No more group rides.......

[henzilla]

Going to slide this over to Campfire shortly

 

[SeabeckS]

Not just groups on the Famous American brand...

Last weekend there was a group of scooters on a ride through our area. Stock, and some highly modified scoots, with a few motorcycles scattered in the group. I came across them on my way home on the Hood Canal just as they started rolling out from a coffee stop. For grins, I tail ended Charlie for awhile, observed some really ridiculous riding along with some intersection blocking. After a couple of miles they turned, I made a u-turn and went home. Really didn't need to practice my rusty EMT skills...

I quit group rides along time ago after a couple of charity rides and an insane Ducati club run that I abandoned mid ride. Just too many squirrely riders for my taste.

 

[akbeemer]

Sounds like you may have encountered the infamous Scooter Trash.

 

[BCKRider]

Walter Mitty here. You pull over, call 911, and tell them the road and direction of these miscreants, since they are likely to pull the same stunt again. Get enough cops out there and there could be one hell of a lot of arrests. OK, probably won't happen, even if you do make the call.

Best bet: don't participate, and if you are not a participant, get out of the way. Large group rides are accidents waiting to happen. I think riding alone or with one or two friends is the way to go.

Can someone explain "charity rides" to me? Why would I donate money to a rider so he can then donate the money to a given charity rather than donating the money directly to that charity?

 

[SeabeckS]

Sounds like you may have encountered the infamous Scooter Trash.

Big time! LOL

 

[greenwald]

Walter Mitty here. You pull over, call 911, and tell them the road and direction of these miscreants, since they are likely to pull the same stunt again. Get enough cops out there and there could be one hell of a lot of arrests. OK, probably won't happen, even if you do make the call.

Best bet: don't participate, and if you are not a participant, get out of the way. Large group rides are accidents waiting to happen. I think riding alone or with one or two friends is the way to go.

Can someone explain "charity rides" to me? Why would I donate money to a rider so he can then donate the money to a given charity rather than donating the money directly to that charity?

No different than 'charity runs,' 'charity biking' or 'charity walks,' etc. A 'charity MC ride' is an effort to get a lot of people involved in raising money for a worthy cause, and at the same time, generate some publicity for the event thru mass participation of a particular demographic, in this case: motorcycle riders.

For runners, walkers and bicyclists, it usually works out well, though collisions do occur within those venues as well.

When it comes to motorcyclists, it gets ugly fast. In my observations as a riding professional, there just aren't that many good riders out there. Assemble several hundred bikers ( or several thousand, as I witnessed in too many "Ride For Kids" events in the Chicago area that I participated in before bailing over safety issues), and you have nothing more than rolling chaos.

Nowadays, I just send a check to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Association ("Ride For Kids") and prefer either riding solo, or with a fellow biker or two that I trust.

 

[mika]

Clearly, this was a bad experience and provides a strong basis for organizer/scooter rider bashing. I am curious; however, is there advice for clubs considering organizing a group ride from the posting group? There is obviously a great deal of experience and LEO connections among you. What should a club do about group size, ride captains etc., route planning and more?

I participated in one informal group ride to a motocross event when I was in college. Based on that I have never done it again and have no experience beyond demo events in rural settings.

 

[ricochetrider]

It's not only group rides that can be dangerous.

A friend of mine and his wife were leaving a large MC gathering- large like in a fairgrounds with several thousand people attending. They were exiting the grounds on the full dresser Harley super ultra road glide. Several members of a small group had made a left turn in front of them. I guess the last guy felt left behind because as my friends entered the intersection on their green light, this last person hit his throttle in a bit of a panic, making his turn straight into my friends' bike- hitting it hard enough to punch the 800 +/- pound bike completely out from under them! My buddy sustained only a broken pinky finger but his wife was less fortunate, with a compound fracture in her arm and a broken jaw.

I've refrained from attending larger motorcycle events such as this since that day.

