T.H. Schee

奧地利越野摩托車大廠 KTM 的官方影像資料庫，有大圖 eps/tiff 可下載。三大廠隊(國際/西班牙/法國)的參賽或是車測 photos 也可尋得。看完後，準備好開始踏入山車的世界了嗎？:)

最近英國的這個越野摩托車的請願活動引起不少迴響。這個請願活動目前已取得成立於 1970 年的 The Trail Riders Fellowship 的支援。

延伸：王咪(wangmee)的越野摩托車照片站

Reasons to Ban Trailriding

I’ve listed below the reasons usually given for wanting to ban trailriding, whether nationally or on specific lanes. None of these reasons stand up to scrutiny and in each case I’ve given examples of arguments that can be used to counter those reasons. Further examples can be found in the FAQ.

Trailbikes damage the ground on which they ride.

Untrue. They can of course be made to damage the ground by irresponsible riding, in the same way that irresponsible ramblers leave litter. Somehow I can’t see the Ramblers Association being too impressed if there were calls to ban walking because some people leave litter behind.

Even if this claim were true, to use it as a reason to ban trailriding is yet further proof of the hypocrisy involved. You only need to visit any National Park to see the damage caused by walkers. The Brecon Beacons National Park are embarking on a £90,000 project to repair some of this damage. This will involve using 250 tonnes of stone, flown in using 300 helicopter airlifts (http://www.breconbeacons.org/pressrel/). £6 million to helicopter in stone for the Pennine Way in the Pen-y-Ghent area. £1 million to repair footpaths in the lake district. If our opponents are so worried about the damage they claim we cause, why aren’t they calling for a ban on walking in the Brecon Beacons, and other similarly scarred National Parks?

One of the most significant pieces of evidence to use when countering the damage claim is provided by the British Ecological Society. They made a study of Green Lanes in Cheshire in 2000/2001. Of the 46 lanes they studied, off-road motorcyling was considered a threat on only one, putting it on a par with cattle and garden refuse dumping as a “threatening process". Conversely, walkers and horseriders were the sole threat on three lanes, neglect on six lanes, and farm vehicles on eleven lanes.

The report concludes that off-road driving activities “do not appear to be a significant factor in green lane condition in the Cheshire lanes surveyed, with farming activities more likely to cause churning of the track. Recreational activities whether caused by vehicles, horse-riding or walking affected only 9% of the green lanes examined." Motorbikes only affected 2%.

Trailbikes are excessively noisy.

Untrue. Trailbikes fitted with the original road legal factory silencers are very quiet. I frequently get within 30 yards of walkers before they even know I’m there. Some people do fit louder, illegal silencers for whatever reason. These people are breaking the law, and are very much frowned upon by responsible trail riders and organisations such as the TRF. They are breaking the law, and it is up to the Police to enforce that law.

Trail riders are a hazard to horses.

Untrue. The vast majority of trail riders always stop and switch off their engines when they encounter horses. Of all the other groups of people we meet out on the trails, horse riders are generally the friendliest, and most likely to stop for a chat. Many trail riding clubs help out at horse cross country events, by marking the course and marshalling. See the “Assisting at horse events" section of the TRF website for further details.

There are undoubtedly some horse riders who would like to see motorcycle trail riding banned, but they are very few and far between. I have never had so much as a dirty look from a horse rider in over 30 years of trail riding; it’s a shame I can’t say the same about ramblers.

Trailbikes scare animals.

Maybe they do, but certainly not as much as people on foot do. Animals are used to vehicles in the country; farmers with tractors and quadbikes abound. People are the natural predator, not vehicles. Indeed one of the ‘hazards’ when trail riding in Wales is being mobbed by sheep who mistake you for the farmer.
Trail riders also tend to spend less time in any given place than other users, thus ensuring the duration of any disturbance to animals is reduced.

If motorcyclists want to ride off-road, there are plenty of dedicated areas for them to use.

