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Hi all,
With any luck, we've got a few officers of the law out here that can set me straight on this:
A lot of you are probably aware that the Forest Service is going through a travel management process of identifying the back country roads in their forests and indicating the type of vehicles that can operate on specific roads.
The general classifications are:
1. Roads requiring street legal vehicles
2. Roads limited to OHV (off highway vehicle) use only
3. Roads that are Combined-Use for street legal AND OHV;s
4. Roads that are limited to vehicles less that 50 inches wide (quads and moto)
5. Roads that are limited to motorcycles only.
As far as I can make out, our TW's, being street legal, appear to be able to travel on all 5 classes of roads with no restrictions (unless the road is marked "closed"). That's great news, right?
So my specific question is this: If someone is riding "off-road" on a forest service road, on a bike that is legally registered and allowed to be there, can the rider be cited for driving without a license if they don't have a motorcycle license?
This hasn't happened to me because I've been keeping my 15 year old on the OHV and Combined-Use trails for now, but it would open up hundreds of miles of local riding opportunity for us if he could ride on ALL these forest service roads.
It looks like a gray area to me, so any input on this is appreciated.
Thanks,
Rory
With any luck, we've got a few officers of the law out here that can set me straight on this:
A lot of you are probably aware that the Forest Service is going through a travel management process of identifying the back country roads in their forests and indicating the type of vehicles that can operate on specific roads.
The general classifications are:
1. Roads requiring street legal vehicles
2. Roads limited to OHV (off highway vehicle) use only
3. Roads that are Combined-Use for street legal AND OHV;s
4. Roads that are limited to vehicles less that 50 inches wide (quads and moto)
5. Roads that are limited to motorcycles only.
As far as I can make out, our TW's, being street legal, appear to be able to travel on all 5 classes of roads with no restrictions (unless the road is marked "closed"). That's great news, right?
So my specific question is this: If someone is riding "off-road" on a forest service road, on a bike that is legally registered and allowed to be there, can the rider be cited for driving without a license if they don't have a motorcycle license?
This hasn't happened to me because I've been keeping my 15 year old on the OHV and Combined-Use trails for now, but it would open up hundreds of miles of local riding opportunity for us if he could ride on ALL these forest service roads.
It looks like a gray area to me, so any input on this is appreciated.
Thanks,
Rory