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.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI make a distinction between organized group rides and simply taking a ride with a buddy or two. This article is not about rides in that second category.\u00a0 In this blog, I’m describing organized rides with several riders, rides that are usually put together by a club, a dealership, and on occasion, by a manufacturer (like the ride I did with AKT Motos through the Andes Mountains in Colombia).<\/p>\n
Tip 1:\u00a0 Don’t Be A “Maybe” Rider<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure, don\u2019t commit to the ride.\u00a0 Don’t be a guy who says he might go if he can get off work, or if his girlfriend says he can go, or if he feels like going that day, or any of the myriad of brainless “ifs” folks put on their potential participation.\u00a0 You know the drill…you start out with a whole platoon of guys who say they’re going, a week before the ride it’s down to five people, and the morning of the ride it’s you and one other guy.\u00a0 If you can go, put on your big girl panties and go.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not sure, don\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n Tip 2: Don\u2019t Invite Others Without Checking First<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve had this happen to me a few times when I\u2019ve planned rides: Folks I invited invite others.\u00a0 Consider it from this perspective: I invited you because I think you\u2019d add something to the ride and I think I know how you ride.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know other folks you might want to invite, I don\u2019t know how they would fit in the group, and I don\u2019t know how they ride.\u00a0 My suggestion is this: Ask the ride organizer if you want to invite someone else.\u00a0 Don’t just invite others along.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s a marque-specific ride, don\u2019t invite others along who ride other motorcycles.\u00a0 The ride organizer is promoting a manufacturer\u2019s motorcycle.\u00a0 It\u2019s weird; folks would badmouth Chinese motorcycles but then get their shorts in a knot because we wouldn\u2019t allow other brands on the CSC Baja rides (you can read about those in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM<\/a> Tip 3:\u00a0 Don\u2019t Ask To Join The Ride Along The Way<\/strong><\/p>\n This seems to be a recurring request, and the only thing I can attribute it to is laziness and that all-too-common sense of “You don’t understand…I’m special.”\u00a0 It doesn’t seem to matter if we’re organizing a 300-mile ride or a 5000-mile ride.\u00a0 There’s always that guy who doesn\u2019t want to ride an extra 15 miles to join the group at the starting point.\u00a0 He wants the group to pull off the highway to meet him somewhere along the way.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t do this, folks.\u00a0 Either make it to the start of the ride or stay home.\u00a0 The ride organizer has enough going on without adding additional stops to save you 15 miles (and we don\u2019t want to inconvenience everyone else who made it to the\u00a0 start point).\u00a0 Find those big girl panties.\u00a0 Pull ’em on.<\/p>\n Tip 4:\u00a0 Attend the Pre-Ride Briefing<\/strong><\/p>\n If there’s a pre-ride briefing, go to it.\u00a0 Ride organizers do this to provide critical information and to emphasize safety.\u00a0 Don’t ask if you can skip the pre-ride briefing.<\/p>\n Tip 5:\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t Push Alternative Routes<\/strong><\/p>\n Trust me on this:\u00a0 The ride organizer has put a lot of thought into the route.\u00a0 I know when I plan a ride I have a lot of things in mind (start times, how long the ride will take, getting in before dark, the group’s safety, things to see along the way, the route, fuel stops, etc.).\u00a0 If you have a better idea, do your own ride.<\/p>\n If the group isn’t going somewhere you want to go, you might ask the ride organizer privately if it would be okay to split off, see what you want to see, and then meet up with the group later that night (or just finish the ride on your own).\u00a0 I’ve had guys do this and I’m fine with it.\u00a0 What ride organizers don’t want is a debate during the pre-ride briefing.<\/p>\n Tip 6:\u00a0 Arrive Early<\/strong><\/p>\n This is so obvious it almost seems silly to mention it.\u00a0 When I plan a ride and specify a departure time, that\u2019s when we\u2019re leaving.