[grhazelton]

While I can see the appeal this thing has, I just kept cringing at the way it shredded the hillsides and destroyed the soils... :/

Agreed. It must have been a lovely, serene woodland once.... Too many fools with too much money and too much testosterone.

[jsherman999]

Seeing the way he drove it, I couldn't help but wonder if it was necessary to nail the throttle to accomplish some of the things he did(seems very extreme)

I was thinking the same thing, let off the throttle and let the HP take it up even in a lower gear may have worked better in some of those scenes, maybe. Wouldn't have made as good of a video though, I guess.


As to the environmental destruction, at second viewing I guess I agree, I didn't really notice at first but this doesn't seem to be any off-road track or course, it's out in the woods... not good.

[jogiba]

Maybe a good hit on the role cage by his helmet-less head would knock some sense into him but I think not.

[riff]

Famous Last Words - "Hey Ya'll, Watch This!"

More famous last words - "Hold my beer and watch this!"

Apparently helmets are not required.
We don't have these mutts around here thankfully but suffer with plenty of quad riders. I despise the way ppl use them!

[grhazelton]

More famous last words - "Hold my beer and watch this!"

Apparently helmets are not required.
We don't have these mutts around here thankfully but suffer with plenty of quad riders. I despise the way ppl use them!

No helmets. Hmmm. I wonder how many of these fools will qualify for the annual Darwin Awards? Darwin Awards: 2011 Darwin Awards

[MRRiley]

nice way to screw up a pretty piece of countryside. not impressed at all.

[schmik]

That was great!

Too many comments from the city bound 'greenies' who have no idea. Rain water and storms tear up a country side for more than vehicles. Those tracks regrow so quickly. Usually mother nature overgrows the track in a year. 5 years later you would never even find it.

Why is it that most greenies never leave the city and go anywhere green? that just want to pontificate about the environment and act holier than thou from their inner city cafe. they just want to ban people from going there because they never do and it makes them feel good.

The people that want to protect and maintain an area are usually the ones that use it.

IMO, Green tips (garbage dumps) are worse for the environment. Since they started charging so much there has been HUGE increase in dumping waste in the bush/forest.... instead of people producing less waste they just dump it now.

[JohnBee]

... pontificate...

That has got to be the coolest word ever made.

[riff]

Too many comments from the city bound 'greenies' who have no idea. Rain water and storms tear up a country side for more than vehicles. Those tracks regrow so quickly. Usually mother nature overgrows the track in a year. 5 years later you would never even find it.

I dunno how things grow in Sidney but here I can show you wagon wheel tracks that are over 100 years old and have not been used at all for at least 80 years that are plainly visible.

Why is it that most greenies never leave the city and go anywhere green? that just want to pontificate about the environment and act holier than thou from their inner city cafe. they just want to ban people from going there because they never do and it makes them feel good.

Now you're just ranting. I live in the forest, I wonder how many of the a$$holes who rip it up would like the same consideration in their neighborhoods?

[RoxnDox]

That was great!

Too many comments from the city bound 'greenies' who have no idea. Rain water and storms tear up a country side for more than vehicles. Those tracks regrow so quickly. Usually mother nature overgrows the track in a year. 5 years later you would never even find it.

Why is it that most greenies never leave the city and go anywhere green? that just want to pontificate about the environment and act holier than thou from their inner city cafe. they just want to ban people from going there because they never do and it makes them feel good.

The people that want to protect and maintain an area are usually the ones that use it.

IMO, Green tips (garbage dumps) are worse for the environment. Since they started charging so much there has been HUGE increase in dumping waste in the bush/forest.... instead of people producing less waste they just dump it now.

Wow. Overgeneralize much there? Let's just take a few of your points...

Rain and storms do indeed cause erosion. However, the rate of erosion on bare dirt that has had all the organic topsoil, leaf mulch, roots, and plant cover stripped off is FAR greater than the rate on the original surface. That's a FACT, amigo, that has been verified by many many many observations, studies, and experimental plots of land. You rip a trench into a hillside like this group has done, it WILL erode a lot faster than the rest of the hillside. Which, coincidentally, leads to your next error. Because of that erosion rate, these scars are NOT going to be completely recovered in 5 years, even if left alone. Do you have any idea how long it takes to convert raw dirt into a true organic-rich topsoil? Hint, it's longer than 5 years. In some places, maybe a few decades can get you a thin layer of true soil. In harsher environments like deserts, tundra, or higher mountains it takes CENTURIES. A small trail with a few vehicles running thru the woods - yeah not much damage to the soils and it'll regrow quickly. This sort of track, where they're ripping great deep scars into the hillside, not a frickin' chance. That will be there longer than you are alive...

