Group riding?

Kento-Moto

Kento-Moto

Hayabusa Immortal
Donating Member
Registered
Would like some feed back plz ...

Riding any motorcycle is serious business but especially sportbikes and in my opinion newb's shouldn't be on any bike over a 600.

I really enjoy the MC community and myself and Newmill have our own local riding website for group rides ... this can be awesome. ----- HOWEVER, I have personally witnessed no less than 5 crashes right in front of me during the last 6 years of riding, and it happened again yesterday ( details below )

I have a handful of close buddies I ride with and we know each others style and abilities we allmost never have any issues when we ride. But when newb's and people you havnt riddin with before show up, especially in large groups, shxt can happen.



So my question is : <span style='color:darkblue'>how does everyone feel about group riding? </span>



Details on sunday ride :

We hit from Starbux and I was surprised to see sooo many bikes when I rolled in, then even more showed as we were workin the Java. A real mixed bag of bikes and riders. I'm thinkin WOW! Cool! I was expecting about 6 bikes, and we have 23 I think. So I give the little 2 minute safety speach before we roll ( hand signals, watch for gravel, ride at your own level ... )
We were planning about a 150-200 mile round trip.

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I pulled over and waved everyone pass and a newb looked at me and missed the upcoming turn. I was like No No NOOOOO TURN !!! oops, down he goes and barely missed a steel pole.

Glad he didnt get worse than bruised and broken bike.

Thanx to the slower group of crusiers who helped alot gettin rider back to town.

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I helped the new guy for about 30 minutes and was late to get back home but the rest of the group rode on for a couple hrs with no further problems.

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im not a big fan of big groups... 10+ and i like to know everybody and their riding level. thats just me tho.
 
I don't normally like to ride in big groups but when I do I try and stay at the back of the pack and maintain a slower pace
 
I prefer the back as well. I ride my ride and do not prefer to try to stay ahead of the guy behind me.

I usually ride alone on weekends, but it is nice to ride with a group of people for the safety and camaraderie.

It just takes extra looking out and alertness.
 
The only thing I like about large groups is the company during breaks and lunches. When we're on the road, I don't like to be in the mix of a lot of riders. Just me and the road, a couple of trusted buddies is cool too.
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On the group rides I organize, I simply tell everyone to ride their own pace and that the fast riders will wait for the slow ones at intersections where the group makes a turn. Then I take off and push the pace to separate myself from everyone but the fastest riders. This spreads the group out, making it safer in my opinion than when everyone is all bunched up. One thing I have learned is that everyone should line-up according to skill level or how fast they are going to ride. But that's hard to do without hurting feelings or egos.

I'll admit that this type of format isn't good for newbies. But I'm a big believer in personal responsibility. Each rider is responsible for their own judgement. Sure give newbies advice and warnings, but you can't ride the bike for them.

If the newbie wants someone to lead or follow right behind them, no problem. But it should be just the two of them together, not in the middle of a pack of 20.

Now if this is a large group that wants to be tight together, no problem. But now you have to ride the pace of the slowest guy to keep it safe. That's not my kind of ride, I'd rather stay home.

As far as when on the road riding, the best group ride I have been apart of was last year's SoCal ride on Sat. There was 7 to 8 of us all at the same skill level. I was leading coming up 7 levels(palm desert) and glanced in my mirror and saw 7 or 8 of us about 2 bike lengths apart leaning through a long right hander. It was awesome
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But most group rides have big differences in rider abilities and that just doesn't make it safe to stay bunched together.

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Group riding can be fun... I like having a group of people when i go because its much safer if everyone rides at their own pace.

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Its when one person starts acting a fool or is out of control that things typically go bad like in your example. I have had several experiences where someone believes that they can go through a corner on their bike only because they see me doing it on a much heavier hayabusa. Even when I tell them not to follow me through turns, they try anyways...

The end results are never any good... At least when you ride in a group, if someone goes down, there is usually help. If you are alone... not every motorist passing by will know anything of what to do.

