Charging people for a dirt bike ride on a personal track.

[Nena Serrato]

My friend charges people to come ride on his dirt bike/track. Would you pay to do this? It's not an actual "business" but he makes pretty good money from it. I'm thinking about trying to make some money doing the same but am not sure if it's worth it. I think he's genius by the way.

 

[VaBusa]

Years ago, my ex husband and I took our sons to a dirt bike trail in NC and I'm pretty sure we paid to ride on it. The track was huge, well maintained, several miles long...takes a lot to keep something like that up, but we had to sign waivers so the owners of said property wasn't held liable should anyone get hurt.

I could see it being lucrative if you provide something worth going to...

 

[Houlie]

...and then he's legally liable for any injury.....where is this? I could use a nice settlement check, LOL

 

[KyleJ]

The local place we ride at here is $12/day. You pull up and there's a clipboard in a mailbox with a waiver. You sign the waiver, put $12 in the envelope and you're on your way. The guy lives near and when he hears bikes he'll cruise out, take the money, make sure you signed up and usually stick around a minute to talk to people/make sure everyone is riding safely. It's probably 5 miles in on gravel and dirt roads.

 

[VaBusa]

...and then he's legally liable for any injury.....where is this? I could use a nice settlement check, LOL

Not if you have riders fill out extensive waivers, stating they use your facility at their own risk.

I'll admit, here in America, with all of the sue-happy lawyers and people just looking for an excuse to make a buck, I wouldn't take accept any of the risk.

 

[nosbig]

I have never been to a track that I did not have to pay and sign a waiver.

 

[Superzuki]

You'd have to pay me to ride on a dirtbike..

 

[fallenarch]

You cannot "waiver" all liability. This is especially dangerous to an owner who runs an unsupervised riding area. Most tracks carry a liability policy in addition to getting participants to sign waivers. An owner can waiver accident resulting from rider error, or several rider's errors as this is "forseeable". However if you offer the track the rider has a right to expect it to be basically safe to ride. Tree falls on the track, deer gets past the fence or some other thing happens and you are going to court. Also the law suits can be filed even with a waiver. So you have to lawyer up even to get the case thrown out of court. This is a very touchy area. I was working with a client who wanted to do a car track and museum here locally and the legal issues were crazy. He even had to get insurance against being sued for noise! Not sure liability was the reason but he dropped the project.

 

[SKECHE]

what he said^^^^^^^^^

 

[VaBusa]

You cannot "waiver" all liability. This is especially dangerous to an owner who runs an unsupervised riding area. Most tracks carry a liability policy in addition to getting participants to sign waivers. An owner can waiver accident resulting from rider error, or several rider's errors as this is "forseeable". However if you offer the track the rider has a right to expect it to be basically safe to ride. Tree falls on the track, deer gets past the fence or some other thing happens and you are going to court. Also the law suits can be filed even with a waiver. So you have to lawyer up even to get the case thrown out of court. This is a very touchy area. I was working with a client who wanted to do a car track and museum here locally and the legal issues were crazy. He even had to get insurance against being sued for noise! Not sure liability was the reason but he dropped the project.

Exactly why *I* wouldn't take on the project, but I do know we signed a lengthy waiver at the track in NC and thankfully nothing went wrong for us...

It only takes one bad thing to ruin it though...some are willing to accept that risk, and some aren't. This guy has a track near Lake Gaston and as far as I know, it's been there for years and it's been a lucrative business venture for a long time. He has miles of tracks in both fields and in the woods, on high hillsides. Some of the track at the time was so intimidating, I wasn't willing to even venture near it. I'm not sure if he's still up and running, but I guess at the time, he'd been fortunate enough to never have anything horrible enough happen that cost him everything in a lawsuit.

 

[fallenarch]

Well the way to do it is to create a corporation and then sell the property to the corporation or possibly rent it to the corp if selling it is a tax issue. Basically you have to break the chain of custody between the track and your "personal" assets. This will generally isolate you from liability. The problem is it's difficult to do this with a business like that. For example, if you use your personal lawn mower on the track that could create a chain of custody. Most people are not savvy enough to keep these separate as it can get involved. On the other hand lots of people just wing it. Also I'm not a lawyer just sort of been through this with a client, so maybe there is some way to do it with manageable risk.