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not ready to go at that time, we’re leaving anyway.\u00a0 I won\u2019t delay the group because you can\u2019t get there on time.<\/p>\n Tip 7:\u00a0 Arrive Fully Fueled<\/strong><\/p>\n Stop for fuel someplace close to the departure point and fill up, and do so such that you can arrive for the start on time.\u00a0 There are few things more frustrating than a rider who announces he has to stop for fuel when the group is ready to leave.<\/p>\n This applies to breakfast, too:\u00a0 Eat your breakfast early, unless the group plans to stop for breakfast.\u00a0 I’ve had guys announce when the group was ready to leave that they needed to eat first. Seriously?<\/p>\n Tip 8:\u00a0 Make Sure You and Your Bike Are Ready<\/strong><\/p>\n If you need to adjust your chain, check your oil, charge your cell phone, clean your faceshield, tweet, post on Instagram, adjust your jockstrap, or any of the other things I’ve seen guys do at the start of a group ride, do all that before you arrive.\u00a0 I used to ride with a guy named Dick who did that sort of thing constantly, and he always did it just as we were ready to leave.\u00a0 “Wait a second,” Dick would say, “I think my chain is loose.”<\/p>\n The advice here is simple: Don\u2019t be a Dick.\u00a0 Do whatever you need to do so that you\u2019re ready to roll at the designated departure time.<\/p>\n Tip 9:\u00a0 \u00a0Keys, Gear, and Mount Up (in that order)<\/strong><\/p>\n Put your key in the ignition before you suit up, suit up, and then get on your bike.\u00a0 Don’t get on your bike before you put on your gear, and don’t pull your gloves on when your key is still in your pocket.\u00a0 I know, this all sounds obvious.\u00a0 But people do these things. I\u2019ve seen guys drop their bikes because they suddenly realize they need to put on their helmet, jacket, and gloves as the group is leaving.\u00a0 They’ll jump on their bike, try to balance an 800-pound motorcycle while pulling on their gear, realize the key is still in their pocket so they have to remove their gloves\u2026and in the middle of it all:\u00a0 Bam, down goes the bike.\u00a0\u00a0Dick used to do that all the time.<\/p>\n Put the key in the ignition, suit up, and then get on your bike.\u00a0 And do it so when the group is ready to leave, you are, too.<\/p>\n One more point on this:\u00a0 If you want to bring your significant other along and he or she is one of those people who takes a long time getting ready, explain that motorcycle rides are different.\u00a0 They just are.\u00a0 If your significant other can\u2019t adapt, maybe you need another significant other.<\/p>\n Tip 10: Refuel When Everyone Else Does<\/strong><\/p>\n Your ride organizer will have considered the bikes and their fuel ranges and selected stops accordingly.\u00a0 Don\u2019t assume you can make it to the next fuel stop when everyone else is refueling.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had guys do this and then run out of gas at inconvenient times and in inconvenient places.\u00a0 One guy did so coming home from a Baja ride.\u00a0 We spent the night in Tecate and fueled the bikes there, but for whatever reason, he decided he had enough gasolina<\/em> and he didn’t top off.\u00a0 He ran out of gas on I-5 somewhere north of San Diego.\u00a0 For all I know, he’s still sitting by the side of the road.<\/p>\n Tip 11:\u00a0 Keep Your Helmet On At Gas Stops<\/strong><\/p>\n A fuel stop can be 10 minutes if everyone pulls up to a pump, keeps their helmet on, and is efficient.\u00a0 Or it can be 45 minutes or more if folks take their helmets off, start kibitzing and posting on social media…you know.\u00a0 Listen to what the ride organizer says about this during the pre-ride briefing.\u00a0 I like to keep my helmet on and keep things moving.<\/p>\n Fuel stops are a good place to use the rest room, too, but be quick about it.\u00a0 Most ride organizers will make a pit stop every hour or so (hey, we’re mostly a bunch of full-figured mature prostate patients), so take advantage of every stop and hit the head.<\/p>\n Tip 12:\u00a0 Eat With The Group, and Be Nice<\/strong><\/p>\n Don’t decide you don’t like the restaurant the ride leader selects for lunch and wander off looking for your idea of the perfect place, and don\u2019t suggest different places to eat when the group stops at a restaurant.\u00a0 \u00a0Give the ride leader credit for having thought about things like how long it takes to get served at a restaurant, cost, etc.