This suggestion is so absurd, it’s laughable. There are some dedicated areas, mainly motocross practice tracks. Telling trail riders to use those is akin to banning horse riders from bridleways, and telling them to use Cheltenham race course during practice days. How about banning walking in the country, and telling ramblers to walk in circles around the track at their local athletics stadium? I’m sure that would go down very well.

Trail riding is NOT about trying to ride as fast as possible over rough ground. It’s about enjoying the countryside, spending time with friends, keeping fit, learning new skills, and generally just enjoying yourself. Sadly this government seem determined to outlaw anyone who gets any kind of enjoyment out of vehicles, thus making us a very politically incorrect group.

Vehicles should be banned to stop illegal use of Rights of Way.

Fly tipping and abandonment of burnt out cars are frequently given as the reason for applying a TRO (Traffic Restriction Order) to a particular lane to stop vehicles from using it. Another absurd piece of ‘reasoning’. If people are already using Green Lanes illegally, why on earth would anyone think introducing another law will stop them? It’s not unlike creating a new law banning people from walking on carpets which don’t belong to them, in the hope that it will stop burglary.

People who steal cars, drive them down Green Lanes, then set fire to them, are not going to stop doing so just because vehicles are banned from that lane. People who ride stolen motorbikes, or illegal motocross bikes on Green Lanes are not going to stop just because the trail has a TRO. The only people who will stop using those lanes are the ones who currently use them legally i.e. responsible trail riders and four wheel drivers.

In some cases, barriers can be erected to stop vehicles accessing a particular lane. This may stop the fly tippers and car thieves, at least until they break them down, but it’s hard to imagine how illegal motorcycle users could be physically barred without also blocking horse riders.

本來沒打算參觀書展，但還是去了一趟。只逛了國際區和政府出版品區。茫茫間無意相中六本意外的摩托好書，分別是五本法文繪本外加一本捷克的汽機車發展工業史料(別忘了 Brno 跑道)。大收穫哉。捷克文的那一本(非漫畫)實乃天降好禮，我和 Svět knihy 攤位的 Dana 詢問了一下後，她二話不說，大方相贈。這著實讓我高興了好一會。她目前是 bookworld.cz 的 managing director，本次來台似乎是準備為五月六日至九日的布拉格(Prague)當地國際書展做些宣傳。

以下開始為書目資料：Když začal vonět benzín aneb Obrázky z dějin motorizmu v Českých zemích od roku 1918, Jan Králík, nakladatelství MILPO, 144 stran A4, vázané Calagan – Rallye raid
Tome 1
Fane (Dessinateur)
Jean-Pierre Fontenay (Scénariste)
Patrice Perna (Scénariste)
Collection Humour
Format : 298 mn x 225 mn
48 pages
Paru en novembre 2000
ISBN : 2869678967
Hachette : 7389646
EAN : 9782869678965
Prix : 8.99 €

Joe Bar Team
Tome 1
Bar2
Collection Humour
Format : 297 mn x 225 mn
48 pages
Paru en mai 2003
ISBN : 2749300568
Hachette : 7340979
EAN : 9782749300566
Prix : 8.99 €

Joe Bar Team
Tome 2
Fane
Bar2
Collection Humour
Format : 297 mn x 225 mn
48 pages
Paru en mai 2003
ISBN : 2749300576
Hachette : 7340987
EAN : 9782749300573
Prix : 8.99 €

Joe Bar Team
Tome 3
Fane
Collection Humour
Format : 297 mn x 225 mn
48 pages
Paru en septembre 2003
ISBN : 2749300584
Hachette : 7340995
EAN : 9782749300580
Prix : 8.99 €

Joe Bar Team
Tome 4
Fane
Collection Humour
Format : 297 mn x 225 mn
48 pages
Paru en septembre 2003
ISBN : 2749300592
Hachette : 7341019
EAN : 9782749300597
Prix : 8.99 €

