To report to the police or not...
 

Hypothetically speaking, if you were to see two kids (8 or 9 yrs old) riding around your neighborhood on a dirt bike and an ATV, wearing the gear but unsupervised and in excess of 25 mph, AND you've already mentioned it to the parents to no avail would you report it?

I know that, hypothetically it would paint you as a curmudgeon perhaps even an un-neighborly person but isn't the kids' safety worth it? Even though yours is a relatively quiet neighborhood traffic is increasing of late.

Do you let it go and hope for the best, or do you intervene thinking you know better?

Hypothetically of course.

Let it go..

Congratulate them on being the rare parents who allow their kids to do unsupervised outdoor activities?

Is it the kids riding unsupervised that upsets you it are they causing a ruckus? If they’re causing a ruckus, maybe with the congratulations you tell them you don’t mind them doing xxx as long as they don’t do yyy. They may be more responsive if you make it clear you’re not trying to ban them entirely and you’re just asking for reasonable restrictions.

^^^^ Yep (to Byron). You did your part by letting the parents know.... and now it's obvious they already knew.

.....so sleep well ;)

Nah, the machines are quiet but it's a small neighborhood with narrow streets and the kids are not old enough to know they can get seriously injured. If they were riding around in a nearby field I wouldn't care at all. I did try so yeah I'm leaning towards minding my own business.

If they were just endangering themselves I woulds consider it none of my biddness, don't want to be the self-appointed neighborhood cop.

But if they were negatively affecting my property or infringing on my rights by breaking the law, I would stake steps to stop it.
For example: if their recklessness directly endangered me or my family, or directly threatened to damage my property, I would make the call at the very least. Maybe more.

If they were making way too much noise with loud and illegal exhaust and it significant infringed on my reasonable expectation to peace and quiet in my home, I'd call it in.

otherwise, .... naw.

That's tough. At 8 and 9 I don't think they are old enough to "get it" about being safe or not. But, you can't be everyone's parent.

Honestly, I think both options are OK. Which one will help you sleep better? Personally, I'd probably leave it.

Are they wearing helmets?

let them enjoy their childhoods.

8 - 9 or 12-13? 8 year old is pretty young. I would not unless you really think there is a good chance of them being taken out by a car, you are seeing the whole picture. At least they have an outdoor activity they enjoy. Or as MRM has mentioned.

We have the same problem with dirt bikes/4 wheelers, but we are out in the countryside where it is more acceptable...what isn't acceptable is listening to 4 or 5 of them crashing around in the fields, and on the road until midnight sometimes. I have refrained from reporting them, but some day, it will be too much.

One kid spent a whole week learning how to ride fast in front of our house with out a helmet/gear/lights, or any supervision. I would venture a guess that he screamed by about 50 times a day, missing gears/stopping/accelerating hard, this drove my dogs (and me) nuts.

Yes and proper boots too. They really are driving way too fast, heck I don't do more than 15 when I pull into the neighborhood. But they're not my kids, they are a danger to themselves mostly. I may try the parents once more and make sure I don't come off as self righteous. After that I'm out.

thanks guys.

Pour a couple quarts of oil near the turns:rolleyes:. Problem solved. Just make sure you cover your face due to cameras all around.:D

No.

I wonder if I got reported for doing that - my Kawasaki dirt bike was NOT quiet - I pulled the innards out of the muffler.

I got some REAL dirty looks from adults near the dirt hummocks I went way too fast on...

I actually have the same situation in my neighborhood right now, as we speak. It's gone on for about the last fifteen years and, believe it or not, it's been the same family. Their oldest are out of college and out of the house now, but their youngest are 10-12 years old. They are riding the same machines their older siblings learned to ride.

They are fearless. They haul ass on those things. We are a very tightly knit dead end neighborhood. The only traffic here is neighbors and guests. Everyone knows they could be out there, along with all kinds of other neighbor kids on their bicycles, shooting hoops, kicking a soccer ball, or whatever. It's all completely unsupervised, unorganized mayhem - perfect, just like my childhood. Yes, some of them get hurt every now and then. There has even been a broken bone or several over the years. That's how they learn...