\u00a0 On the wandering off thing, I’ve had guys do this and I left without them when we were finished eating.\u00a0 Sometimes they got back in time and sometimes they didn’t, but I wasn’t going to inconvenience everyone else waiting for my vagabundos<\/em> to rejoin the group.<\/p>\n If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant, you know large groups are tough.\u00a0 The wait staff may be leery of your group for a couple of reasons…you’re a bunch of people dressed like Power Rangers (so you may be a little intimidating), and most groups tend to leave scanty tips (or no tip at all).\u00a0 Be nice and leave a good tip.\u00a0\u00a0The ride organizer probably has a relationship with the restaurant from prior visits, and he ‘ll probably want to bring other groups on subsequent rides.\u00a0 Don’t poison the well.<\/p>\n Don’t take up other tables by stacking your helmets, your jackets, and other stuff on them.\u00a0 Leave other tables free for the restaurant’s other customers.<\/p>\n Some folks take forever choosing from the menu, or they have special requests (you know, put this on the side, add this but subtract that, can I get goat cheese instead of American cheese, etc.).\u00a0\u00a0 That makes things difficult for the restaurant and the other riders.\u00a0 Choose from the menu, be quick about it, and don\u2019t delay the group.<\/p>\n Here’s another thing I want to mention:\u00a0 I’ve ridden with guys my age or older who mostly look like me, yet they somehow feel compelled to hit on the wait staff.\u00a0 For the record, I’m overweight, I’m bald, and I’m not tall, dark, or handsome.\u00a0 Read that sentence again, because whether you realize it or not, I may have just described you.\u00a0 Do you really think a young woman working in a restaurant is going to be impressed by a short, fat, and not-so-handsome guy three times her age hitting on her?\u00a0 Give it a break, guys.<\/p>\n Tip 13:\u00a0 Ride Safely<\/strong><\/p>\n Safety trumps everything else on a group ride.\u00a0 Go to the safety briefing, ride in a staggered formation, don\u2019t crowd the rider in front of you, and don\u2019t try to carry on a conversation by riding alongside another rider.<\/p>\n Riding in a group also means keeping up\u2026you don\u2019t want to tailgate the rider in front of you, but you don\u2019t want to ride so slowly that it opens up huge gaps in the group.<\/p>\n If a traffic light changes to red, don\u2019t blow through it just to keep up with the group.\u00a0 The ride leader will most likely stop to wait for you.\u00a0 You should know the route so that if you do get separated, you can join the group down the road.\u00a0 And if a car needs to change lanes to exit in front of you, allow it to enter and cross your lane.<\/p>\n Finally, know your capabilities and consider the group.\u00a0 If you’re a loud-pipes-saves-lives kind of rider and the group is a bunch of loud-clutches-saves-lives canyon carvers, you may be praying at the wrong church.\u00a0 If the group is riding at a pace beyond your capabilities, drop out and ride your own ride.\u00a0 \u00a0Don’t get in over your head, and don’t assume because the guy in front of you made it through that corner at 80 mph you will, too.<\/p>\n Tip 14:\u00a0 Avoid Alcohol During the Ride<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ll only ride with folks who won’t drink at all on a ride.\u00a0 Once the bikes are parked for the evening, that’s another story, but during the day, it’s no booze.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 I’ve played the game with guys who think they can have a beer during the day.\u00a0 Then it becomes two.\u00a0 Then three.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Not gonna happen.\u00a0 Not with me.<\/p>\n There are liability issues here, and it’s likely that folks sponsoring a ride simply won’t risk the extra exposure that goes with allowing alcohol consumption on a ride.<\/p>\n Tip 15:\u00a0 Be An Extremely Careful Photog<\/strong><\/p>\n You can have a great motorcycle ride or you can make a great video, but you can’t do both at the same time.<\/p>\n If you want to do a video on the road, get a mount (Ram<\/a> If you’re using a digital camera for still shots, never try to use the viewfinder or look at the LCD screen to compose the shot while you’re riding.\u00a0 Digital film is cheap: Take a bunch of photos without looking through or at the camera. One or more of your photos will be good.