply with rules and change when it is not a top down change. This is something that should be addressed by the AMA and be responded to positively by the manufacturers.
What we need to see is an announcement that every bike entered at Loretta’s Lynns final will be tested. The top five or ten in each class will be retested after each moto to insure continued compliance. This would go a long ways in helping with the noise problem. At the amateur level there are but a handful of racers that can even utilize any extra power on their machines, especially on a 450. After market pipes and mufflers make more noise but I have yet to see a 4 stroke exhaust system that makes the difference between first and third place. Reality is that suspension tuning will place the racer much higher in the finish order than an after market exhaust system.
We need to see a system in which all mufflers are tested and certified to meet the current noise levels. They should be stamped as official and legal. Any uncertified exhaust system or components could then be visually checked eliminating the need for sound testing and some of the inconsistencies that occur during the testing process.
We need to see the AMA progressively lowering the sound level each season. Europe is already way a head of us on this issue they are at the 96 or 94 Db range at this time. We need to see the surrounding states follow our lead and enforce current sound level rules just as we need to see it at all of the National Amateur events. Any change is hard but making change from the bottom up is especially hard. We are doing it because we have seen the loss of riding areas, the loss of tracks on private land, many of our practice areas and we are seeing more legislation being proposed than ever before. I truly wish the system were different. I feel as though it is loaded against us and we lose more battles than we win but we will continue to fight for our riding areas. We need the help and cooperation of our membership if we are going to be successful. Please do your part, keep it as quiet as possible, work with neighbors to keep from making them irate at our sport. If you get tested at a track don’t give the testers or owners a hard time they have no choice about testing. Lets work together to beat this problem. Many years ago a DNR forester that we have worked closely with in Southeastern MN told me “ if people can’t hear you riding they really don’t care what you do or where you ride”. This was true then and it remains true today. For the record I don’t like it, I don’t like the loaded judicial system as a matter of fact I hate it. When I first started riding and racing it was not an issue. We used to spend a lot of time deciding which area we were going to ride today. Now we are asking is there a place open to ride today. Hopefully we can get the support we need from our parent organization so that we can just ride and race and not have to worry about another ridiculously restrictive bill removing our right to practice and race.
This item of business took up the majority of time at the last board meeting so there is not much other business to discuss. See at the races. Mike
"From the back of the pack,
The word is out now on sound testing at our Minnesota points events. While there are pros and cons to the issue we know that without lowering our exhaust levels motocross as a sport will wither. I know tomany of you that may sound dramatic but believe me it isn’t. I have been continually amazed by the short sighted thinking of the manufacturers and the AMA. They will all tell you the biggest threat to our existence is the sound issue yet they will not act on it. We have seen in our state, legislation in one county that banned riding on private land. We just this month received notice of another ban in Harris MN. A land owner received a letter from the County Sheriff Todd Rivard that stated the following, “upon reviewing a satellite photo from the Chisago County Zoning Office it showed an obvious dirt track on your property. This letter is to inform you the City of Harris adopted an ordinance in 2007 banning dirt tracks for recreational vehicles… if this track is used you must stop using it”. We learned at our board meeting in early May that Chisago County is preparing this ordinance for the entire county. Riding has been banned in Riverside County CA home to some of the Japanese manufacturers’ American headquarters. This trend will not end until the public feels the noise is no longer a nuisance. The issue is in our hands as riders and racers. We get the noise level down or we loose our riding rights. Whether we agree with it or not does not make any difference. The public at large does not want to listen to noisy dirt bikes. Since we are currently having issues in MN with sound levels and we are fighting on several fronts to stop the rising tide of riding bans on private property District 23 promoters by vote of the board of directors are mandated to sound test at all points paying MX races.
A minimum of 20 amateur level bikes chosen at random will be tested at each race. 20 is the minimum and the goal is 10 percent of all entries. The penalties for not testing will be fines and loss of points races in the subsequent season. The vote was unanimous. In short we do not want to lose our sport and our riding areas and facilities. I can appreciate the problems this causes some racers. New bikes that don’t meet current AMA noise levels. After market systems that don’t even come close to meeting current standards, it’s a bummer to spend all that money and find out the system is not legal. As has been stated here many times do not spend money on a system until you are sure that it meets the rules. 99 decibels +/- 1.5 Dba. It is hard to enforce and harder to comply with rules and change when it is not a top down change. This is something that should be addressed by the AMA and be responded to positively by the manufacturers.
What we need to see is an announcement that every bike entered at Loretta’s Lynns final will be tested. The top five or ten in each class will be retested after each moto to insure continued compliance. This would go a long ways in helping with the noise problem. At the amateur level there are but a handful of racers that can even utilize any extra power on their machines, especially on a 450. After market pipes and mufflers make more noise but I have yet to see a 4 stroke exhaust system that makes the difference between first and third place. Reality is that suspension tuning will place the racer much higher in the finish order than an after market exhaust system.
We need to see a system in which all mufflers are tested and certified to meet the current noise levels. They should be stamped as official and legal. Any uncertified exhaust system or components could then be visually checked eliminating the need for sound testing and some of the inconsistencies that occur during the testing process.
We need to see the AMA progressively lowering the sound level each season. Europe is already way a head of us on this issue they are at the 96 or 94 Db range at this time. We need to see the surrounding states follow our lead and enforce current sound level rules just as we need to see it at all of the National Amateur events. Any change is hard but making change from the bottom up is especially hard. We are doing it because we have seen the loss of riding areas, the loss of tracks on private land, many of our practice areas and we are seeing more legislation being proposed than ever before. I truly wish the system were different. I feel as though it is loaded against us and we lose more battles than we win but we will continue to fight for our riding areas. We need the help and cooperation of our membership if we are going to be successful. Please do your part, keep it as quiet as possible, work with neighbors to keep from making them irate at our sport. If you get tested at a track don’t give the testers or owners a hard time they have no choice about testing. Lets work together to beat this problem. Many years ago a DNR forester that we have worked closely with in Southeastern MN told me “ if people can’t hear you riding they really don’t care what you do or where you ride”. This was true then and it remains true today. For the record I don’t like it, I don’t like the loaded judicial system as a matter of fact I hate it. When I first started riding and racing it was not an issue. We used to spend a lot of time deciding which area we were going to ride today. Now we are asking is there a place open to ride today. Hopefully we can get the support we need from our parent organization so that we can just ride and race and not have to worry about another ridiculously restrictive bill removing our right to practice and race.
This item of business took up the majority of time at the last board meeting so there is not much other business to discuss. See at the races. Mike