Thoughts On Dirt Bike Rallies

Two Wheels Good, Four Wheels Bad

More and more this year, especially as colder weather didn't arrive and people started putting their money in outdoor fun, I'd find myself surrounded by dirt bikes, ATVs and 3-wheelers in urban environments. To the point of several times per week, which is to say, enough to not get too freaked out about, but more than enough to notice.

I get why people do it. It looks like fun, there's safety in numbers, it must seem empowering as hell, and running a dirt bike is truly cheap on gas. I also can't imagine that there's a lot of expense in upkeep or, well, insurance. Assuming you have the ability to hide that thing when it's not in use, you're probably loving it. Especially if you are the kind of person who just needs to share your music with several zip codes at once. Such a positive force in the community, you are!

It's just, well, not particularly pleasant to be around for people who aren't on the bikes. Loud noises are increasingly likely to provoke a startle reflex, your passenger is likely to get nervous and/or make a not particularly helpful comment about the people doing the activity, and you get very paranoid about any possibility of a lane change. And, well, ride share driving is driving that requires more lane changes than any other kind of driving, honestly.

Couple this with the rally's inherent likelihood of disregarding traffic lights and rules under the enlightened guise of Who Is Going To Stop Us, and the seemingly inevitable rise in fatalities and injuries, and well...

It can't be great for the property values, is all I'm saying. 

It's also not real great for the community or rideshare passengers, because Dear Passenger and Reader...

When I see that stuff, I go to Last Ride Mode and get the hell out of there. No matter what kind of demand is going on. The hustle isn't bringing in enough for that level of stress, and I'm not doing this because I love high risk behavior as part of my grind.

Left for the reader as an intellectual exercise... is there any real difference between dirt bikes and guns? Because I'm not seeing it. Both endanger the public for the life choices of the individual, both serve a limited but highly dubious purpose, both are Fun Toys for people who should probably not be investing so much in Fun Toys, and both show that the user cares more (only?) about their lives, not the lives of people around them.

You'll also never be able to convince those that have them that they are a bad idea, so maybe go after the people that make them, whoopsie doodle, individual Constitutional rights, and race to the bottom as people make choices for them and them alone. (They also both come with a Not All tiresome subset of people who seem to think that the actions of a few Bad Actors are no reason to Slippery Slope and yeah, I'm too tired to finish the bad faith argument that basically resolves to I Wanna And You Can't Stop Me.)

Oh, and when Dirt Bike Rider is also packing heat, or Regular Driver shows theirs to Dirt Bike Rider as part of demographic tensions? That's when the end of civilized society is even more apparent, yes?