Judge Rules Against Bikers’ Desert Ride

A motorcyclist group was unable to persuade a judge to stop the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from closing a portion of the Mojave Desert that the cyclists want to use Saturday for a protest ride.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian, ruling after an emergency hearing late Wednesday, rejected a petition for a temporary restraining order against the BLM that had been sought by the Sahara Club, an off-road biker group.

The court dispute marks the latest chapter in a flap over the cancellation of this weekend’s Barstow-to-Las-Vegas motorcycle race. Angry about the event’s cancellation, Sahara Club members had threatened to stage a protest ride Saturday along the traditional race route.

The BLM--worried that such an event, involving thousands of motorcyclists, could harm desert resources--responded by temporarily closing the race route and staging areas to motor vehicles. The affected area stretches from Barstow to the Nevada state line.

Sahara Club lawyer Alan Ghaleb said Tevrizian was swayed by BLM arguments that closing the land was necessary to prevent an unorganized and possibly destructive event involving as many as 25,000 riders.

The judge also said disgruntled motorcyclists could protest the race’s cancellation in other ways, Ghaleb said.

A separate lawsuit filed by the club, challenging the constitutionality of the BLM closure order, is pending. No hearing date has been set.

Rick Sieman, president of the Sahara Club, said that despite the ruling he would attempt to ride across the closed land Saturday. BLM officials said rangers will be on hand to cite and arrest violators.