Joe Bar Team
L’Encyclopédie imbécile de la moto
Bidault
Bar2
Collection Humour
Format : 238 mn x 150 mn
192 pages
Paru en octobre 1998
ISBN : 2869677464
Hachette : 7361876
EAN : 9782869677463
Prix : 10.55 €

我不看漫畫的。但得知除了英國的 Ogri 外，還有人專走這條路線，這倒也新奇。眼尖的車友可能會注意到那一本《Calagan – Rallye raid》的故事腳本有達卡拉力賽老手 John-Pierre Fontenay 的痕跡。我稍微翻了一下所有的書，感覺這些漫畫很能「體現」法國人玩摩托車的調調。

延伸一：部分書籍的照片
延伸二：www.motorjournal.cz

活動簡章我使用 drupal 和 textile 快速「排版」了一下，請參考範例，有些欄位我刪除掉了。原報名簡章可以看 Motoways 上的轉貼文章。活動地點在牛耳石雕公園，我會去看一看(大概是騎自行車？)。

相當「經典」。中時讀者投書時論一篇，轉部分過來作見證。 2004.01.16 中國時報
創造無機車環境 減少傷亡
王國新/日本（醫學博士）

第二段部分：

第四段部分：

160公分，53公斤，31歲，日本東京人，本次達卡唯一抵達第九站終點的女性車手。達卡拉力賽第九站後，已經超過半數以上的職業或私人參賽的男性車手們陣亡退場。兩則後續新聞。From Gen Kenai:

Riding along was also a small woman with a great potential. Yuki Tanaka is the only woman on a motorbike who has made it so far. The 31-year-old Japanese woman participates for the first time at the Dakar rally. For the giant task she chose a KTM and also booked the support-package with the manufacturer from Mattighofen. If you watch Yuki, you can’t help but marvel about her. The woman is 1.60 meter tall, weighs 53 kg and just loves the challenge. For example, she took on the task to cross the desert on a KTM 660 Rally. “I like the desert and I love motorbikes," explains Yuki, who looks scarred and bruised from her crashes. “I suppose that has got to do with my job as a journalist for several motorcycle magazines."

田中頗活躍於日本的兩輪車雜誌界。去年舉辦的第二屆 Tour de Nippon 中，她得到總排名第三位的成績。

From Lundmark(編號006):

There are hard people, like my former colleague Göte Jonsson, shredder driver for Sveaskog timber. I have seen him bend a crowbar, OK? Then there are other tough persons, like the Japanese girl Yuki Tanaka, the only woman left in the race. She looks small and fragile, but this is just a front.

Yesterday we shared a tent and when she undressed to go to bed I saw that her arms and what I could see of her legs had a deep blue colour. Now, I don’t know what colour they usually are, but blue didn’t seem right, even if I don’t get to see lightly clad Japanese every day. I asked what bike she was riding and she answered a KTM 660 and I asked if she had crashed.

She answered: “Many, many, many times”, and then added with tears in her voice that she had missed a control point and was afraid to be disqualified. When I told her she would already have got a three hour penalty for it, she looked as if she’d won in the lottery. I was impressed by this tiny little power package, with the right will and attitude. And she must be able to ride as well, otherwise she wouldn’t have got this far, like the Swedish rider Maria Sandell who was the only female to finish here in 2002.

她的網站。田中在第九站錯過的CP2(control point 2)，因此在休兵三天後遭到大會決議，取消參賽資格。日本所有八位的參賽車手中，只剩下 Hotta(編號148，堀田修)仍在奮戰未完成的四千公里。今年的達卡拉力難度是在太高…

真女人。本次比賽另一位的 Patsy Quick(編號100)已經先行退賽。Dakar Rallye 舉辦二十六屆以來，尚未有女性摩托車主完賽。田中友紀若明後年再挑戰，很有機會成為史上第一，驚艷世人。誠心祝福田中。