Response to new noise policy: I have been a regular visitor to Moab for over 25 years. Back then, motorcyclists had to compete with the usual Jeep 4×4 groups and occasional dirt bike riders. Crowds were manageable, campsites plentiful, and restaurants uncrowded. Sound didn’t seem to be an issue then, except for the occasional blown custom rock crawler.
Fast forward to 2020 and enter the explosion of SxS groups. They seem to be everywhere and have become a dominant demographic not only in Moab but in the Mountain West. SxS are not my thing, I am into riding adventure motorcycles like the large KTMs and BMW GS-type bikes so it would be hypocritical of me to say the SxS groups should be limited or singled out since I use many of the same roads they do. But I can say, with no sense of irony, that I have witnessed several modified SxS in town that have very loud modified exhausts cruising the residential streets on their way to or from the Sand Flats area. Given the incredible number of SxS that have populated the area I am sure there are more than a few with those loud exhausts.
Unlike the SxS, adventure motorcycle riders are NOT going back and forth between the recreational areas and town but are, for the most part, just traveling through town, spending 90% of our time in the remote backcountry regions of Canyonlands and remote Utah.
A very popular multi-day route used by our groups is the Utah Backcountry Discovery Route which starts at the southern border of Utah and ends in Idaho. That route is traveled by hundreds of riders every year. The route goes right through Moab. Based on the city’s new policy, our riders, many visiting from other countries, will be pulled over on Main Street and accosted by un-trained, un-informed, and ill-equipped enforcement officers with the right to confiscate their vehicles and imprison riders for up to 60 days. I can only imagine what the Harley Davison groups are thinking. Most likely: stay away from Moab!
Brent Smith
Park City, Utah