Here are a few examples of people trying to follow the heavy Busa through a turn! The worse was my friend Matt on a new ZX14... He low sided a turn when he couldn't get his ZX14 set for the turn.

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Luckily all Matt got was a bruised knee.
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Easy question for me, I DON'T ! That is, ride with groups because I am either faster (and I'am not going to watch my mirrors and slow down or wait) or I'am slower (and I'am not going to speed up just to keep up). And then there are the squids who want to impress me (since I'am older) with their skills (which they DON'T have) ! Infact one nearly took my left foot off passing me doing (my guess 90 mph and nearly out of control) to show me how fast he rode. What a NERD ! So, No group rides for me  
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(rubber2burn @ Apr. 30 2007,15:flamethrowing:) I don't normally like to ride in big groups but when I do I try and stay at the back of the pack and maintain a slower pace
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Me too, but the bike and helmet pay for it.
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Lots of gravel damage to the fender, nose, and helmet.
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Just like with Vman and some of his Gap buddies, ozzy04, and Dennis, I told them I'd stay in the back from the lookout to CROT.
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Does a track day count as a "group ride"?

I'll ride with any group, doesn't bother me. I know I will be going slower than usual.
 
I'll ride in a group, provided everyone listend to the ruls set by whoever winds up being group leader. Also, i dont like riding with folks I don't know and havent seen ride, or have someone i DO know who can vouch that they're okay in a group. I don't particularly like parge groups either. 10 or 12 is the max i feel comfortable with - any more and i feel like you're pusing it, because the liklihood of one person screwing up and tasking a bunch of people out increases so much.
 
I LOVE group rides.... with the right people!

I am VERY lucky that I get to do group rides with several racers that leave their egos at the track.  There is a huge sportbike community here in Portland.  We frequently do group rides of 30+ riders.  These guys flat know how to ride, but since their second home is the track, they don't have anything to prove on the street.  We all know who is fastest.  And there are those times when someone just isn't "in the zone" and they wave others by and back off a notch.  We would rather see someone ride smarter and slower than be scraping them outa the ditch and trying to get what's left of their bike home.

Of course the big rides attract newbies.  We STRESS that everyone ride at their own pace, and ride safely.  We let the fast guys start out front, and then some of the "not as fast" guys will purposely hold the pace to a sane level to prevent the new riders from getting in trouble.  We also ALWAYS have an experienced rider riding "sweep" in the rear.  We regroup at every intersection or turn  in the route.  

Fortunately the true squids find they don't fit in with our seasoned group of riders.  Our group doesn't tolerate public displays of stunting and the riders will be told so.  Usually riders show their mature side when they join us.  

I think alot of what attributes to our low crash count is that the new riders realize right away that the "fast guys" are at a whole different level.. and even if they TRY to (and half way successful) at keeping pace, it wouldn't impress anyone...

I'm lucky to be skilled enough to hang near the front of the pack... usually a few bikes back from the front... far enough back for the Passport to warn me of LEO, and still well ahead of the rookies near the rear.

Riding sweep is a kick tho...  you see some crazy stuff!
 
I've done some large (for charity) group rides. Toys for tots Etc.

But for riding i have a group of 6-10 people that i know and ride with often. not only do we all know our abilities, we have riden with each other enough that we all know the other peoples limits and abilities also. makes for good safe fast rides. We don't let squids ride with us. and we run out any a$$holes pretty quick. Most of us are about 35-45 yrs old, have kids houses jobs Etc. we ride Hard but do it safe. and as a bonus 2 of them are LOEs (Comes in handy when stopped) and 2 is X Moto GP rider, and 2 EuroRacing circuit riders.
 
Thanx for the thoughts guyz, I think we are gonna keep the group rides here locally but will be spelling out the rules on the local website.

Best group rides were
- 2003 to Laguna about 30 Busa's
- 1st time parade lap at Laguna
- Safety Awareness Ride here in Chico, I led out about 100 Bikes on a slow lap around town, when we rolled through the down town area most of us were reving the throttle til we hit the limiter.
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