 

[akbeemer]

Clearly, this was a bad experience and provides a strong basis for organizer/scooter rider bashing. I am curious; however, is there advice for clubs considering organizing a group ride from the posting group? There is obviously a great deal of experience and LEO connections among you. What should a club do about group size, ride captains etc., route planning and more?

I participated in one informal group ride to a motocross event when I was in college. Based on that I have never done it again and have no experience beyond demo events in rural settings.

Do not do them.

 

[henzilla]

Clearly, this was a bad experience and provides a strong basis for organizer/scooter rider bashing. I am curious; however, is there advice for clubs considering organizing a group ride from the posting group? There is obviously a great deal of experience and LEO connections among you. What should a club do about group size, ride captains etc., route planning and more?

I participated in one informal group ride to a motocross event when I was in college. Based on that I have never done it again and have no experience beyond demo events in rural settings.

As a local club president ,attempted to draft a workable set of guidelines a few years back.

Used the GW groups guidelines as a starting point

http://gwta.org/rider_ed/grpridinggd.htm

Needless to say, I got got more gray hair just trying to introduce some basic guidelines. Seems most folks nod their head at a pre ride discussion, then revert to whatever style they are comfortable with. End result is a fractured group and chaos.

Too many type A's, wide range of skillsets and ages quickly dashes most plans. I dislike leading more than 6 as I watch the chaos developing behind me in larger groups.

 

[franko]

group ride suggestions

I also have had a bad time on group rides. The last one was suppose to be a poker run for the Humane Society. We signed up and waited for the map with locations. It was just a list of names of places and name of the towns they were in. I questioned it, but was told the ride leader would lead at a sane pace. It didn't work out.
If it would get away from large groups riding together, it would be better.
Printed/sketched maps in a plastic sleeve to attach to the tank, in the cover of a tank bag or to the back of the rider so the co-pilot can give directions.
On the map have the name and address with a suggested route and enough information for a GPS to locate the destination.
The time that a drawing for door prizes, food being served or a show will happen at each establishment.
Several people from the event organizer riding sweep at say quarter, half, three quarter and final groups looking for riders having problems or causing problems.
This would help get rid of the rushed riding to keep up and not get left behind/lost, the running of red lights and the rolling road blocks/highway exit blocks that happen with large group rides cause.
Riders can ride at their own pace and with who ever they become comfortable riding with.
If they are enjoying themselves at one place and want to stay longer, they can skip the next stop and catch up with the ride at the stop after that one if they wish, again letting loose of the hurried ride mentality.
Just a few of my thoughts. Please ad to them. Frank Coleman

 

[Voni]

[SUP]In our Heartland Riders club we always gave people the option of riding solo and meeting up where we were going. LEO's in our club made sure the ride itself was pleasant, if not challenging. Miss those guys and gals!

Don't do group rides any more . . .

Voni
sMiling[/SUP]

 

[gfspencer]

While in my car, I was stopped in the middle of an intersection by a helmetless, shirtless pirate on a Famous American brand bike while about 15 of his comrades filed thru the red light. No wonder the general public think motorcyclist are a bunch of nuts.

That kind of behavior really pi$$es me off.

I don't do group rides.

 

[EUGENE]

2 cent

I have in the past participated with group rides. Poker runs, church rides, union benefits rides, gold wing group and BMW group. Most of the people I do not know. Ride at your own pace or someone will get hurt. Sometimes riding with a small group ,five or less, is good. The key is to NOT let someone push you beyond your limits. When you feel uncomfortable slow down and let them go ahead.
I repeat, RIDE AT YOUR OWN PACE!
This is my two cent worth.

 

[KenDittrick]

For me, it is about group size and my maximum is four. Easy to pair up if riding styles match, go solo or if on a long lonely stretch of road four is just fine. I have done one long ride (~10,000 Km) with five bikes - four people I knew I one I didn't. This fellow just didn't fit and figured this was some kind of race plus he wouldn't heed our advice. He decided to split and take a different route home at about the halfway point.

