Trail Bike Adventure Magazine

Bollocks. January 18

Sunday, 17 January 2010 16:11

I’ve written before that I reckon this is bad for the sport, but there's little or nothing we can do about it. We’re such a tiny minority we get kicked around, yapping at the ankles of public opinion like an excited Chihuahua at a dinner party. “Look at us!” we yip, hoping for attention, “We can be good! Notice how we’re doing our bit for The Environment!” Then we assume the position and allow ourselves to be neutered so we’ll make better pets.

I know there’ll be plenty of environmental campaigners who won’t read any further, and they’ll already be composing their poisonous e-mails. Go ahead. It’s your narrow-minded views and Big Brother attitude that are bringing on this ridiculous state of affairs.

Hallellujah! We’re saved! The tiniest factions of a tiny sport are being bought to heel!

It’s not so much that the volume levels will be reduced again that makes me angry, it’s that we’re all going to be inconvenienced and cop the expense so we can be seen to be doing good, while I don’t believe it’ll actually accomplish anything as far as saving Muvver Erf goes.

MA is to follow the lead of the FIM, whose press release it quotes. There’s no mention in the FIM’s release of any real benefit to the world. The benefit, says the release, is in how we dirt bike riders are perceived. The FIM says: “The new method will be much more evident for our fellow citizens and for the fight against excessive noise.”

So our fellow citizens are actually going to show up to these races? They’re going to note the noise testing, are they? They’re going be impressed at how we’re doing our best to reduce the dreadful and appalling damage done to the environment by reducing the volume of a few hundred competition dirt bikes?

I doubt it.

The FIM then goes on to say: “The noise levels permitted will be an important first step in the reduction of sound levels, with an average reduction between 3 and 6dB/A, compared to the current situation, depending on the discipline.”

Of course, the important stuff has been covered. There’s a name for marketing the process (Ride Quiet) and a campaign has been planned. So that's all good then.

The thing really makes me angry about all this is that we’ll just have to comply. We don’t have a choice because we’re the easiest of easy targets. Never mind the expense to the taxpayer of the nonsensical Copenhagen circle jerk – or any of the tax-payer funded government jaunts – or that most bikes riding around Australian roads would fail to meet these restrictions, or that these races are run on either established tracks or through largely uninhabited forest and bushland. Nope. What’s important is that we’re SEEN to be doing our best for The Environment (not that we’re ACTUALLY doing our best for the environment).

The saddest part of the whole thing for me is that the FIM recognizes I’m right. These new restrictions aren’t to achieve a better result for the world in which we live. The restrictions are necessary because if we aren’t seen to be doing something, our sport will be eradicated. They even say so. The press release says bluntly: “This is important for the survival of all FIM off-road disciplines. The FIM had to react effectively. 2010 will constitute a first step in the fight against noise nuisances and the results will define the future actions.”

It doesn’t look like I’ll be doing much racing in 2010 anyway, but I’ll be out on the DR, hopefully with a whole batch of other adventure riders. I’ll bet right here and now that of all the registered bikes I ride with this year, less than one percent will meet the planned FIM noise restriction, so 99 percent would be judged to be detrimental to the environment if ridden on a designated race course by the international governing body of our sport.

All the bikes will be registered, of course, and there’ll be heaps more of them, and they’ll be ridden on public roads, through state forests and built-up areas, so our state governments will be happy enough with them. It’s only the ones who are nurturing our sport who have a problem, and they're going to crack down on several hundred competitors.

It’s pitiful.

Anyway, I been gazing in rapt atention at SBS's excellent highlight package of this year's Dakar. I'm hugely grateful for the excellent coverage on free-to-air, and, as always, in awe of the competitors. Big ups to Cyril Despres. That guy is a giant among giants.

Finally, a huge and somewhat heart-wrenching shout-out to my son, who phoned an hour ago with a broken arm. I'm sitting here waiting for more news, but when he phoned he was waiting for the ambulance and the arm was "at 90 degrees". That kid has had so many shitty injuries, and it makes me angry that it's happened to him again. I guess it'll make good reading in Dirt Action, but right now I'm feeling very sad on his behalf. Once again he was looking set for a really great year, and once again he's had it snatched away.

The only smile I've had from the whole thing came from his wife. My son felt he was about to pass out and gave the phone to his wife. I asked for her for some details so I could try for a clearer picture of the injuries. She said, "It's his wrist. It's all floppy and gross." It may not be a medically concise description, but it told me a very great deal.

TF