The future of trail riding Is it electric?
Many complaints made against trail riders centre around the noise issue – one thing that the latest generation of electrical machinery has very little of. So could an electric trail bike be the answer? And electricity also opens up another option too, albeit one that needs a little more effort than genuine motorcycles require…
Rights of way
But firstly, we need to establish exactly where we can ride. And the initial point is that you must be road legal. Buying a motocrosser to ride ‘off-road’ only gives you the option to ride at motocross tracks and off-road centres. If you want to ride on trails and green lanes then your bike must be road legal, and must have insurance and tax.
What differentiates a green lane from a footpath? A Byway Open To All Traffic (BOAT) is cannot be used by motor vehicles of any form (including cycles, you’re not even legally allowed to push a cycle on a footpath!) or horses, while a can be used by pedestrians, cyclists and, as the name suggests, horses.