I have ridden only one large group (100's) ride for my Prostate Cancer charity and some of the behavior was idiotic. I cut out at the halfway mark and took another route to the planned destination and find other ways to support charities now.

 

[BC1100S]

Seeing as this thread has morphed into a group ride symposium, here's one other concern I have about group rides - they can really piss off the (car) motoring public.

Case in point:
Driving along on a pleasant summer's day I happen upon a group ride comprised of Famous American Motorcycles. Point of fact is it could have been any brand or a non-denominational bag of like-minded individuals. Anyway, two lane road with not a lot of places to pass. Now, these folks were doing about 5 mph under the posted speed limit and, because there were so many, they stretched out over a couple of hundred yards. So, what do you think the chances were of me or anyone else getting by these folks? That's right - zero. And because their speed dropped significantly whenever approaching any sort of corner, pretty soon the "group ride" included the motorcycles and about 30 cars strung out behind them. Sure enough, some hero in a car decided to try and pass and it was only by luck and good grace that he didn't take out a few bikes when trying to wedge himself into the middle of the group when he ran out of road. There's no need for me to describe the ensuing hi-decibel conversations.

 

[classicvw]

Were you rushing to a hospital? The other side of the coin is you could just have just cut them some slack and not automatically gotten annoyed and kept your blood pressure in check.

You don't say they were doing anything dangerous. They were out for a ride on a nice summer day. We all need to chill and realize we don't have any more right to the road than anyone else.

 

[36654]

Were you rushing to a hospital? The other side of the coin is you could just have just cut them some slack and not automatically gotten annoyed and kept your blood pressure in check.

You don't say they were doing anything dangerous. They were out for a ride on a nice summer day. We all need to chill and realize we don't have any more right to the road than anyone else.

I'm going to side with BC on this one and , in part, it's location dependent. Here in the east, you usually have a few options relative to getting between point A and B. Out west and specifically in places like the Olympic peninsula, it's more like one road. Back in the day, the loop around the peninsula had warning signs about holding up traffic (any more than 5-cars and you could be fined).

So, if someone wants to pass, I let them and I appreciate the favor in return. However, in the case of a string of vehicles, that isn't possible.

 

[henzilla]

As mentioned, not just FAM riders/ groups. Any group trying to stay together creates issues. Any given weekend has Miatas, Shelby Cobras, 'Vettes, Three wheel Wings, Vespas and others headed to meetups in our area. They do anything to keep pace and in formation...well the Vespas are cute trying and will stay off the main highways the others parade down. Just like bikes, the accordion effect and skill levels wreak havoc and cause longer lines.

It's safer and a more enjoyable ride to take a turn elsewhere or stop and watch some nice vehicles from under a shade tree.

I led a group of ten I recall on a trip to MO a few years back as the ridemeister decided to not lead at some point on day 2. I looked in my mirror to see two riders in the passing lane just hanging there and a line building behind them. I slowed a bit to allow them to pull alongside...one just waved at me as I tried to get him to get in line and out of the way . Didn't happen right away and I was not happy as the line finally blew by and many a stinkeye thrown my way.
Then at the next stop,two riders were nowhere to be seen after coming off the Talimena Trail into Mena and a planned fuel stop. WHERE are the guys in your mirror? A shrug from one, another said he saw one turnout at a scenic area (we had group stopped for pics earlier at one)
After a fuel, bathroom break and snacks finished, see one, then two headlights coming our way. Both had stopped to take more pics, though we discussed not doing that after our group stop unless communicated.They shrugged.

I asked the other two during that stop about the lane blocking...one just said he felt like it and didn't care about the line behind him. My turn to shrug my shoulders and return to sweep the rest of the day. BTW...all these guys are older than me...herding cats

Have a group of six or so that travel well together and understand the dynamics.At the end of the day we are still speaking to each other . Sadly, lost one of the smarter of the group to cancer a few months ago....gonna miss her in the group

 

[AKsuited]

Arrrrrgggh!

I avoid riding with Pirates!

I'd rather be keel-hauled!

Harry