Ridiculous Rideouts

[Villers]

Now don't get me wrong I like rideouts as much as the next man. What I dont like is when they are orchestrated by complete morons.

On sunday we were set to go to Devils bridge. So I stayed off the drink on saturday and I was quite looking forward to it. When we all met (all four of them plus me and ste) it became apparent that the weather had put everyone off. So off we set with the 'ringleader' taking the front. He took the weirdest route to Penrith ever, with a normal speed of 60 (very commendable in my opinion officer) with the exception of the times where it wasnt safe to overtake he would be happy to flog it through a tiny gap. Once past back to 60 again. Now we are holding up traffic and stuff. When we get to the dual carriageways he doesnt accelerate, leaving us to sit while an old mini we just passed overtook us, along with a corsa and a fiesta. Now Im annoyed, if I knew the route I would have been a blur in the distance. So we get as far as Kendal and they give up (thanks mate 80 miles in you tell us) and say half are going to a cafe and half going to the pub. 30 yards later we get seperated by the lead group jumping the lights and by the time we get there theres a roundabout with five exits and no bikers. great. marvelous.

So it all wound me up, but apart from the speed and stuff their idea of safety was crap, they were either an inch from my rear or riding in a line so if we had to stop quickly we were all in trouble. The worst bit was that they didnt look out for each other.

sorry about having a bit of a rant!!

Anyone got experiences to share?

[Silver]

I'm amazed by the number of groups of riders who ride single file... The first bike brakes and the rest pile in the back. I haven't done any advanced riding courses (so maybe someone can tell me what they teach on them), but I always try and ride staggered, so that people have time and room to manoeuver if neccessary.

On the speed front, I've been there too. Some bloke at the front of a ride out (of sports bikes!) doing 70mph max on open roads. I tend to feel it too aggresive to start passing people you're riding with that you don't know that well. On the way back I made sure I was in front of all the slow bastards though!

[RealNinja]

Part of the problem here is that one man's fast is another man's cruising along....

I had this experience on a rideout with the Midlands Bike Chat forum two years ago.

We got unexpectedly split into two groups, but this wasn't so much of a problem as we all had maps. The problem arose when a guy on a Bandit got stuck with 'our' group which was mainly made up of 750+cc sportsbikes (I ride a ZX7R myself) so we were quite happily doing the sportsbike thing of passing each other and letting people go past, playing on roundabouts and generally baiting any 'fast' cars.

As far as I was concerned, I had a brilliant time, met a lot of new people and was thouroughly looking foward to going on another ride out with the same people.

However, when I logged on to the site later on that day there was a torrent of abuse directed at 'our' group for doing exactly what we were doing....

It seems that the Bandit rider had been struggling to keep up and had been putting in dangerous overtakes to keep up (he wasn't last BTW) and flamed the lot of us for turning the run into a 'raceout'.

I'm not saying the people that organized your rideout weren't morons (heaven knows there are a lot of them about!) but you have to consider that they might just have been new/inexperienced
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[mchaggis]

It would have been last Sunday, me on my slow, heavy and underpowered Chinese 125, with my mate from LUMCC Iain (Yannic) on his CBR6. Ahem. 9.5hp vs 120. There was still snow on the verges and the roads were really not very clean (mud, leaves and gravel), but overall they were okayish.

He said he was prepared to go slowly, as there was only the two of us. And slow he did go, for his bike. Needless to say whereas I was redlining for tens and tens of miles in top gear, he was just ticking over in fifth or sixth at 55mph. Cold hands and filthy filthy bikes, boots and trousers were really the only problems, as well as my front brake needing bleeding.

Though I did filter and take a wrong turning, meaning we ended up having to go down the A1 for a while, I enjoyed the ride, being inexperienced at riding in rubbish conditions, continually being challenged, and there being some nice twisty roads on the way to pork pie land (Melton Mowbray).

Whether he enjoyed as much I don't know. It only really struck me as ridiculous as his machine has at least eleven times the power of mine and only a few tens of kilos more in weight.
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[Yannic]

I must admit it was a little slow. I still had a chance every now and then to open it up though. Unfortunatley I've lost my little dudar for getting pictures off my phone so no photo's to show as of yet.

I go out riding with 2 CBR400's of which both go faster than me on the road :( They seem to have the ability to go quickly when my fraidy-cat switch kicks in and applies the breaks. I usually break too hard in to corners and don't carry the momentum like they do.

I've never been out riding with people who are what I consider dangerous on the road and if I found myself with people who were.. i'd just back off and let them do their thing. If someone was at the front doing 60... overtake them ;-)
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[stinkwheel]

Maybe there were some fell passes they wanted to take in en-route? I presume you went along the A66 then turned off at Keswick to go along the Windermere road to Kendal. I sometimes go that route for variation. There are some interesting corners outside the tourist season when there are no buses and caravans, fewer traffic cops too.

Riding in groups is tricky, the 'tail end charlie' has to go a lot faster than the rest of the group. In a six vehicle convoy in the TA, if the first vehicle sat at a constant 30mph, the rear one had to sit at 60 most of the way, so bikes cruising at 60-70 can leave the back marker ton-up.

On big rideouts you need to split into smaller groups and make sure each group has a designated leader (wear an armband or something on a big rideout) who knows where they are going. This also avoids being done for 'racing on a public highway' which can be implied through riding as a group of six or more with no designated leader (12 points).

The only way I have found that really works is using a 'leader-follower' system. If you deviate from the road you are on, you stop and wait for the next person. Tail end charlie should know who they are. You need to make sure everyone knows they are doing this and sticks to it. Another way that can work is to have designated stop-off points where you all meet before setting off again, people need to know where they are going for this one though.
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I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[hugo-a-gogo]

[mr.z]

[stinkwheel]

[mchaggis]

So you want the ZX12s, Blackbirds and Busas at the back of the lead group.. Fat chance I should think.
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I must not be a troll...
Mmmm, Guinness
Discovering the delights of Hammerite and a 3/4" brush.