Even if you haven’t seen the dirt bikes in New York City, you’ve certainly heard them. Their riders, who regularly take over streets in every borough at all hours of the day, are prominent signs of the city’s increasing lawlessness.

The riders, who colloquially refer to their chosen path as “bike life,” snake noisily through the streets in motorcades often called “ride outs.” Perhaps the most notable is the parade up and down Broadway on what seems like every Friday and Saturday night.

Brooklynites also may remember the weeklong “Ruff Ryders” ride out following the death of rapper DMX, who was well known in the bike life world and beyond for his “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem.”

Some of these bikers venture well outside the five boroughs. One told the Sun that he is among a group that often travels as far afield as Baltimore or even Miami to ride out. 

Many bikers also venture onto city sidewalks and bike paths in addition to the streets — often dodging and weaving through bike, pedestrian, and car traffic — leading to persistent complaints from New Yorkers.

Officially, dirt bikes are illegal to ride on New York’s streets, let alone the sidewalks and bike paths, though these rules are scarcely enforced.

Banned vehicles include mini-bikes, dirt bikes, ATVs, motorized scooters, and motor-assisted bicycles, among others. Essentially any motorized vehicle that can’t be registered with the DMV isn’t officially allowed on New York’s streets.

The Sun caught up with one group of bikers on Pier 35 in Manhattan and asked why they ride.

“As we see it, everyone — pedal bikes, dirt bikes, mopeds, ATVs, it’s bike life, and if you’re not in bike life you’re getting into trouble,” one biker who asked to be identified only as Mathew said. “We don’t condone none of that sidewalk stuff.”

“At a ride out, we tell people that are dumb to go home,” he added, referencing the reckless rider behavior that often leads New Yorkers to complain.

Another biker he was with said he had been arrested three times before he got into biking at 16. Now 19, he claims he’s stayed out of trouble.

“We don’t condone that reckless stuff — the guys that do that give all bike life people a bad name,” he said. “It’s mostly the minors people are concerned about, they’re the ones who don’t aren’t mature, thoughtful.”

While they said that they see biking as a release, and a way to stay out of trouble, many New Yorkers see bike life itself as both a criminal activity and a public nuisance. 

“It has definitely been exacerbated since the pandemic,” a City Council member, Jennifer Gutiérrez, told the Sun. As a resident of the city, she said “it doesn’t feel safe … it’s something I would want to talk to my constituents about.”   

Another City Council member, Maria Danzilo, a candidate for state senate, already has talked to her constituents about it at length, and she shared some of their concerns with the Sun.

“Friday night and Saturday night are big times, and that’s up and down Broadway,”  she said. “They are very loud and I think that the big issue there is that they ride very late at night.”

She added: “It’s very concerning that these young people may not have as many outlets as they need. No one is advocating to arrest teenagers on a Saturday night, but there might be ways to have better public safety and education.”

During his campaign for mayor, Eric Adams called for a crackdown on illegal ATVs and dirt bikes, terming it “more than just a quality-of-life issue — it’s a sign that our city is becoming less safe.”

With peak riding months approaching, the city reports it is taking steps to curb the illegal activity, though many have observed that in general such efforts appear to be ineffective.

The New York Police Department told the Sun it is “deploying additional resources, aimed at reducing this problematic and dangerous behavior” as the weather warms.

The police are ordered not to chase the riders, as doing so could escalate the situation — such as inciting people to act more recklessly or drive on sidewalks to escape.

A Manhattan Institute fellow, Nicole Gelinas, says the no-chase order is “probably a good idea,” saying she thinks that orderly streets are “a key element of broken windows, quality of life policing, community policing.”

In lieu of chases, police generally will wait until a bike or ATV is stopped, following riders to homes, gas stations, or other locations before making arrests or issuing tickets.

Ms. Gelinas advocates for using traffic enforcement cameras to help curb unruly streets, which would also help with reckless driving but would probably require registering the vehicles.

Ms. Danzilo also advocated for registering vehicles and riders so that they could be insured and held accountable for dangerous behavior, a policy idea that has a few snags.

The biggest issue is the widespread practice of folding or covering license plates, something riders with street-legal bikes or motorcycles will do during ride outs or when otherwise aiming to avoid accountability.

Another potential solution that is gaining some traction is to open a motocross park in the city, as there is now nowhere to legally participate in what is clearly a popular activity.

Coupled with stricter enforcement, some argue this could help to reduce the current chaos in the streets and also reduce the noise pollution in communities across the city.

Mathew and his friends said they were open to the idea of a park, though they were hesitant to accept blame for New York’s dangerous streets and roads.

Ms. Gelinas pointed out that dirt bikes and ATVs are emblematic of many quality of life issues in the city, in that they are often neglected simply because the rules are difficult for police to enforce.

“I think it just comes down to human enforcement,” she said. “The problem is you say enforce the law  — it often comes down to the easiest way to fill the quota.”