Free Republic

Police departments facing more and more all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and motorcycles on the streets are using any tool possible to stem the illegal traffic. In Reading, that now includes smashing seized off-road vehicles. On May 12, for the first time, the city in Berks County had an excavator pulverize two dumpsters filled with ATVs and dirt bikes. The department filmed the destruction and posted it on its Facebook page, in part to send a message to drivers, Sgt. Mel Fegely said. There were varying responses from viewers. Some people were upset, and wanted to see the vehicles reused or...

In total, six dirt bikes and one quad engaged an unnamed officer with the North Haven Police Department on Sunday “in a slow pursuit on Maple Avenue towards New Haven,” the department wrote on Facebook. Some of the riders drove the dirt bikes across lawns and caused damage. At one point during the pursuit, “one rider fell off, but quickly jumped onto the back of another dirt bike and fled," according to the police department. The North Haven Police Department is asking anyone who can identify the riders to come forward.

One teen was killed and another is in critical condition after an apparent deliberate car crash with a dirt bike on Long Island, police said. Suffolk County police said it appeared the bike had been stolen Thursday morning, and the driver of the minivan was attempting to get it back when he spotted two men on it in North Bellport. "The driver of the minivan spotted his bike and he attempted to obtain the dirt bike," Suffolk Police Commissioner Timothy Sini said.

The Motoped Black Ops is a shameless, shallow grab for attention that has 100 percent done its job on me. A zombie hunting moped? Seriously? But the product behind it is actually pretty sweet. A highly customizable moped with a 500-mile (805 km) range, 200 mpg (1.2 L/100km) efficiency and heavy-duty engineering. It easily converts to an ultralight dirtbike if you swap the 49cc stock engine for something larger, and its long travel suspension should make it pretty capable on dirt tracks.

Packard gave up on its automotive plant in Detroit in 1956, but the 3,500,000-square-foot complex of reinforced concrete remains - if only as remains. It is perhaps just as famous for being ruins as it was when it built cars, still attracting plenty of attention from entrepreneurs, paintballers, vandals and urban spelunkers. Creative types love them some Packard Plant, too, evidenced by the short film produced by Cantini Pictures when they wanted to test out a homemade motorcycle and an aerial drone. The result is a few minutes of "motocross meets the monument." Check it out in the video below....