Polaris has issued a voluntary recall on over 8,000 Sportsman ATVs from 2009 and 2010 because of a possible loss of steering control due to a faulty steering knuckle and ball joint stem.

While there have not been any injuries reported to the CPSC due to the problem, Polaris will be effecting repairs on units manufactured between January 2009 and August 2009 and sold nation-wide at Polaris dealers.

Affected models include the 2009 Sportsman series of XP 550, XP 550 EPS, XP 850 and XP 850 EPS as well as 2010 Sportsman 550, X2 550, Touring 550 and Touring 850.

Owners are encouraged to stop riding the ATVs and contact their local Polaris dealer as soon as possible by calling 1-800-POLARIS or visiting their web site at http://www.polarisindustries.com.

Image Polaris

Yesterday California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation that would ensure another million acres in a remote area of the Mojave Desert would not be available for OHV use, and would also not be available for previously proposed wind and solar farms to help produce energy to help offset our dependence on fossil fuel and especially to help California offset our ever increasing energy costs.

The bill, while supposedly protecting 5 existing OHV areas from being trampled like so many before it, assigns nearly a million acres as National Monuments, which would effectively close them to OHVs.

Many of us know that the ATV and offroading community generates large amounts of money in the areas we ride, and we all know how badly we need renewable energy sources. But because of Sen. Feinstein's "Not in My Back Yard" legislation, BrightSource Energy Inc and Stirling Energy Systems are now canceling plans to build wind and solar farms in obscure, out of the way places in the Mohave Desert.

I haven't figured out all the details to this proposal yet, and while it does have some good news for ATVs and Offroading enthusiasts, there is a clear dark side that potentially hurts the OHV community overall.

Read the California Desert Protection Act of 2010 for more information.

Image © Matt Finley

There's a new OHV area opening for ATVs and motocross in Chipley, Florida in the spring of 2010. Hard Labor Creek offers about 600 acres of offroading in a splendid sanctuary in the great Northwest Florida outdoors.

You can also enjoy camping if you're comfortable roughing it. Hard Labor Creek offers primitive camping facilities for the hard-core riders. Covered by majestic oak and pine trees, you'll be able to enjoy great trail riding on dirt bikes and ATVs along with some great racing on some fairly tricky terrain.

Hard Labor Creek OHV area is located at 009 Highway 277 Chipley, Florida 32428

Image from Hard Labor Creek OHV Park

In a lucky twist of fate, Maryland Firefighters reported that the soft-top on a Jeep Wrangler, which burst into flames after being rear-ended on the Capital Beltway on Route 495 by a semi-truck, played a part in helping on-lookers save the life of the driver.

According to Mark E. Brady, Chief Spokesman for Prince Georges Fire/EMS, a 27 year old female was rescued from her Jeep Wrangler by "Good Samaritans" who ripped the soft-top off the vehicle and pulled the woman to safety as the Jeep burned.

The impact caused the woman to get disoriented and her foot got caught under the brake peddle. The rescuers worked together by ripping the roof off the Jeep Wrangler, dislodging the woman's foot then pulling her through the roof as another person fought back the fire with a fire extinguisher.

It always makes me proud to know that firefighters put themselves on the line every day for people they don't know, and when I hear about every day people doing the same thing, it makes it even better. But I get the feeling that if it weren't for the soft-top on the Jeep Wrangler the efforts of those brave people would have gone for naught and the driver would not have survived to celebrate Christmas.

Image courtesy Mark E. Brady