I can't say enough about their parents. They have instilled in them a respect for other's properties, along with a respect for other's peace and quiet in the mornings and evenings. All of their machines have adequate mufflers on them. Granted, even at that any single cylinder dirt bike or quad is going to make some noise - it's unavoidable. But they are aware of that and ride appropriately.

I know every situation is different. I know I'm lucky in that my neighbor is a great guy and shows respect for the rest of us. Unfortunately, where kids and dirt bikes are concerned, that appears to rarely be the case. So, if they are respecting your property, respecting your right to some peace and quiet in the mornings and evenings, I would just let it go. If they hurt themselves they hurt themselves. It's all a part of it.

When ya get that 686....shoot their tires :D

Unless your name is Karen..

I ride wheelies on my R1100S in my neighborhood. Most of the neighbors just wave and smile, thinking that old guy is gonna hurt himself..

Glad you live in New Jersey Tom. :)

I'd probably let it go.

Presumably, you're smarter, more experienced, and more aware than an 8 year old (who are generally pretty clueless and have somewhat limited life experience)

When I was a kid, my parents had a cabin in the mountains, about 7K feet elevation. I brought my older sister's little peddle car up there, and my little sister and I used to ride it down the mountain on the old paved road, going probably around 20 mph on a toy that was designed to go obviously much slower than that. No brakes either.

One of the old men, our neighbor down the mountain, saw us. He came out with a can of WD-40 to lubricate the ball bearings to help us "Go like Gangbusters !!!" He would laugh and wave as we flew by, going closer to 30 mph. We rode the rubber off of the tires all summer long. Great memories. Loved that old geezer for being so friendly and he obviously enjoyed our laughter.

My brother and I would run our first go kart up and down the alley behind the house in Santa Monica. Old West Bend washing machine engine, two stroke of course, we didn't know about expansion chambers at that point, so the muffler consisted of a straight piece of plumbing pipe @0.5" in diameter.
The old guy that lived on the next street over that shared the alley came out one day and asked if we could put a silencer on it (with a very heavy Brit accent I might add). No helmets and we were probably doing about 35mph max, down hill.

In our neighborhood, I'd have to call the cops. We regularly have people come down our street at 40+ miles per hour and unless you live on the street you'd never guess that.

I always look at the kids doing the riding, and if I know their parents. Some kid have it, some kids don't. If they are being safe, in relative terms, off my land I let it go.

In fact, I've never called the police. I have run up the beach and flat wore out a twelve-year old that ran my seawall on his MC, easy 60mph, without asking me.

Called his Dad: I'm coming up to wear out your son.

"What'd he do?"

After I told him, like every great father ever, said, "I'll help."

That kid, btw, races motorcycles now and he and his father and I remain great friends. All he needed to do was ask.

Changing gears: My friends and I laugh about our “child abuse” all the time.

Our kids learned how to ride Sea Doos, ATVs, shoot, get towed behind the truck when it snowed, weld, mow the lawn, ride horses, etc. at very young ages.

When they could handle it, they got to do it.

This:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1596231457.jpg

Becomes this:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1596231693.jpg

And my daughter runs them both better than we do.

Hey, give the parents huge credit for the kids having gear on. Let it go.

I think I'd talk to the kids themselves and ask them to keep the speed down, especially if they do stupid crap like run the stop signs, which was common with the kids in my old neighborhood. When I was a kid, we rods on dirt, never on paved streets with cars. Dirt is fine, city streets not so much.

Kids today are wrapped in too much cotton wool, the stuff I used to get up to with my friends when I was a kid......

Every time I see the the scar on my knee I'm taken back to when I was about 12 and my Steve Austin $6 million man impression went badly wrong, hurt like hell at the time but thinking about it now makes me smile every time

If they have the right safety gear on and not causing a nuisance I'd let them enjoy themselves and seeing how much fun they were having would give me a lot of enjoyment so I'd let it go

You can always stop them and give them a few road safety tips but in a polite, fun way so they think you are a cool old dude

Let them enjoy their freedom, hopefully they get to have there own Steve Austin moment, it won't be funny when it happens but as long as they don't do any serious damage to themselves the experience will give them a cool memory for a lifetime

We used to have to either ride 6 miles on the interstate, or cut through Old Mr Walts x mas tree farm to get to this one really killer riding spot .
Im not sure if Mr Walt was trying to hit us or not, but he would hear us coming and hide, then jump out, and fire off his shot gun. Another group of kids, said they got pelted with rock salt . No one in the group that I rode with ever did .
Maybe you could try that ?

