If other people would talk about these issues, I wouldn’t have to. I talk about them because no one else will! There is a “conspiracy of silence” among mountain bikers, not to talk about the negative effects of mountain biking, just like the “code of the streets” among gangs and the drug-using community. Many mountain bikers say they are very responsible riders. But (1) they keep quiet, when OTHERS cause abuses, making them complicitous, and (2) the wildlife don’t like “responsible” mountain bikers any more than “irresponsible” mountain bikers.
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to humans (“pure habitat”). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8 years fighting auto dependence and road construction.) Maybe no one else is because you are blowing the topic WAY OUT OF PROPORTION! And the “others” know that biking in the outdoors is a speck on the environmental damage list. You make it sound like every bike sold in the US is ridden off-road and in protected habitat. When we all know that 80-85% of all “mountain” type bike are never ridden off road! No one talks about it due to the fact that all of your “FACTS” are conjecture, opinions, delusions and basic tripeOther people do talk about these things, eunuch.
Does the name Terry Horton ring a bell? In four short messages he elicited more support and mountain biker outrage over an incident in Austin than you have in seven years plus of conducting your personal vendetta here in the ng. Please take a couple of years off and go sit at his feet, like an acolyte at the feet of a guru, and perhaps you’ll learn how to really accomplish something and gather support from within the “enemy camp.” Until that time, you will remain the environmental eunuch. I can certainly appreciate your wanting to create habitats that are untouched or “contamenated” by humans, but it will never happen. You cannot stop progress or the future. You can beat your head against the wall all you want trying to stop roads and construction but the simple fact is that those who advocate progrss in this country out weigh you both in people and political clout. You cant get back the last eight years of your life, but why not enjoy the rest of it. Give up this quest go buy a mountain bike and enjoy what is left there to enjoy before the construction destroys it all.