\u00a0 You can’t control your motorcycle trying to compose a photo, and you put yourself and the riders around you at risk if you attempt to do so.<\/p>\n Last point on this topic:\u00a0 Don’t delay the ride so you can get the perfect photo or an artistic video.\u00a0 There’s a lot more at stake here than the number of likes you’ll get on Facebook.<\/p>\n Tip 16: Pay Attention To Your Turn Signals<\/strong><\/p>\n Keep an eye on your turn signals.\u00a0 Dick used to put his turn signal on, he’d make the turn, and then he’d ride the next 72 miles with his turn signal flashing.\u00a0 Again: Don’t be a Dick.<\/p>\n Tip 17:\u00a0 Pack Your Bike Safely<\/strong><\/p>\n One time I rode with bunch of guys from the place I was working at the time, and the plan was for a 3-day trip to San Felipe.\u00a0 I had my KLR, there was another guy on an FJR, and there was another guy on a full dress Harley.\u00a0 We met up at a Denny’s and I was shocked, although I guess I shouldn’t have been.\u00a0 The Harley guy’s bike had saddlebags and a tailpack, and he still had a bunch of stuff strapped down on his rear seat and the top of the tailpack.\u00a0 “I brought everything I needed for the three days,” Mr. Harley announced (his name wasn’t Dick, but it could have been).<\/p>\n I had everything I needed, too, and it was all in the tankbag on my KLR (including a camera).\u00a0 I pointed that out to my portly V-twin buddy.\u00a0 Learning how to pack (and what to pack) comes with experience, I guess.\u00a0 New riders tend to overpack.\u00a0 I used to do that.\u00a0 I travel light now.<\/p>\n The drill on a ride for me is this:\u00a0 If I can’t get it into the panniers and the tailpack, I don’t need it.\u00a0 And that includes tools, a laptop, my camera, and a couple of lenses.\u00a0 \u00a0I mentioned this on one of the week-long CSC Baja rides, and one of my friends said, “I don’t know how you do it. I have the same bike with the same bags, and I still need to strap a bag down on the rear seat to hold everything.\u00a0 And I only brought enough underwear to change every other day.”<\/p>\n My response?\u00a0 “You brought underwear?”<\/p>\n Tip 18: Let Others Know If You Bail<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re going to leave the ride, let others know.\u00a0 It’s okay to do that; it’s not okay to do it without letting anybody know and just disappearing.\u00a0 That happened to me once in Baja and it scared the hell out of us.\u00a0 You don’t want to make people nervous (and maybe become the object of a search party, like we had to do in Baja) by simply changing your mind about the ride or the route.\u00a0 Be a nice guy and let someone know if you’re going to bail.<\/p>\n So there you have it.\u00a0 \u00a0If I’ve offended anyone with the above list, my guess is you’re young and you’ll probably get over it.\u00a0 If not, mea culpa<\/em>.\u00a0 And if you have more suggestions on how to ride well in a group, we sure would like to hear them.\u00a0 Please leave your comments here on the ExNotes blog (don’t post your comments on Facebook; be one of the cool kids and post them here).<\/p>\n Ride safe, folks.\u00a0 And ride extra safe if you ride with a group.<\/p>\n Help keep us going:\u00a0 Please click on the popup ads!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Never miss an ExNotes blog!\u00a0 Sign up for free here!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Riding in a group is a lot like sex:\u00a0 Most of us think we\u2019re better at it than we really are. This blog focuses on how to play well with others on a group ride.\u00a0 It\u2019s told from the perspective of a guy who has organized and led group rides (that would be me) and … Continue reading “Playing Well With Others: 18 Group Riding Tips”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[654,235,63,57,72,89,369],"tags":[1718,1716,1715,1717],"class_list":["post-11435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure-motorcycle-books","category-amazon","category-baja","category-baja-cuisine","category-china","category-motorcycle-adventure-ride","category-zongshen","tag-club-rides","tag-riding-in-a-group","tag-safe-group-rides","tag-tips-for-group-riding"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/160704_0549-900.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11435"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19562,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11435\/revisions\/19562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/140714_6098-600.jpg\")
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