ABATE Welcomes a New Addition to the Family

We have some exciting news here at ABATE... We've got D.I.R.T.!!! What’s that? D.I.R.T. is the acronym for Discover Indiana Riding Trails. D.I.R.T. was founded 15 years ago by some passionate off road riders. We would list some of the founder’s names here, but we're afraid we would leave someone off and you probably wouldn’t know them anyhow. Just know the people who started D.I.R.T. really had to get their shoulder behind it and pushed for a very long time to see results.

D.I.R.T.s original plan was to get some off road riding for off road vehicles, OHV, in Indiana. See in the 1970’s the state, in a broad stroke, shut down all OHV’s from state owned land and in that same time period, the Hoosier National Forest was also closed to us. Yes, we organized and fought back then, but we lost and off road riding has been tough in Indiana ever since.

We may have been down, but not out. Off road riding and racing has flourished since the beginning of time. Indiana has produced many champions in all types of off road racing and hundreds of families spend their weekends racing and riding around our state. They just do it on private property.

So, D.I.R.T. was founded and picked up the fight for access to state land again. Over time they have had many and great successes. Many miles of secondary and abandoned roads have been opened for OHV travel. Also over 5,000 acres of state land have been opened for OHVs! Two large riding areas have been opened, Red Bird near Linton, Indiana and Interlake near Evansville Indiana. All this was possible through the hard work of the people behind D.I.R.T.

Now here is the news… D.I.R.T. and ABATE have joined together. We are all bikers and we are all fighting for our rights. ABATE gains over 500 D.I.R.T. members and D.I.R.T. gains about 30,000 ABATE members.

ABATE has been soliciting off road riders to join for several years now. ABATE knows we need to keep growing membership to keep our voices heard, strength in numbers.

Now don’t worry, ABATE is not going all off road and D.I.R.T. will not be lost. The same people, who are running both organizations will still be at the wheel, ABATE fighting for your rights on the street and D.I.R.T. fighting for your rights in the dirt.

Everyone we have spoken to feel this is a good merger, of course there will be growing pains and problems, but knowing the people involved, all this can be overcome because we are ultimately fighting for a common goal, freedom.

For most of you, the only real change will be on your ABATE renewal form, there will be a box to check if you own an OHV. Many of you already are OHV fans, we know many people who have street bikes and ATVs in the garage. We also know that more of you would add an OHV to your toys if you had more places to ride. This merger is a step in that direction.

As always we want to hear your feelings and ideas, good or bad, please let us know what you think. Contact by email or call 800-23-ABATE with your thoughts.

So, now all of Indiana is covered by ABATE, not just the roads any more, now we have the dirt too.