When Ken McClelland first got involved with the Greater Kamloops Motorcycle Association (GKMA), it was a club – a group of people with similar interests who would het together after a ride and go for drinks.

But that was a decade ago. These days, McClelland, now the club’s president, says the role of the GKMA is much more clearly defined. It exists, he says, to promote responsible riding and create more harmony between off-road enthusiasts and the general public.

“There are renegades out there who participate in irresponsible riding practices, and there are pressures on the landscape. We want to promote responsibility.” To that end, for the past six years McClelland has been promoting the concept of licensing and registering off-road vehicles.

Whereas some might balk at the idea of creating more red tape and legislation, McClelland sees it as a positive move. “It would promote more responsible riding practices and make those who are doing irresponsible things easier to identify. Also, if your machine is registered, if it is stolen it could possibly be easier to recover, because there would be something to trace.”

Also, moving to licensing and registration of off road vehicles may mean that enthusiasts may end up keeping some of their terrain.

“We want to be able to continue to ride and if we don’t go along with the regulations, we’re concerned we’ll start to lose riding areas.”

While carious interest groups that use the same terrain often have differing priorities, McClelland says he hopes that with more education and legislation for off roading, greater understanding between user groups can be established. “We’ve hot to be environmentally sensitive, keep the noise level down and share the land with other groups. We’re not interested in hogging it to ourselves.

“There’s quite a bit of pressure from the environmental groups,” McClelland said, noting that the GKMA has no choice but to become more visible, and communicate more with the public.

“Hey, we’re not the boogie man in the closet, we’re just out there wanting to have fun.”

McClelland knows how popular off roading has become, and would like to see membership in the GKMA grow to reflect that popularity. The more people getting involved with the association, he said, the more responsible riders there are and the fewer renegades.

The GKMA isn’t only involved in advocacy and public relations work. The club also operates the Duffy Lake Recreation site on behalf of the provincial government, as well as the Whispering Pines motocross raceway, and has been tapped to host the first round of the Canadian National Motocross Series during the first weekend in June.

“We’ve hot one of the best areas in the whole wide world right here at our door, and we’ve got everything from desert-style riding to tight woods and single-track riding.”