Clubs....is you in or is you out?

[Moise]

I hear ya re the over zealous types. Which is why I am not involved at a committee level anymore. I have been known to remind the odd person that their motto is "growing old disgracefully"


I cant speak for other branches but up here we do a wed ride and a sun ride every week and get a good turnout. School teacher types are not taken too seriously and sub groups split off regularly as they see fit to ride a different way home etc. I do not do any purely social stuff with them apart from the odd fund raiser.

I'm curious now, do you mind saying which branch it is?

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[Laava]

I'm curious now, do you mind saying which branch it is?

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Far North. We ride from BK every wed and sun at 10

[Kickaha]

Last group ride I did was a KB ride organised by White Trash, ironically I'm about to pop onto shop in 10 min so may see him. But it reminded me of why I no longer do group rides.
Too many competitive males trying to find their way place in the pecking order.

I left after about the 3rd crash.

Give him a big sloppy kiss for me

I did 2 KB rides, one over the Rimutakas from the Caltex (you were there on an RF900) 19 years ago and one down here, the most abysmal riding was the one down here where I cautioned a young guy who crossed centre lines a few times, there was one crash with only the rider involved, I normally will only ride in small groups with people I know

[F5 Dave]

Yeah that was the one. I reminded WT about it and he vaguely remembered it.
I think someone crashed a multistrada mk1 on way up the hill doing numerous improvements to its aesthetics.


Later a guy on a 400 shot past me showing how fast a real man goes and then didn't make it onto the bridge a very short distance after. That sort of stuff kills you quite dead. Somehow he got away with it. I checked he was OK but didn't offer to help pull him out of the shrubbery. That should be a decent time for reflection.

Only ride with friends now that I trust.

[Laava]

Yeah that was the one. I reminded WT about it and he vaguely remembered it.
I think someone crashed a multistrada mk1 on way up the hill doing numerous improvements to its aesthetics.

Lols, I have one of those! Multipla.
My pet hate is riding in a swarm like the gang guys do. And I am told some of the Ulysses branches prefer their group rides to be tight as well. Asking for trouble no matter the age, skillset or machinery IMO.

[Kickaha]

Yeah that was the one. I reminded WT about it and he vaguely remembered it.

The one I did WT couldn't make it, it was a few weeks after the crashfest, Paul was there on his Guzzi, Jim2, Lynda Blair, the Greens on their KLX250

Probably not as memorable due to the lack of crashes

[pete-blen]

Been a tag along on a few club rides...
I would rather ride my ride than someone who organized it.

Not for me...


.

[pritch]

At the same time another winner on his Hardley shot up the left on the dirt from about the same distance back as him. He was later heard recounting his story in the pub as 'No time to stop'. Somehow we all managed to slow down just fine. My mate who had been just ahead of me ripped into him. He had stood up on his pegs waiting for impact so was very appreciative that clown 1 hadn't made it past the GS.

Ah yes. I had one similar. On a pie and pint run, for some reason I can't recall everybody slowed and I'd pulled over to the left when a bike went past on my left only inches away still going warp speed. The rider was a nice guy but I later found out he was legally blind.

My favourite quote from the pie and pints.
"How fast were you going?"
"I was doing 260 trying to keep up with the guy on the Hyabusa but I had to let him go."
They have a lead rider now I believe.

It's a long time since I did one, but the local Ulysses branch generally had safe rides. They currently have an active ride and social calendar.

I did a couple of the big group rides: a toy run and an Easter egg run. Too many people on a ride like that seem to think brains are optional. No thanks.

[jim.cox]

Too many people on a ride like that seem to think brains are optional. No thanks.

Yup - what he said.
Don't need the Richard Cranium factor in my life.
Avoid.

[release_the_bees]

You're all making me feel better about my decision to ride my own ride and only riding with trusted family members.

About the closest I come to group rides is the NI 800 and TT2000 events. Even then I've seen the odd idiot. I definitely didn't appreciate being undertaken by a ZX10R or similar, at warp speed on a blind corner, not far out of Turangi at the start of the NI 800 one year.

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[toycollector10]

We've been around for 17 years and started out as an informal group with no rules.Over the years we've trimmed things up a bit so the bikes have to be 1985 or earlier and in factory condtition. That is, unmodified. We try to present as a rolling mini show when we ride out together and can normally muster up ten to fifteen guys on any ride out of a total membership of over sixty riders.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066405589591

[neels]

We've been around for 17 years and started out as an informal group with no rules.Over the years we've trimmed things up a bit so the bikes have to be 1985 or earlier and in factory condtition. That is, unmodified. We try to present as a rolling mini show when we ride out together and can normally muster up ten to fifteen guys on any ride out of a total membership of over sixty riders.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066405589591

That's a shame, my bike's a year too new to join in. Probably too scruffy anyway.

On the subject of clubs/group rides, I've had experiences at both extremes. There have been the idiots trying to prove how 'fast' they are fucking up everyone else's ride, and rides where you are expected to follow the leader and ride at whatever their (sometimes pretty awful) skill level might be.

We used to have a pretty relaxed wednesday night kb ride here in christchurch, until some overly officious types took over and sucked all the fun out of it at which point it died a natural death, seems motorcyclists generally just want to go for a ride and not be told where to go and what to do. Who would have thought.

These days I occasionally ride with like minded people who are happy in themselves and all good with see you at the next stop, but mostly by myself as it's just too hard to join the dots for anything else.

[1/32 man]

Thanks for all comments so far, gentlemen. I appreciate it.

So can anyone suggest an optimal number in a group riding situation.....four or five seems good to me in my experience so far.
I dislike toyruns/charity rides due to numbers of unknown riders and the fact I have done my stint in charity work.(40 years of it)

[Moise]

We've been around for 17 years and started out as an informal group with no rules.Over the years we've trimmed things up a bit so the bikes have to be 1985 or earlier and in factory condtition. That is, unmodified. We try to present as a rolling mini show when we ride out together and can normally muster up ten to fifteen guys on any ride out of a total membership of over sixty riders.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066405589591

The first photo would have to be a Suzuki triple... I need a 2-stroke back in my life!

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[Laava]

Thanks for all comments so far, gentlemen. I appreciate it.

So can anyone suggest an optimal number in a group riding situation.....four or five seems good to me in my experience so far.
I dislike toyruns/charity rides due to numbers of unknown riders and the fact I have done my stint in charity work.(40 years of it)

Yep, I think you are onto it. Apart from the Ulysses, I ride with a couple of other groups. One is just mates that we organize re text, never more than 5 or 6 and the other is similar but we do trips away rather than day rides. Even in our Ulysses branch it is like riding in a small group as we always string out and end up riding in a 2-5 kind of size. Again, it is the riding in formation thing that sucks for me.