Group rides

[want2ride]

Just attended my first group ride since being a teenager. It was a meetup group ride here in the Nashville area. Ride started from Percy Priest Lake and we took a twisty trip through the country side up into Kentucky and back down to Dale Hollow Lake and then back roads back to nashville. It was about 300 miles and was more fun than I thought it would be.

Only 2 of us were on ST bikes while the rest were cruisers, mainly HD types (they sure do shake a lot when running). A wing or two was in the group. The people were great, friendly and accepting of my FJR. Must say I had the fastest bike there, lol. Hit it off with another gentleman who rode a Honda ST1100. Only one crash to report on the ride from a rider on a Shadow. He could not handle it well in the curves. No injury to report on it. While aiding him another rider came to help on a wing. When he got off his bike fell over so got to help lift his wing and instruct on ensuring the kickstand is all the way down as he almost did it again.

Learned a few things on this adventure. Start towards the rear and observe the riders to see you should avoid and who could need my medical skills. All bikers have heart and deserve respect but some deserve a little more riding space! May have converted a couple of others into getting a FJR also I was the only rider in the group with ATGATT

I hope to make it to a FJR event down the road and meet the people I read about here.

 

[Old Michael]

... All bikers have heart and deserve respect but some deserve a little more riding space!

Charitably Nicely put.

:grin:

 

[escapefjrtist]

Great observation to hang back with an unfamiliar group. Used that same strategy a couple times...ended up bailing out rather quickly to avoid the inevitable carnage!

--G

 

[steveoreno]

I went on a charity ride that was benefitting a foundation formed to honor my abate instructor's late child. My G/F and another couple went. I felt like Peewee Herman walking in to the starting point with my Yamaha champions jacket on for starters but during the ride the organizers did so many dangerous things including riding in the left lane up hills, stopping traffic without any authorization etc, etc that we pulled off the ride. I've got to the point where I don't attend many rides with the v-twin crowd because they engage in too many risky behaviors especially any poker runs who's stops are at taverns!

 

[Old Guy]

Mostly, I avoid group rides. I've got a small group of friends locally, and we'll get as many as five together when we all show up at the same time, but we spread out so much it's more like five individuals than a group.

I am also a member of a group that started with five in 2000 and has grown to upwards of 30. We meet once a year for an event that one of the members hosts, but we break that up into smaller groups of like-minded individuals rather than ride together. Then, like you, I prefer to ride in the back where I can back off the next-to-last rider a couple of seconds and just do my thing.

I hosted a small ride of these folks in my home state a few years back, and they started calling it "Ed's Grand Prix."

 

[BkerChuck]

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself.

To echo some of the other postings, my wife and I also tend to avoid group rides for the reasons mentioned. I spent several years working part time for a Harley dealership and we were often invited on some of the sponsored rides they held. We went on a couple and rather quickly decided they just weren't the people we wanted to ride with. Nice folks, all of them, but too many who only wanted to bar hop and we could see the writing on the wall for what would eventually happen.

We'll ride with a small group of select friends but rarely more than about 4 or 6 bikes max.