Stimulate and advance the general welfare and safety of off-highway (OHV) recreation; to promote the safe and responsible use of OHV’s; to serve the interests of off-highway vehicle enthusiasts; to foster a positive public image for OHV recreation; to defend enthusiasts against discriminatory legislation and regulation; to stimulate the development of OHV trail systems on public and private lands; to develop a fraternal spirit among OHV enthusiasts ; to exchange information among members; and to perform all desirable and lawful functions for the successful operation of the club.
We provide our members with a legal riding area with maintained trails.
Our Code of Ethics
1; Always wear protective gear while riding. This seems to make sense and is a good practice to help keep you from being hurt. The questions that are asked are what is the proper protective gear? Over the ankle boots, Jeans, Long Sleeve shirts or Jacket, gloves, goggles, and helmet.
2; Always wear a helmet. Not only is this good sense, but it is also a New York State Law.
3; Never ride alone. This makes good sense for many reasons, if you get hurt, lost, or break down you have help! Those are all important reasons. There are many times when you might ride alone. Hunting, to and from your watch. Getting to a meeting point to ride with others. If you do ride alone remember that many things can happen, and if you do ride alone, at least make sure someone knows where you are going and when you will be expected back again.
4; No drug or alcohol while riding! Many people like to drink, and that in itself is not a problem. What you must remember is that an ATV is a motor vehicle and to drink and drive is not only stupid, it is against the law, It is also enforced! If you drink and drive the worst part would not be hurting yourself, but the others you may hurt. Like your car, put the ATV away before you drink. It is the Smart thing to do.
5; Ride within your limits. I would hope that everyone rides within his or her limits. If you ride you already know what you can or cannot do. If something is too difficult you should not do it. Learn how to ride properly, and expand your limits safely. You are the only person who knows what you are capable of, so do not let others encourage you to do stupid and foolish things when riding.
6; Respect the Environment, stay on the trail. There are many people who work very hard to get trails for us to use. When you leave the trail you are taking the chance that the trail might be closed. Do not ruin it for everyone! Do I get off the trails? Yes, but only when I have the permission of the landowner to do so, and then I am very careful of where I go so as not to cause any damage that I cannot fix. We have a bad reputation of destroying the area’s we use, and it is only when we show we can ride responsibly and protect the area’s that we ride that we can move ahead in our battles to gain more legal riding on areas such as public lands. I hope that our members ride and treat the property, as they would want others to treat their property.
7; Register and insure your machine. Like wearing a helmet and drinking and driving this is more than a good rule to live by it is also a New York State Law. There are also many good reasons to register your machines. Right now those who do not may say we do not get that money back so why register? Well, if we do not register they do not know how many of us are actually out there! The numbers that DMV sees is what will help make a big difference when it comes to things like legislation. We NEED to have our numbers speak, and without the majority of the machines registered we look like a group of people who do not obey the law, and so why should they work to help us? As for insurance, I would not want to be the person who damages someone else’s property or hurts someone and does not have insurance. Protect yourself with the small expense of insurance.
8; Respect the rights of others. Remember that you are not the only person in the state, there are other users out there, and regardless of what they may think of us, we need to not only promote a good image but show all users that we are responsible. Showing a little respect and consideration can do wonders for our sport! If I see a bicycle on the trail, not only do I pull over, but I also talk with that person, trying to always build a positive experience for that trail user to remember. We need allies, not enemies; the more we can win over to our side the easier our future battles for trails, and trail funding.
9; Less noise equals more trails. In many cases, this statement is very true. There are legal limits to the noise your machine can make, but it is always better to be quiet. If others do not know you are there, they cannot complain, and cause problems for your sport. We have lost the ability to even create trails in some areas because people complained about the noise that might be there, and they did not want that. It does not matter that you may be on private property we can still be closed down, even if we have never had access to start with. There are many people who are ready willing and able to stop us before we even get started. Let’s not give them a reason. We work with many landowners, and many are also hunters, they sure do not want to hear a tuned pipe scaring the deer or other animals. If you want to be able to ride remember that limiting noise and showing respect for others will go along way in keeping things open for us all. We have this code of ethics because it makes sense to do so. Are they all the law? No, and although we cannot all follow them all at all times, you should at least try to remember why we have them. They are there to help you and the rest of the riding community. It takes many people to get legal riding for us to enjoy, and it can all be stopped when one person does something stupid. We should try to not only follow this code as best we each can but encourage others to do that as well. Do not let the code of ethics we try to follow keep you or a friend form joining. Explain to prospective members why these are important issues, and we can only ask that they try to remember them to help us all.
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