How do HD clubs pick their "road captains?" (rantish)

On cinder blocks?

I must agree... and realistic speed limits on state/secondary roads is a plus as well.

Too bad all the creeping banjo playing kids keep everyone away.

I'm a native west coast "snob" who loves the open country, the riding and that great stuff but West Virgina is a exceptionally nice place to ride....Also, Senator Byrd also seemed to get a lot of money for nicely done roads. Nice people, too. Way nicer than jack-asses, in, say for example, Las Vegas...but they aren't from anywhere anyhow.

A long time ago I actually saw a photo of a real bike not unlike that one, IIRC it was a prototype designed during the First Wolrd War to move around troops cheaply and quickly.

I have only gotten this far in the thread but had to agree. I ride Sundays with a group that has as many as 40 bikes. I have had many discussions with the 'leader' that we should break it up into smaller groups, distribute maps and basically meet at the lunch place and not worry so much if we get split up. He always disagrees saying they want to ride together. The odd thing is that he also agrees when I talk about dangerous situations the large group gets into.

Some of the situations he has put us into was pulling over suddenly so that the stragglers can catch up. This was done in such a way that some of the group including me was in the middle of a turn. What a surprise. Another time he stopped the whole group on a less travelled fork in the road. I ended up under rotating my rear wheel when I came to a stop. Another time he pulled into a right turn lane for the stragglers to catch up. This confused 2 cars that wanted to turn right, when I mentioned it he said that he did not feel he was in danger, to which I said, of course not you were at the front of the line, the guys in the back were the ones in danger. This ended up offending him and he said I could lead if I thought I could do a better job.

Any way, I am not sure what I am going to do. I have been staying in the back and basically let them go ahead and meet them at the place.

Best solution is to ride your own ride. Find out where they are going and meet them there.

I have never been able to figure out what people like about group rides, I would hate not being able to go at the speed i like whenever I like.

I had to read that twice.


I have been riding with the same group for 6 years, we range in age from 28 to 75.

We all ride at our own pace, and still get to the same place.

But, we are talking about two different mindset here, we don't ride cruisers.

TFB. Sounds like he is about as much a "leader" as I am a nuclear physicist, which I am not.
Sounds like you could do a better job...by splitting them up into smaller groups and knowing where a good place is to stop(not slow) where everyone can safely exit the road and wait for the stragglers to catch up.
Personally, I'd ditch that group, ride by myself, and catch them at lunch. Could probably get another 50+ miles in before lunch too!

You are correct that it is about mindset but what does the type of bike have to do with it? I used to ride with a group just like the one in your picture ... never again ... they were downright dangerous just as described in the post above by Scada.

Clever marketing has made cruisers the most popular type of bike...and by extension that attracts more new riders. If a new rider spends his or her formative first year or so in a group ride - group think environment, he or she will probably not push the envelope and learn how to properly handle that bike outside of a group, i.e., slow and upright, keeping an eye on the tail light in front of you.

For me, riding is a very individual experience. I belong to a few clubs, all of which stress safety and provide refresher safety training as the winter snow melts away. But we rarely ride together unless for one of those safety refreshers. That said, the group loving riders are doing their own thing (collectively, like the Borg). I just wish they would base their concept of safety on ways that coincide with traffic laws the rest of the nation understands, and do a bit more to dispel skills that worked in decades past but not so much today.

The vast majority of the large groups I have seen have been riding cruisers. Cruiser riders certainly tend to have a different mentality. In general (yes there are exceptions) cruiser riders don't care about how the bike handles or performs. Looks and how it sounds are the top priority. How better to show off that great look and sound than to ride with other like minded riders? Cruiser riders tend to prefer the social aspect of riding more and the performance or adventure aspect of riding less. Get away from really popular roads like Deals Gap, the Skyway or the BRP, and the ratio of cruisers compared is far less compared to more performance oriented bikes than their actual ratio overall. Again, this a generalization so I'm sure there are some of you out there who ride cruisers and don't fit my stereotype. If you are a cruiser rider and on ADV, you are most likely not a typical cruiser rider.

I'm not saying there aren't riders on all kinds of bikes doing stupid things but this thread is about road captains and large groups of bikes riding together. This is mainly a cruiser thing.

Do you actually believe this?

This is absolutely true in the area I ride the most which is the mountains of N GA, W. TN, and E. NC. Cruisers are by far the most common type of bike out there but get out into the mountains and the ratio of bikes changes drastically. I have found that European bikes in particular are far over represented in the mountains.

Here's an example. Go to Deals Gap in the off season when it tends to be cold and not many people are around. The ratio of cruisers is far less than during the season when they predominate.

Come to think of it, this was also true when I lived in So Cal.

I have gone on a few (only a few) rides with cruiser guys. They always picked really boring main roads for the ride.

I haven't ridden in the PNW so maybe things are different there.......but I'd be surprised if they were.

Here it seems to be about 70% cruisers no matter the weather or where you go. The only exception seems to be the abundance of scooters in the downtown area.

oseroser



Wow, you completely missed the point of my post.

We don't follow nose to tail.

Aah, a sport bike, standard , or dual sport is more dangerous than a line of cruisers.

You were riding is a 40 bike ride, with a road captain, on sport bikes???

No I didn't miss the point ... and I agree that riding nose to tail is a fools game.

What I am disputing is that the road block group ride complete with 'road captain' is particular to cruiser style bikes. I can assure you that the rides like that I have attended have been a mix of bike types and one group is dominated by sports / road bikes.

BTW on these rides (which I no longer attend) I was either on my Duc Monster or on my Hardley ... my partner on his Bandit 1200s or his Hardley.

Totally agree ... and LOL @ 'the Borg' reference.

You don't really believe that do you?


I guess we are talking about two different things here.

I don't do group rides, but I do ride with my friends.