ALBANY — You’ll hear them before you see them.

Groups of teenagers and young men riding dirt bikes and the occasional all-terrain vehicle down city streets and sidewalks, weaving in and out of traffic and popping wheelies.

Across the river in Troy, police have recently been alerted to a group riding around the city’s north end.

It's illegal to ride dirt bikes or ATVs on public roadways, but local police say they are reluctant to chase riders for fear any crash could be fatal for the pursued. Last summer, a 31-year-old Schoharie County man was killed after he was ejected from his dirt bike and struck the sheriff's car that had been chasing him.

Marshon Guthrie, 29, rides with a group in Albany. He grew up wanting a motocross bike and later became a mechanic, opening his own business in the city, Pure Powda. He says he’s ridden motocross parks all over the East Coast and gone to larger street gatherings, called rideouts, in New York, Baltimore and other cities.

The videos that come out of these group rides are driving the growth in participation locally, he said: “In the past year is the most I’ve ever seen.”

The reason riders choose dirt bikes over street-legal bikes is usually cost, Guthrie said.

He readily admits that riding dirt bikes in the streets is illegal, but said he and other experienced riders obey the rules of the road and make a point to not interfere with drivers.

Younger or newer riders don’t always follow that code.

“You have people going up a one-way (street), and that’s a big problem — because now you’re putting everyone in danger,” he said.

The other problem is that there isn’t a legal place in the city or nearby for them to ride, he said. For a while, they rode in Tivoli Park adjacent to Livingston Avenue, but the police pushed them out.

As far as he knows, there has never been any kind of push to find a safe space for the riders in the city.

"The only place to ride is the streets," Guthrie said.

Dirt-bike riders are an issue in other cities as well. Baltimore has seen groups with as many as 100 riders; the city's street-riding subculture was the subject of the 2013 documentary "12 O'Clock Boys." YouTube and other social media channels are full of videos with riders showing off and performing often heart-stopping tricks.

In Pleasantville, N.J., a group was recorded surrounding a patrol car and taunting an officer, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.

But because the riders have more maneuverability than patrol cars, it’s difficult for police to stop them, even if they wanted to.

“We’re not going to allow any officer to get into a pursuit like that,” Troy Police Chief John Tedesco said. “Especially because (local rideouts) are occurring a lot on the afternoon shift when there are a lot of people around.”

The riders swerve through traffic and onto sidewalks before pulling off to bike paths or other areas of the city officers can’t follow, Tedesco said.

Albany Councilman Ron Bailey said the issue has grown in recent years. He has seen the bikers riding all around the city at night, occasionally stopping traffic at intersections to let their whole group through. "Ten or more of them and no one is doing anything about it," he said.

From Bailey's experience, they’re not teenagers but usually men in their 20s. He expressed frustration that the city’s police department wouldn’t pursue them.

“In the meantime, you’re threatening the safety of everyone else” by not trying to curtail reckless riding, he said.

Acting Albany Police Chief Bob Sears said his officers will pursue the bikers depending on the circumstances, but in most cases when police do stop the riders they are simply issued traffic tickets.

Sears said the department has focused on alternative methods of stopping the riders.

Troy’s police department is considering buying ATVs for future pursuits and to track where the riders are coming from, Tedesco said.

In downtown Albany, the riders usually appear between 8 and 10 p.m., said Dan Skomsky, a server at the Merry Monk on Pearl Street.

He says he hasn’t called the police to complain, but has seen the bikers jump the curb and ride on the sidewalk where the restaurant has tables for customers.

“Ten to 15 seconds, and then they’re gone,” he said.