Trekkie Dad <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<
[email protected]>...
> In article <
[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Terri
> Alvillar) wrote:
>
> > Trekkie Dad <
[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:<
[email protected]>...
> > > Terri, your blatant bias is showing again.
> >
> >
> > Bias is an opinion formed without examining the facts. My statements about mountain biking are
> > based on facts. Watching the illegal Tamarancho trail builders trespass on private property
> > every week for several years is a fact. My neighbor being attacked with a hammer by a mountain
> > biker working on an illegal trail, and her resulting black eye, are facts. Marin County Bicycle
> > Coalition co-founder Chris Lang being convicted of ramming his pickup truck through my steel
> > driveway gate in a rage is a fact. The scars on Marin County hillsides from mountain bike use,
> > and the cost to taxpayers to repair them, are facts. The conviction of Michael More for illegal
> > building mountain bike trails on federal land while serving on a government board, is a fact.
> > The convictions of Neal Daskal and James McBride for helping More build the illegal trails are
> > facts. Shall I go on? Terri Alvillar
>
> Be my guest. I can certainly see how the actions of a handful of individuals have caused you to
> paint all those who engage in off-road bicycling with the same broad brush. Using the same
> Alvillar brand of Vandelogic(TM), I could declare all public school students incorrigible thieves
> simply because one or two of them has stolen candy out of a jar in my classroom. It's a fact!
Unfortunately it is not a "handful" of individuals; it is the majority. Further, it's the leaders of
mountain bike groups who have often been the most reprehensible as listed above. (The same above
referenced mountain biker with a hammer, a prominent realtor in Fairfax, made a police report that
his mountain bike had been stolen. The next day he was ticketed for riding the very bike he reported
stolen on an off-limits trail). They set the standard and have willing work crews with ready trail
building tools. It is the same leaders who pretend to be civic minded at public meetings then go out
building illegal trails when they leave. For example, Patrick Seidler, president of Wilderness Trail
Bikes who has sat on a couple of Marin County bike committees helped sponsor a mountain bike video
that featured illegal riding on County land, including a clip from the illegally built Medivac trail
in Novato which costs thousands of dollars to taxpayers - even mocking the Novato police. Doing
stunts on the California state building at night and urinating on a car in a public parking lot. No
- these are the leaders and unfortunately they set the standard. It is really a handful of mountain
bikers who have any respect whatsoever for the laws and other trail users. For six years, I yielded
to mountain bikers on the trail. Then I decided for the next six years I would exercise my right of
way. Result? Bikers swearing, threatening violence, hitting my dog, and hitting me. In the first two
years only ONE mountain biker yielded me the right of way. Mountain bikers have painted themselves
with their own brush.
Terri Alvillar
http://homepage.mac.com/terrialvillar/mountainbikedamage/PhotoAlbum11.html