And I am speaking not as a "greenie", but as a geologist. I've seen the studies on erosion and soils. I've seen *DATA* on erosion and soils... I love a power-tripping fast machine as much as anyone, but I hate to see this damage to a perfectly good hillside, and I am frankly disgusted by the philosophy of "we can do whatever we want because it doesn't really hurt anything worth worrying about".

Jim

[schmik]

What about all these huge cities and roads we have built.... ooohh the pain, the pain. It is an environmental travesty.
Sure the scar will be there but it will be filled with trees and grass.
So what about fires, floods, storms etc? Should we ban 'mother nature' from entering the woods?

I have seen an entire peninsula disappear overnight due to a huge storm. It just washed away. Was this good or bad? Neither, it just happened. I'm sure it took thousands of years for the peninsula to form.

Just to be clear my philosophy is : The people that want to protect and maintain an area are usually the ones that use it.
True custodians of an area want to protect it and maintain it. This includes using it.

The green movement of "BAN EVERYTHING" must be stopped.


"we can do whatever we want because it doesn't really hurt anything worth worrying about".
No one condones this attitude. And not all people that enter 'nature' have this attitude. But is sure is a 'cool' and 'now' to project this onto people.

Pretty soon people will be asking "Not if the bear does or does not sh 1t in the woods, but if he is allowed to".

mike

[RoxnDox]

What about all these huge cities and roads we have built.... ooohh the pain, the pain. It is an environmental travesty.
Sure the scar will be there but it will be filled with trees and grass.
So what about fires, floods, storms etc? Should we ban 'mother nature' from entering the woods?

Building a city or a road is not a travesty - and I never said it was! They have a purpose. What purpose does the hillside-shredding serve that couldn't be fulfilled by climbing a bare rock slope instead? That scar will NOT be filled with grass and trees in any short time...

I have seen an entire peninsula disappear overnight due to a huge storm. It just washed away. Was this good or bad? Neither, it just happened. I'm sure it took thousands of years for the peninsula to form.

And that is relevant to a deliberate human action HOW?

Just to be clear my philosophy is : The people that want to protect and maintain an area are usually the ones that use it.
True custodians of an area want to protect it and maintain it. This includes using it.

True custodians of an area would indeed use, protect, and maintain it. No argument there. I sure did not see any evidence in that clip that the hill climber group was doing much to maintain things, though. I suppose you could say that they limited their destruction to running up the one trench ripped into the slope, instead of digging new ones all across the area, but that's about it...

The green movement of "BAN EVERYTHING" must be stopped.

And just who exactly has talked about "banning everything" here? Some people have mentioned banning this activity (I wasn't one of them, by the way), but you're the one raising the "ban everything" flag here...

"we can do whatever we want because it doesn't really hurt anything worth worrying about".
No one condones this attitude. And not all people that enter 'nature' have this attitude. But is sure is a 'cool' and 'now' to project this onto people.

Well, let's see. You see responses to the clip that decry the damage being done, so you respond by calling them an insulting term "greenies", by implying that none of them have been out of a city and don't know anything about nature or much of anything else, and then you launch into a defense of the hillclimbers doing whatever they want because they are caretakers of the land and it'll recover really quickly on its own. To me, that sounds a lot like your philosophy is what I wrote. Sounds like you *do* condone it. And, there are people with that attitude, so your "no one condones this attitude" is false.

Pretty soon people will be asking "Not if the bear does or does not sh 1t in the woods, but if he is allowed to".

mike

Strawman argument. Nobody but you has raised this spectre of banning everything or of having to get permission to do anything...


And I notice you never responded to the point about how long it actually takes to recreate a true soil from the raw dirt left in the scars created by the hill climbers (where the scars haven't been trenched down to bedrock...).

Jim

[pingflood]

Ugly, noisy, powerful but the driver didn't know how to drive it. A disaster waiting to happen.

Yeah, that really looked like some piss poor driving. Been to some rock climbing events and generally it is far more technique involved than just stomping the gas and hoping for the best. Some really skilled drivers too, who knew when to take it easy:

(no precious ancient forests being destroyed here, it takes place in areas they regularly do logging in...)

[Colorado CJ]

Nice looking moon buggy! BUT that driver was horrible. No skill at all, just peg the throttle and hold on. I didn't see him pick any lines at all, just spin all four tires and hope to get through the obstacle.

He builds a good looking buggy, now he needs to work on his lines and letting that buggy do the work for him.

[Ex Finn.]

Thanks for the link. One bad-ass buggy and a driver who knows how to use available horsepower. There is no substitute for cubic inches.

p.s. A trials rider would laugh at those obstacles and go through them like a silent ninja.