VTR Club Information and History

The Valley Trail Riders is a family-oriented, off-road motorcycle club established in 1970. We have a general meeting the first Tuesday of each month in Livermore, California, and then, on the following weekend, we have a scheduled ride in a Northern California riding area. For the time and location of our monthly meeting, see Contact Us.

The VTR club rides are generally in riding areas that are scenic, have good trail networks, and offer reasonable, although sometimes primitive, camping areas. Examples of our scheduled ride locations are Foresthill, Elkins Flat, Fouts Springs/Stonyford, Georgetown, Twain Harte, Middle Creek and several other locations in the high Sierra. We support trail rides for riders of all ages and abilities.

The club currently maintains the Glen London Memorial Trail in the Stonyford OHV in the Mendocino Forest. Each year, VTR members volunteer their time and effort to help with other very worthwhile projects.

For the members and guests of VTR, the opportunity for a group ride comes up often. To make these rides as trouble free and fun as possible, there are a number of critical conventions of trail etiquette that need to be understood and observed during the rides. The Valley Trail Riders’ Trail Etiquette explains these common-sense conventions in detail.

On the origins of Valley Trail Riders from the son of a founding member, Lynn James in 2013: “I don’t know if anyone still remembers why the VTRMC was formed. It was 1970. (readers digest version) Our family joined the Iron Horseman MC.  We went on a few outings with them.  At that time I was racing every weekend and had two 1970 250 Bultaco Pursangs. When we went on outings with the Iron Horseman, I took the Motocross version [of my Bultacos]. The bottom line was they didn’t like a fast, noisy motorcycle, and they complained and wanted to exclude me from riding the Bultaco. I ended up riding something else and they still didn’t like me or my style of riding. So my dad and a few others – Hal Johanson comes to mind – started the VTRMC.”