People sometimes go that fast here, not often but sometimes. Plus there are dips in the street deep enough to hide kids on the other side of them

I'm nowhere near that invested. As I said they're not a nuisance. I'm gonna let it be.

Ill send a couple guys in a black Caddy to have a talk with them.

:D



.

Great thread...
We used to run up and down the alleys on an old Tote Goat that my dad had built. Lots of fun. Few spills. No one got badly hurt.
There is a young fella that runs behind the house on a little Honda 50. Annoying but no more annoying than I was as a kid....

In Houston, a nosy neighbor called CPS to report unsupervised 8 year old in a cul-de-sac.

When my dad was 8 years old, my grand-pa hitched the horses to a plow for him.

I think this looks like a hoot.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aw-59o7RUlo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Had a similar situation in my court but with a 5 year old driving an electric ATV with her 2 year old brother in front of her. Their mother was in her house with her infant. The kids were zipping around the court with several steeply pitched driveways coming up to and down to the court. Trucks and SUVs coming up the pitched driveways cannot see the pavement in front of them until they go beyond the crest. So as the unsupervised kids are zipping around an Audi SUV comes up from one of the lower drives but the kids just zipped by a few seconds before. She drives on not knowing that if she would have been a bit quicker she would have been on top of them without knowing it.

I saw the whole thing. Of course the kids were oblivious and kept tooling around. So the question is, because they are young and clueless, like their mother, of the potential danger, do I talk to her or just let it go. If I let it go and they do get hurt or killed next time without talking to their mother it would bother me.

So I talked to the neighbor in the Audi, about it and she said she heard the ATV and was careful. She also didn’t feel the need to talk to the parents. Since she was the one most involved, rather than the nosy curmudgeon up the hill, I let it go as well.

The parents are in their 30s and are good solid people and good neighbors.

This story is a bit different than older kids with helmets and a bit better judgement.

So would you let it go too hoping that the odds are slim of an accident?

Today, he will be sued to oblivion if the kids crashed due to the additional speed

I was lucky...lived in the country and rode the hell out of my motorcycle from the time I was ten. I got hurt but that was ok...part of growing up. I would also disappear with the .22 for hours hunting and exploring.
I took the same approach when my girly were young. I explained the rules, showed them the correct way to do something and told them the dangers. My youngest loved to climb trees. Once we had a cookout and there was one “ helicopter mom” there. I hear my daughter call out and we turn around to see her about 30’ up a rhododendron (possibly the safest thing to climb). I laughed and told her to be careful but old whirlybird bird mom freaks out. This lady is a nervous reck and starts chastising us for allowing our kids to climb trees. I laugh and told he she needs to lighten up, kids need to be kids.
This is the same mom that would not let he kid on a trampoline for fear of a bone break..no sheet!

The world is a tough place...kids need guidance but freedoms to experience the ups and downs of your actions. We are in a time now where a couple of generations have raised too many snowflakes that a looking for the easy ride and are now pissed that things are not as easy as they want.

unless they are tearing up the place,
causing damage or have an ab-noxious exhaust.

If what they are doing, would not warrant a call to the cops had they been older.. Then let it go.. you told the parents, it's their call

I tend not to comment in threads like this but here goes...

You told the parents and they think it's OK so you did what you could and it's no longer your responsibility.
However if the kids are riding dirt bikes on a public road then they are breaking the law.

Honestly, I don't know what I would do if I was in your situation.

Flattbutt is a good friend of mine. He knows I am just razzing him. He pulled some shenanigans when visiting here for some sport riding where I had to stop him and tell him to slow his ass down. LOL I am not so sure about me being smarter than an 8 year old though, based on some of the stunts I still do. :)