In MA, allegedly if you register your quad you can ride a few yards or so down the side of the road from trail to trail. However, 98% of the land myself and my friends grwoing up were riding on was all private, either owned by us or our neighbors, we had permission....so why give the state money for something they have nothing to do with??? Anyways, I don't register! They jsut know who you are more easily!
I've been chased many times, gotten away every time I ran. I've been caught with no chance to run a few times, and every time I've been caught I've just been told to push it home....which lasted for about 5 minutes until they were gone, at which point I just started it back up and continued! BAck before I had my license I used to ride miles around town in the summer on the roads and pick up chicks and double or triple ride them around! Never got caught doing that!! I was pretty smart about it though and kept away from populated areas. Whenever it snows, we ride all over town on the roads, even go a few towns away!! Every now and then we cut onto the highway and once I was riding on the highway behind my friends cherokee, me on my 96 kdx200, and he was doing 95 and I was right on his ass! So that's how I know the kdx did 95 at least!
My brother got caught one time because he came out onto a trail near the gas station and he and my friend he was with whipped their quads sideways on some grass, and a cop saw it all, and they got the quads impounded and they had to pay over 100 bux to get them back! Even though it's risky, we still ride right up to the gas station and fill up from time to time. We even park behind the chinese place and (now that we're 21) get drinks!! BAck in the day we used to go in and get food covered in mud. They probably hated us!
The one time I got a real legit ticket I was just putting down the side of my own road, as cops had told me to do in the past, but this cop that hates me saw me and just wrote me a ticket for "unregistered motor vehicle" on the road. It was like 50 bux I think but it did go on my automobile insurance and my drivers record which I think is BS but I was young then and didn't fight it...I would now.
A crazy friend of mine who now makes a living doing bike stunts was beaten and arrested once for evading the police. He was on the road not far from his house, and all the cops know him very well becasue he's a crazy rider, and he whipped the banshee around on the dry road, with a car coming the other way. Well, that car happened to have a state cop in it, off duty, but he radioed into the town cops. He thought my friend was too close to him when he whipped the quad around...bit it was a banshee...it's damn fast, the guy wasn't going to hit him. Well, the cops came to his house, where a few of us were hanging out, they ruffed him up and arrested him. This is the same kid who rode the banshee, when it was brand new, to school, somewhere between a 3 and 4 mile ride, told the vp (dean of discipline they called him) that it was street legal and he was waiting for the plates in the mail, parked it in the parking lot and at the end of the day when most everyone had cleared out of the parking lot roasted the stock tires off infront of the dean of discipline and then rode home. He wasn't allowed to drive to school for a month after that, but not cop involvement. I could go on and on about this kid...he's lost his license so many times it's hilarioius! Best driver/rider I know though.
You gotta know what you can and can't get away with, and I agree, it's not illegal until you're caught. If I'm crossing the road or going from trail to trail and a cop sees me, I'm not going to stop and talk to him...I'm gone. If you're between properties that you have permission to ride on, what are they gonna say??
