I may be the only guy in the world that will acknowledge that he watched Jackie Chan’s movie years ago “Rumble in the Bronx”, but I do remember that the movie seemed to have a number of dirt bikes in it and I also remember thinking that dirt bikes in New York City didn’t seem to be that authentic.
I was wrong.
According to a report out last week in the New York Post, the NYPD has seized hundreds of illegal off-road bikes and quads in the city and will be having a televised “crush in” of them all at some point this Spring.
I gotta tell you – the “Clue-o-meter” is reading zero on this one. Why on earth have a dirt bike in the Big Apple? Where in the world do you keep it? I wouldn’t leave a cup of coffee on the street in New York, much less a motorcycle of any vintage, and yet there are actually safe places to squirrel away a bike or a quad?
By embracing the power of Google, I was able to determine that apparently, these illegal bikes have a nearly cult-like following in New York and actually are channeling some of their inner “Rumble in the Bronx” gangster-wannabees by being employed to do all manner of illicit activities and speed off into the city. Aside from the purse-snatching and smash-and-grab stuff, the real problem is that the riders get in traffic and start hot-dogging and trying to stunt ride and that just makes matters worse.
The really bad part of this is that the NYPD is going to crush the stuff. Down where I live in the southern U.S., we’d happily pay for some discounted off-road bikes, and all my back-country friends would love a cheaper quad to go in the woods. I’m still not clear on how all this off-road stuff got into New York in the first place and what you are supposed to do with them in New York. My recollection of NYC is that there is too much traffic already and no amount of enjoyment has ever been had by sitting on an air-cooled bike in a traffic jam.
Maybe that’s what turned these drivers to a life of crime?
It could be me, but a review of the pictures of the illegal bikes that were seized showed a lot of street bikes that very well may no longer be legal, but sure did look pretty good. That’s a shame, since there are plenty of riders in the rest of the world that know how to ride them and would enjoy.