WARNING -- this is a really long post!!! Lots of venting here.
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I finally did my first group ride a few weeks ago.
It was a pretty awful experience.
The group seemed pretty good at first - all older types, mostly retired poeple, 7 men, 3 women. No youngsters. Most of them had big Harleys/Goldies, although there was one other renegade Triumph guy in the group.
During the pre-departure briefing, I made it known to all that this was my first time. There was another rider who was new to group rides as well.
The leader discussed how to line up in formation, debris in the road, and hand signals. After the lengthy brief on hand signals, I asked about comms and could I pair up (Bluetooth headset) with anyone. They looked at me as though I were speaking Swahili.
The two-hour route - which the leader hemmed & hawed and wouldn't tell us exactly the way we were going - was on all back roads in northern Virginia: rural, a few twisties, but mostly 2-lane country roads so we could enjoy the fall colors.
After the brief, the leader got on his bike, waited a second, and then just pulled out. Seriously, it was about 10 seconds from finishing the brief to his leaving. I gotta tell you, it takes me more than just putting my butt on the saddle to go. I'm still new enough that I have to consciously think about which foot goes where so I don't roll backwards or pop the clutch. So I let myself be a bit rushed on the departure and realized after pulling out that my earplugs weren't seated properly and my helmet cam wasn't on. Stupid me for allowing myself to be rushed.
Away we roared. Almost immediately, the formation disintegrated into a long, straggly line. We were ripping through the country lanes. Corners that were posted at 30mph/48kph were taken at 60 mph/96kph. Well, they were ripping through them. I sure as hell wasn't.
And on the straightaways, through the gorgeous Virginia horse country, they were clocking at 70 mph/113kph. What the heck is the point of traveling the backroads if you're going superslab speeds? The last 4 of us in the group just let the speed demons ride away from us.
They rode through a downtown area (small town) (speed limit 35 mph/56kph) at 50 mph.
The final straw for me was approaching a corner that quickly turned not-so-good. I was #9 out of 10 in the line up. As I looked at the corner coming up, and started lining up for outside-inside-outside, I started seeing little puffs of dirt from the bikes ahead of me.
Uh-oh, must be not-asphalt, LOL. Sure as sin, the paved road turned into several hundred feet of gravel and dirt --- and it all started right in the corner. I kept saying nice & easy, be smooth, don't upset the apple cart, gentle -- I felt the back tire slip and slide a bit, but I just pressed on. I think my few miles on the little dirt bike actually helped me a bit with that.
I imagine the guys on the $20,000 Goldwings were even more pissed than I was.
When we got to the lunch spot, I started hearing mutterings about the lead captain had been fired. Sure enough, he's not allowed to do any more group ride leads for a while. I had already decided there was no way I was riding 2 hours back with them. I split off after lunch and had a nice ride home.
We have another ride coming up -- I might try it once more and see how it goes with a different leader. But I'm glad I didn't let myself get pushed into riding too fast on the first one. And I won't let myself be rushed next time on departure, either. LOL
Oh yeah, about the comms thing --- maybe it's expecting too much, but a guy has a $15K motorcycle and won't spring $120 for a headset? The whole concept of hand signals is ridiculous to me when the group has stretched out to 1/4 - 1/2 mile. You can't see diddly that far away. And I wasn't comfortable taking my hand off the handlebars to do some goofy Navy semaphore signaling. I suppose if you have just 1 or 2 riders, hand signals are workable. But the increase in safety using headset comms is huge, IMHO.
Ok, I told y'all this was a long one! Thanks for letting me vent.
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I finally did my first group ride a few weeks ago.
It was a pretty awful experience.

The group seemed pretty good at first - all older types, mostly retired poeple, 7 men, 3 women. No youngsters. Most of them had big Harleys/Goldies, although there was one other renegade Triumph guy in the group.
During the pre-departure briefing, I made it known to all that this was my first time. There was another rider who was new to group rides as well.
The leader discussed how to line up in formation, debris in the road, and hand signals. After the lengthy brief on hand signals, I asked about comms and could I pair up (Bluetooth headset) with anyone. They looked at me as though I were speaking Swahili.
The two-hour route - which the leader hemmed & hawed and wouldn't tell us exactly the way we were going - was on all back roads in northern Virginia: rural, a few twisties, but mostly 2-lane country roads so we could enjoy the fall colors.
After the brief, the leader got on his bike, waited a second, and then just pulled out. Seriously, it was about 10 seconds from finishing the brief to his leaving. I gotta tell you, it takes me more than just putting my butt on the saddle to go. I'm still new enough that I have to consciously think about which foot goes where so I don't roll backwards or pop the clutch. So I let myself be a bit rushed on the departure and realized after pulling out that my earplugs weren't seated properly and my helmet cam wasn't on. Stupid me for allowing myself to be rushed.
Away we roared. Almost immediately, the formation disintegrated into a long, straggly line. We were ripping through the country lanes. Corners that were posted at 30mph/48kph were taken at 60 mph/96kph. Well, they were ripping through them. I sure as hell wasn't.
And on the straightaways, through the gorgeous Virginia horse country, they were clocking at 70 mph/113kph. What the heck is the point of traveling the backroads if you're going superslab speeds? The last 4 of us in the group just let the speed demons ride away from us.
They rode through a downtown area (small town) (speed limit 35 mph/56kph) at 50 mph.
The final straw for me was approaching a corner that quickly turned not-so-good. I was #9 out of 10 in the line up. As I looked at the corner coming up, and started lining up for outside-inside-outside, I started seeing little puffs of dirt from the bikes ahead of me.
Uh-oh, must be not-asphalt, LOL. Sure as sin, the paved road turned into several hundred feet of gravel and dirt --- and it all started right in the corner. I kept saying nice & easy, be smooth, don't upset the apple cart, gentle -- I felt the back tire slip and slide a bit, but I just pressed on. I think my few miles on the little dirt bike actually helped me a bit with that.
I imagine the guys on the $20,000 Goldwings were even more pissed than I was.
When we got to the lunch spot, I started hearing mutterings about the lead captain had been fired. Sure enough, he's not allowed to do any more group ride leads for a while. I had already decided there was no way I was riding 2 hours back with them. I split off after lunch and had a nice ride home.
We have another ride coming up -- I might try it once more and see how it goes with a different leader. But I'm glad I didn't let myself get pushed into riding too fast on the first one. And I won't let myself be rushed next time on departure, either. LOL
Oh yeah, about the comms thing --- maybe it's expecting too much, but a guy has a $15K motorcycle and won't spring $120 for a headset? The whole concept of hand signals is ridiculous to me when the group has stretched out to 1/4 - 1/2 mile. You can't see diddly that far away. And I wasn't comfortable taking my hand off the handlebars to do some goofy Navy semaphore signaling. I suppose if you have just 1 or 2 riders, hand signals are workable. But the increase in safety using headset comms is huge, IMHO.
Ok, I told y'all this was a long one! Thanks for letting me vent.