Ontario Dual Sport Club / OFTR - beware of what is offered as member benefits. | GTAMotorcycle.com

Ontario Dual Sport Club / OFTR - beware of what is offered as member benefits.

Motorcycle Mike

Motorcycle Mike

Well-known member
I just thought I would post this warning in case others are thinking of joining the ODSC/OFTR, especially if the primary benefit for you is Simcoe County Forests access.

When you join the OFTR, you are presented a list of clubs that you can support. I chose the ODSC as I ride all over the place.

One of the benefits listed at OFTR is that having a membership grants you access to Simcoe County Forest trails -- which is technically true. However, not all tracts are open to bikes, and even those tracts that are open to bikes have only certain trails open to bikes.

Here is where the issue lies: Only SCORRA members have access to map data about the legal trails to ride.

That's right... if you are not a SCORRA member, you can legally ride in the Simcoe County Forests with only an OFTR membership, but you won't be given any data about which trails are legal or not, and most of trails are not marked.

See quote from SCORRA member:
http://www.odsc.on.ca/.xenforo/index.php?threads/simcoe-county.14947/page-2
The county does not want us to put up many signs, so it's a bit problematic to sign all the trails. We're not sure we want to sign everything, anyway....since then the non-members (OFTR or otherwise) will have less reason to join.

Regarding the SCORRA Trail Maps, membership has it's privileges! The decision was made by the SCORRA board to restrict the Trail Maps to SCORRA members only. The trail maps were implemented by a SCORRA volunteer (moi), specifically for SCORRA. It was not an OFTR project. The OFTR has a mapping committee, and I have offered to implement a similar Trail Map system at the OFTR level (customized for the OFTR of course), but have had very little feedback on that suggestion.
Click to expand...

I joined the ODSC for two reasons:
1) I was hoping for a lot of gps resources pointing out riding areas -- turns out there is almost nothing there.
2) I was looking forward to Simcoe County riding... which I can do, provided I am psychic and can guess which trails are legal.

For riding dirt... join the OFTR if you find some benefit there, skip the ODSC, it's not worth the $10 in addition to the OFTR fee.

P.S. The reason I didn't add SCORRA to begin with is because I figured I'd only get up there once, maybe twice -- so not worth joining another club just for that. Boy was I wrong.
 
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Not cool of them, running this little nontransparent scheme.
 
Way too much acronyms in the dirt bike community.

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Did you post at SCORRA forums asking them where you can ride? I don't remember seeing a post over there asking that.

They have a general map of the tracts that we're allowed in, but I don't know if they provide it to everyone. They just created a detailed mapping thing this year that shows the tracks within each tract, but that should only be a special member only thing.
 
Curious : what's a tract?

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Robp said:
Did you post at SCORRA forums asking them where you can ride? I don't remember seeing a post over there asking that.

They have a general map of the tracts that we're allowed in, but I don't know if they provide it to everyone. They just created a detailed mapping thing this year that shows the tracks within each tract, but that should only be a special member only thing.
Click to expand...

Why? Do the SCORRA members own the land or something?
Or are they just more familiar with the area and wish to keep others out?
 
Baggsy said:
Why? Do the SCORRA members own the land or something?
Or are they just more familiar with the area and wish to keep others out?
Click to expand...

It's because SCORRA has done all the work to get the land use agreements with the county, they also do countless hours of trail maintenance, forest cleanup, etc. The group as a whole has had to get all new trail layouts approved with the foresters, then perform the labour to cut said trails.
Anyone is welcome to ride simcoe county trails, provided they are an OFTR member, have a green/blue plated bike, and valid liability insurance. The trails are awesome, we have some of the best single track in Ontario.
 
Baggsy said:
Why? Do the SCORRA members own the land or something?
Or are they just more familiar with the area and wish to keep others out?
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you mean?

There should be a general map available to show which tracts bikes are allowed, but the detailed map should be only for those the support the club.
 
Even Simcoe County's online map says which tracts are available to ride in with an OFTR membership -- that is not an issue, however, just knowing which tracts to ride in isn't enough, you need to know which trails are legal within the tract and many of them are not marked -- (some are, so they are fine).

If you go to the OFTR page and click membership it says having an OFTR membership grants permission to ride in Simcoe County Forests.

If you do not stay on the designated trails, you could be subject to trespassing charges by County Officers.

The location of the designated trails is only made available to SCORRA members.

So while technically you have permission to ride Simcoe Country Trails with an OFTR membership, essentially that permission is useless as you won't know which trails are legal unless you join SCORRA.

This is a fact that is not outlined on any webpage and I only became aware of after joining OFTR and wanted to make use of my member benefit.

Why don't I join SCORRA, you may ask? Well, I would have had I known this. I also only ride in Simcoe County Forests maybe once or twice a year -- I am not big into single track, I like to go exploring and passing through different areas so I am not sure if a SCORRA membership is worth it to me.
 