 

[Nena Serrato]

Yes he has them sign a waiver of similar sorts. He had it checked over by a lawyer friend and everything. And yes his little venture has been very lucrative. It's even gotten to where he's purchased a credit card machine and most people use that to pay. If I were to do it I'd triple check to make sure there were no possibilities of trees falling on the track or deer getting through the fence line. But I definitely wouldn't create a corporation or whatnot.

 

[jellyrug]

Exactly why *I* wouldn't take on the project, but I do know we signed a lengthy waiver at the track in NC and thankfully nothing went wrong for us...

It only takes one bad thing to ruin it though...some are willing to accept that risk, and some aren't. This guy has a track near Lake Gaston and as far as I know, it's been there for years and it's been a lucrative business venture for a long time. He has miles of tracks in both fields and in the woods, on high hillsides. Some of the track at the time was so intimidating, I wasn't willing to even venture near it. I'm not sure if he's still up and running, but I guess at the time, he'd been fortunate enough to never have anything horrible enough happen that cost him everything in a lawsuit.

Are you talking about the Outback, near Laurenburg/Maxton?

They changed owners about 3 years ago, but still in business. See linky below. I don't think he makes much money out of this, does it for the love of it. I work just around the corner from there, but planning to retire end July. Might just pack up and move to Utah, so I can ride dirt every day.

https://www.facebook.com/outback.park

 

[VaBusa]

Are you talking about the Outback, near Laurenburg/Maxton?

They changed owners about 3 years ago, but still in business. See linky below. I don't think he makes much money out of this, does it for the love of it. I work just around the corner from there, but planning to retire end July. Might just pack up and move to Utah, so I can ride dirt every day.

https://www.facebook.com/outback.park

Quick search here I see it's Lake Gaston Motocross (found it on FB too but it doesn't look active right now). I see posts a couple of years ago banning ATVs from the track and I do recall hating that they allowed ATVs on the same track as dirt bikes. Having my toddlers out there on their 50cc Hondas was hard enough for this Mom, but I remember seeing my youngest jump and he was so thrilled with what he'd just done, he didn't know any better and he stopped right after that jump to look at Mom and Dad. An ATV jumped right after him and nearly landed on top of him and that scared the crap out of me, so we had a long talk about the rules and where it's safe to stop (rules for a 4 year old are fun)...it was a great day, but I do recall being a bundle of nerves.

Here's a thread about it; damn I've been on the oRg a long time

My boys were 4 & 6 at the time; they're 12 and 14 now, and still ride dirt bikes...

https://www.hayabusa.org/forum/random-thoughts/55497-my-sons-take-track.html

 

[Judy Reese]

Yes he has them sign a waiver of similar sorts. He had it checked over by a lawyer friend and everything. And yes his little venture has been very lucrative. It's even gotten to where he's purchased a credit card machine and most people use that to pay. If I were to do it I'd triple check to make sure there were no possibilities of trees falling on the track or deer getting through the fence line. But I definitely wouldn't create a corporation or whatnot.

Hi, yes, signing a waiver is better but it does not save someone from any risk after all. Anyway, likewise, I don't think , I will give in to that kind of business

 

[nosbig]

Honestly I really don't see the difference in having to pay to ride on a nice MX track, and having to pay to ride on a GP track.

 

[GNBRETT]

a waiver of liability is like a pre-nuptial. ANYTHING can be argued in court.

 

[Blrry]

Since there is almost no public land in Texas, if you want to ride off road on a dirtbike and you're not a wealthy rancher/oil magnate, you sometimes have to pay to go to these sites. Especially for a motocross track. DirtBikeClub of San Antonio is one of these places.

I don't know if they make a ton of money doing it (they might) but I'd like to think they also do it for love of the sport.