I have no mechanical parts but I take you for a ride.

[Greg Bernhardt]

I have no mechanical parts but I take you for a ride.
I won't be ridden in a desert or on a mountainside.
Each time the ride is different - no two are ever the same.
Some are wild and treacherous and some are very tame.
What am I?

 

[marcus]

an ocean wave takes a surfer for a ride
no two waves are the same
and each ride is different

 

[Jimmy]

Greg, by mechanical, do you mean no moving, man-made parts or no moving parts?

 

[DarkAnt]

a raft?

I finally got to one of these at the right time!

 

[Jimmy]

I think marcus has the right answer. A surf board or raft isn't intrinsically treacherous.

I was going to suggest the answer was something you might find downtown but that probably wouldn't go over very well. *ahem*.

 

[DarkAnt]

I think marcus is correct as well.
which means i don't get a point, maybe I can get a thousandth of a point for effort.

 

[DarkAnt]

is it a river?

 

[FZ+]

Doesn't quite fit mountainside, though.

Perhaps we are going for metaphoricals?

A conman who is trying to "take you for a ride"?

 

[DarkAnt]

how about the ocean surf?

 

[Robert Zaleski]

Surf Board

 

[brum]

a dolphin? a whale?

(see http://www.greenapple.com/~jorp/amzanim/r21.htm )

 

[meteor]

A boat?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Surf Board, point for marcus!