Trust me Mike, if you can show insurance and Oftr membership, you will not get charged for riding ANY trail in an "approved tract". I've lived and ridden here for years, not a single problem ever. The main thing is to respect other trail users, (hikers, cyclists etc) they don't appreciate wheelies while passing etc.
Go and explore, worry free.
 
I'll chime in here, I also did the OFTR + ODSC thing this year and made the same mistake.... Without the SCORRA map It's incredibly hard to find the correct trails in Simcoe Forests. The trail markers are almost non-existent in some sections. I was flagged down by a dog walker and was told I was was not on the right path. Apparently I ventured onto the snowmobile lane unknowingly. I spoke to several people and they all said I just need to join the SCORRA forums, which is simply not the case. You need to join the SCORRA forums AND become a paid member.

Anyways, not really sure what I paid for in regards to ODSC. I also thought that by joining ODSC I would have access to legal riding area GPS tracks for dual sporting.... not so much. I'm pretty sure Mike more GPS tracks than the entire ODSC.
 
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Robp said:
I don't understand what you mean?

There should be a general map available to show which tracts bikes are allowed, but the detailed map should be only for those the support the club.
Click to expand...

My question is why? Aren't all the Ontario clubs and all members in the same boat?
If it's too confusing to find the trails, then why would anyone new try to join?
Hence my question of some possibly wanting to exclude others.
You'd think if a group wants to promote their use of the area, then they would make it easy for others to share.
Otherwise, the land might be put to better use as non-motorized trails.
 
Baggsy said:
My question is why? Aren't all the Ontario clubs and all members in the same boat?
If it's too confusing to find the trails, then why would anyone new try to join?
Hence my question of some possibly wanting to exclude others.
You'd think if a group wants to promote their use of the area, then they would make it easy for others to share.
Otherwise, the land might be put to better use as non-motorized trails.
Click to expand...

That is kind of how I am seeing it.

SCORRA did all of the work mapping the trails, so in a direct quote from the guy that did the mapping SCORRA voted that only SCORRA members would get the trails F anyone else in the OFTR:

The county does not want us to put up many signs, so it's a bit problematic to sign all the trails. We're not sure we want to sign everything, anyway....since then the non-members (OFTR or otherwise) will have less reason to join.

Regarding the SCORRA Trail Maps, membership has it's privileges! The decision was made by the SCORRA board to restrict the Trail Maps to SCORRA members only. The trail maps were implemented by a SCORRA volunteer (moi), specifically for SCORRA. It was not an OFTR project. The OFTR has a mapping committee, and I have offered to implement a similar Trail Map system at the OFTR level (customized for the OFTR of course), but have had very little feedback on that suggestion.

You can join multiple clubs with your OFTR membership, so why not consider joining SCORRA? Access to the trail maps alone would be worth the few extra bucks to have a dual ODSC/SCORRA membership.

....Purple Beast (aka: Andrzej)
Click to expand...

So the impression I got from that was either join SCORRA or stay off the trails -- nevermind the benefits advertised by the OFTR.
 
The bit about this guy offering to help the OFTR with their mapping initiative and getting little feedback doesn't surprise me at all.

I volunteered multiple times to help out the OFTR and ODSC in regards to mapping projects because I happen to have a MSc in Environmental Science majoring in GIS and Remote Sensing, and have experience in the field, and I never heard back from anyone... so I guess they are not interested.

I think there is a lot of incompetence in the OFTR and I will not be supporting them again any time soon.
 
Yes I believe there should be one large club for the whole province, but that's just not the way it is I guess. The OFTR seems to have tried that, but it's far from perfect.

The only tract the I know of that has different rules than the rest is Strachen. In there motorized vehicles are not allowed on the single track. Pick a tract and ride, I've personally never had an issue figuring out where in it I was allowed to ride.
 
Baggsy said:
My question is why? Aren't all the Ontario clubs and all members in the same boat?
If it's too confusing to find the trails, then why would anyone new try to join?
Hence my question of some possibly wanting to exclude others.
You'd think if a group wants to promote their use of the area, then they would make it easy for others to share.
Otherwise, the land might be put to better use as non-motorized trails.
Click to expand...

It's not confusing to find the trails, but to some I guess it is. Pick a tract and ride.

So now because some people can't find a trail we should close it all and make it for non-motorized trails? The Simcoe County tracts are active logging areas that they allow people to use.

The dirt biking world keeps losing areas to ride and at least the OFTR is trying to keep what we have and try to get more. Sure I wish it was one big voice instead of just a voice of a bunch of little clubs. I've been in for a few years and sometimes I shake my head, but the people involved are doing the best they can with what they have. Hoodlums make a very bad name for proper dirt bikers and it's hard to get the public on our side. It's similar to cruisers with open pipes, or sport bikers speeding and wheeling on public roads. But at least they haven't figured out how to get those riders off the streets yet.
 
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