So, You Can Ride A Motorcycle…

Learning to ride, building skills to be able to handle riding a motorcycle is only the beginning.  What do you do every time you ride?  Do you just take off and ride how you’ve learned?  Or, do you keep working on the skills you’ve learned so far, do you observe how others ride, are you open to learning more, or do you say “I know how to ride a motorcycle”, don’t need to know anything else?  How about advanced skill classes, or do you think you can just learn everything by riding, because you’re just that good (or cocky)?

What about riding with other motorcyclists?  Can you do that without endangering yourself and others?  Do you even understand that riding with somebody else is a whole different ball game than riding by yourself?  Do you get that now, every decision you make, every move you make is not yours alone, it belongs to you and whoever else you’re riding with?

This is what I’ve learned…Whether it’s just the two of you, or a larger group, you’re no longer on your own and every move you make impacts the others riding with you. SAFELY riding with others requires you to move together as one unit. You can’t just move around in your lane wherever and whenever you want at whatever speed you want, like everyone else on the road is doing.  When you’re riding with others you need to maintain your position with the other riders.  The last thing any rider needs is the motorcyclist next to you or ahead of you doing the same stupid shit every other driver on the road is doing.  There’s always other vehicles doing whatever the hell they want on the road that you always have to account for and the leader is making decisions on how to move the group as a whole (even if there’s only two of you), just like you do for yourself when you’re driving your car or riding alone, but you’re not riding alone now.  You now have the responsibility of ensuring not only your own safety, but making sure you’re not endangering who you’re riding with.

I was taught how to ride by my second husband.  I learned in a parking lot, took my first ride on the highway near my house and just kept on riding.  I didn’t even need a lot of skills to pass the motorcycle endorsement test.  Back in the day, you just rode around the block, did a figure 8 in your lane, a quick stop and make sure you used your signals for every move.  That was pretty much it.  Aced that.  Cool.  Now I can ride.

Fortunately for me, I learned early on that there was a whole lot more to it than that.  My then husband and I joined a sober motorcycle club the same year I learned to ride.  Safe riding was a primary principle of their bylaws and their Road Rules reflected that.  They encouraged gaining more riding skills and even arranged for members to take advance riding skill classes together.  Even those members that had been riding for years continued to repeat the classes with the newer riders. There is always something more to learn, the opportunity to brush up on your skills and gaining confidence by finding out just what you and your bike can do together (or not).  It’s one thing to just ride down the road, but what about when something happens…an obstacle in the road, a dumbshit driver, sudden stops in traffic?  What do you do then?  Can you swerve to avoid, can you stop in time?  Odds are, if you haven’t learned and practiced those skills, you may not be able to do so.  If you have learned and practiced, your mind and muscle memory becomes instinctive and your odds of avoiding an accident improve greatly.  When it comes down to it, it’s pretty much just common sense to be that prepared for whatever happens.

Over the years, that training and practicing has proved invaluable in many situations that I’ve encountered while riding. To this day, I practice those skills every time I ride.  The biggest ones for me all center around keeping control of how I ride i.e., riding in one-half of the lane, staying in my half when turning corners, turns at slow speed (my nemesis), etc.  And, of course there always seems to be the opportunity to practice my quick stops.  It’s easy to get complacent and ride lazy. In my own experience and from observing others I’ve ridden with, there have been many times where stupid and lazy riding have almost taken somebody out. I’ve done it to myself more than once and observed others doing the same from time to time.  I recently mentioned to a friend I was riding with that I noticed she was cutting the corners on a 90-degree turn instead of doing an intentional corner and reminded her that she almost had a head-on collision that way several years ago.  Her response was “yeah, you’re right, it’s just lazy riding.”  That’s why I do what I do.

After riding with the group for a few years, observing and understanding how to ride with a group, I  actually started leading the groups at various times.  Over the last 45 years, I have mostly ridden with others and in the last 30 years or so became the primary leader whenever I rode whether it was with my husband or with the club.  The way I lead or ride in a group looks nothing like how I ride on my own.  They are two different styles of riding.  When I ride by myself, I can take off as fast as I love to, push the corners like I love to, or just casually hang out and enjoy the ride, without pushing anything.

I’m here to tell you that there are good leaders, bad leaders, good riders, inexpert riders, good group riders, riders that don’t have a fucking clue about riding with others, and everything in-between.

Examples:

A good leader makes sure there is enough time/room for all the bikes to enter a highway, not just themselves, “everyone else is on their own, they’ll have to catch up.”

A good leader continually monitors the riders behind them, ensuring they are keeping up and ready to move with them when they make a decision to pass or turn, if they are still part of the group or having any issues, or having to pull off for any reason.

A good leader signals their intentions and moves the group as a whole.

A good leader does not take off like a bat out of hell, keep going and assume everyone is keeping up.  (Because they’re following, they are supposed to follow what you do, right?). If you’re at full speed when they’re just getting going or getting around the last left turn, they’re going to have go really, really fast to catch up (not so safe riding for them).

A good group rider ensures they are not riding in a manner that can cause havoc for another rider.

A good group rider is always paying attention to the leader and the bikes around them, so they can react, respond and safely maneuver any situation.

A good group rider maintains their position in the group so the group can move together.  Under good road conditions for staggered style riding that is 2 seconds from the bike directly ahead of you  which keeps you 1 second from the staggered rider ahead of you.  Road or weather conditions can change that as necessary to allow more room for safety reasons.

This positioning provides safe maneuvering for you and others in the group, does not allow enough room for other vehicles to cut in-between the motorcycles and when the leader makes a decision to pass, turn or other kind of maneuvering, it ensures that the group can move as one.

So this is my rant for the day.  All based on my riding experiences up to and including the recent big rides I participated on.  Thanks for listening.  If you’re riding with me, this is how I ride.  By the way, Alice rides like this as well and this is how we ride together.

Just so you know, I’m including a condensed version of the Road Rules below that are the backbone of what I just wrote about.  My experiences have provided the rest.  Let’s ride!

Love and Peace,

Chick

Condensed Version of my Road Rules:

The group is formed into a formation and moves as a whole. Each person will hold their position in the formation unless a road hazard or traffic hazard dictates otherwise. On curvy roads, the formation should drop into single file and spread out allowing riders to use the entire lane and have room to negotiate the corners.

Each rider has the responsibility to consider the group, use their mirrors and pay attention to what is happening in the formation.

The formation will always be staggered in the following order:

1. 2-wheels; sidecars

2. Trikes

3. Bikes with trailers

4. Cars

Each member of the formation will maintain a 2-second interval from the bike directly ahead. At night, or in bad weather, add 1 second to the interval time. Cars following formation should have headlights on at all times also. If formation is split up by traffic or stoplights use judgment in safely rejoining pack at all times.