Quote from: pompetta on August 29, 2008, 11:52:34 AM
Two is company, three is a crowd.   [moto]

That's why me and BP didn't invite you.   


sac

I hate group ride and hate ride during holiday weekend. My bikes will stay in garage this weekend, to many cage and ass hole on the road. THe only group ride i took was with guys stopping every 15min to wait or smoke or take a piss or...we spent more time on parking lot than ridding.

The perfect ride is during the week with one or twofriends that I know (we know) we do not have to watch at each other, just ride and I know where they are and what they are doing...and we ride until tank is empty with no destination.

Haters!

Quote from: cloud2blue on August 26, 2008, 04:13:56 PM
So my local board is planning a big group ride for Labor Day Weekend and it got me thinking: why?

Am I the only one who dislikes group rides?

I'm with you.  I don't enjoy group rides.  to be honest I don't enjoy most other riders (at least those in their early 20's).   I have a couple friends who I ride with on a regular basis.  Mostly it's me and this one guy who is far more aggressive then me... but it works out.  We kinda have the same idea of what is fun.  and how fast to run, and when to take breaks.  he has to smoke every 30 min, and I don't mind as we don't ever seem to get wore out that way, but we don't make very good time.  If he wants to get moving a little quicker no worries... I'll catch up.  Then their is this other guy, who is a good friend as well, but when he joins us... it's not very fun, he wants to do everything as fast as possible, as dangerous as possible.  and He gets pissed when ever we are ready to call it a day.  No matter how long we have been riding.   

I think it's just about finding a friend or two who suit you and what you like.  That's about as big of a group as I ever want to be a part of...

From what I read, he enjoyed our group ride. We split into two groups of 6 and had a great time.

So I decided, why the hell not, and joined the local group for a ride. 14 bikes show up. We introduced ourselves and chatted before getting started, but I couldn't get over the fact that there was 14 people. In the back of my head I was thinking of what a bad idea this was and of the different places I can separate myself. We head 20 miles on a boring highway to a gas station next to the turn off that leads to the good stuff, so everyone can make sure they have full tanks before the fun begins. A few of the fastest leave first, then everyone else heads out in whatever order they feel like, leaving those who know they're slower to bring up the rear. And that was it. From that moment on it was like riding by yourself, there just happened to be 13 other people going the same way. If you wanted to go faster, you just passed those in front of you and continued on at your pace. A couple times I just fell in behind someone to study them and follow their line for awhile. If I wanted to push it harder, I passed them, otherwise I just followed them to the next stop. JBubble said we broke into 2 groups, but that's not entirely right. We broke into like 8 groups. There were a couple predetermined stopping points and we would roll into each at our own pace. First a couple, then a few minutes later a couple more, then a minute later a few more and so on till the whole group was there. There were whole sections where I didn't see any of the others. There was a half way point where we did split into 2 groups, but that's just because half the group decided to was too cold and too wet. WIMPS! Yes it was fracking cold at the summit, but the road was worth it. And that's the other thing, the 2 groups weren't together when the decision was made. We waited at a gas station for a bit, decided they must have gone a different way and we would meet them at the next stop. It's not like it was a single rider (we would have backtracked for that) but it was a whole group of 7. This is what a group ride truly is. Riding along the same path, looking out for each other, but not controlling each other. I can see that my past bad experiences with group rides were due to the people I was riding with. So I'll end with saying that if you feel as I did, don't give up on group rides, it's just a matter of finding the right group.

make the beast with two backsin A!

Thats how our group rides usually are, a bunch of good guys in our group i feel lucky. They get together once a week usually at a local beer house to shoot the shit as well, throw in the fact that everyone in the group pitches in to help each other when things are needed.  Billy was on that ride, before he ever met me he invited me over to help me put on my clip ons, he spent 4hrs of his time on a week night struggling with me to put those dam things on.  Victor (the guy that gave the speech at the beginning of the ride) invited me over to his house and gave me the pair of Sidi boots i was wearing that day. Chuck (the tail guy ridin the yellow monster on the ride) is coming over this week to help me chop my pipes....its wierd but ive never met such a group of cool people, and good riding buddies.  Come on over and get a beer with us sometime soon, they usually post the meeting place in the drinking thread. 

Quote from: cloud2blue on September 02, 2008, 08:32:03 PM
So I decided, why the hell not, and joined the local group for a ride. 14 bikes show up. We introduced ourselves and chatted before getting started, but I couldn't get over the fact that there was 14 people. In the back of my head I was thinking of what a bad idea this was and of the different places I can separate myself. We head 20 miles on a boring highway to a gas station next to the turn off that leads to the good stuff, so everyone can make sure they have full tanks before the fun begins. A few of the fastest leave first, then everyone else heads out in whatever order they feel like, leaving those who know they're slower to bring up the rear. And that was it. From that moment on it was like riding by yourself, there just happened to be 13 other people going the same way. If you wanted to go faster, you just passed those in front of you and continued on at your pace. A couple times I just fell in behind someone to study them and follow their line for awhile. If I wanted to push it harder, I passed them, otherwise I just followed them to the next stop. JBubble said we broke into 2 groups, but that's not entirely right. We broke into like 8 groups. There were a couple predetermined stopping points and we would roll into each at our own pace. First a couple, then a few minutes later a couple more, then a minute later a few more and so on till the whole group was there. There were whole sections where I didn't see any of the others. There was a half way point where we did split into 2 groups, but that's just because half the group decided to was too cold and too wet. WIMPS! Yes it was fracking cold at the summit, but the road was worth it. And that's the other thing, the 2 groups weren't together when the decision was made. We waited at a gas station for a bit, decided they must have gone a different way and we would meet them at the next stop. It's not like it was a single rider (we would have backtracked for that) but it was a whole group of 7. This is what a group ride truly is. Riding along the same path, looking out for each other, but not controlling each other. I can see that my past bad experiences with group rides were due to the people I was riding with. So I'll end with saying that if you feel as I did, don't give up on group rides, it's just a matter of finding the right group.

you've come a long way since you're first post in this thead.  i'm so proud of you. 

I love group rides. I wish I had time to do them more often. What can I say, I'm a social creature and love being around other people at lethal speeds. Could explain why I like bicycle racing.

I generally don't like group rides unless we hand-pick the riders that go with us and they are comfortable at the speeds we run. Usually, it is just my wife and me riding along, but lately, we've been dragging a few other guys off the mountain and introducing them to hundreds of miles of other roads and to the joys of slightly slower "sport-touring" riding. In our area, we have groups of guys who like to stay on one road and ride it up-and-down, all day long, until they know absolutely every fast line.....and they work the hell out of those lines. It's bad enough that they make a "slow" ride to check road conditions for debris and whatever else, sometimes moving objects off the road, and then cranking those throttles wide open.

One of the guys that has been hitting the 300-400 miles sport-touring rides with us was riding with the really fast guys and he crashed back in November. We've gotten him off the mountain and now goes with us on tri-state day rides. He's discovered that there are a LOT more fun-as-can-be roads out there......that don't have anywhere near the traffic or police patrol that has been on our local favorite road.....plus, by not having the roads memorized, the speeds are a bit slower and safer.....and you learn more about reading the road and watching for obstacles and avoiding them when they appear.

My ideal "group" ride is 3-5 people. Once you get over five, it becomes difficult keeping everyone together on the tight, twisty roads.....especially when hitting traffic and passing them whenever you get the chance.