Group riding protocol / etiquette

[Silver Fox]

You say that Owen but it did go pear-shaped at one point.

The idea was to always keep the rider behind you in sight, and if the rider behind got stuck at lights, let say, then you would pull over or slow up, and so on up the line. Well if you remember the Belgians forgot this gem of info and decided to blast off and leave three of us on a mad chase to catch up....

The message here is all in the group must stick with the system.....and you need to trust this......

Philip

Happy Easter

[happychappy]

Or do as we did oop north today; get the police and some obliging local riders to hold up all the traffic for 11 miles through Glasgow, and go in a group of about 2,000 others 

[MacValk]

2500 bikers according to press reports (I was there, I believe it).

[happychappy]

Found this off a link from the Blue Knights Scotland Chapter (police bike club; bkscotland1.co.uk), and thought it topical enough to go here.
www.ipagmc.com/riding.htm    and www.ipagmc.com/defence.htm

[MacValk]

Thanks HC

Will try to read it if I get a spare week. 

[jamesmc]

Full credit has to be given to CVP (Clube Varadero Portugal) at VIM 6, for their ability to handle around 136 bikes on one run.? (bikes and riders from 19 different countries).? All CVP riders were in bright flourescent vests, and in radio contact.? Double front end leaders, two marshals mid pack and two at the rear.? The real advantage in Portugal was that no one needed to mark.. they just blocked all other road traffic until the pack was through, then rotated positions... something you couldn't get away with in the UK.

Just one thing though.... if you overtook the rider in front they pulled you to one side and shot the rider, pillion and your Vara with a magnum (not the ice cream)!!  That was hard to get used to, but seemed to be an effective way to control riding discipline.

[Barry T]

I agree James - it worked - but what a bore of a ride and I try to put the 3 hours getting ready, out of my mind

The Virago Owners Club, have 4 rallies a year and regularly do a similar ride with some 150+ bikes.   They do block roundabouts, and side roads.  If the police are with them - as they often are - they block traffic lights.

The biggest ride I ever attended was in Germany - with FIMA, from Haan (North of Frankfurt) to Bonn - some 50 miles.  Some 5/6000 bikes!   The German police provided cars to form a rolling block on the Frankfurt/Bonn motorway.  There was even a police helicopter.

The rolling block was kept some 2 miles behind the last marshal.   The thing to do was to pull over, let the last marshal pass you and wait 'till you could see the police cars approaching.  You then knew that you had some 2 miles of empty motorway in front of you!   That was quite fun!   It was noticeable that most of the bikes pulling this stunt - and there were plenty of them - were British.   I do think that British bikers are more anarchic than their Continental brothers - unless you ride a Virago!

We met other groups in Bonn, then did a tour of the city - it was a Sunday, so Bonn was mostly closed!    There must have been some 15000+ bikes.   They had their Territorial Army out blocking all side streets with their army vehicles.

The whole group then returned to the motorway to go back to Haan, but I took the other entrance to the motorway and headed back to Calais - I had to be at work the next day.

[Silver Fox]

Did a ride in to the BMF rally back in 99 I think where some several hundred bikes met 26 miles from Peterborough. Marshalls stopped the traffic at roundabouts and it was great buzz

Philip

[jamesmc]

Barry

That Saturday morning the wait was too long... the ride was very slow.  The next day they split into about three groups which was more like it.

Smaller groups can be better.... but I discovered that there is a limit to how small you can go. 
I tried an experiment to see how small a group one person can handle, so the other day I went out for a ride on my own... I had to block traffic to get the whole bike through, catch up with myself again and make sure that I didn't lose myself.  I kept to the rules and didn't overtake any other bike and also allowed plenty of room for me to overtake when getting back to the front of the group.   I was in contact radio contact with the lead bike and the last bike.
It went OK but bloody hard work just looking after one rider.... half the time I kept looking around because I thought I'd lost him.
A quick call on the radio soon sorted that fear out.  I arrived back at the start point with the one bike I started with, so it was a pretty successful ride out.

I can see the benefit of a group of riders doing this together as you can spread the load!

[happychappy]

The only mass run I've been on was this year, and I wouldn't do it again. Crawling through Glasgow nearly done for the clutch, and it was like sardines all the way.

Having just come back from the Alps / France /  Germany, I came to realise that if you set out determined not to get lost (- ie, by putting a good map or route in the tankbag window), the three other lazy bas**rds with you think you're only there as a pathfinder for them.

[Barry T]

Happychappy, if I remember right, your recent trip was your first tast of continental riding.  Did the experience meet your expectations?   What about your concerns and worries - how did they materialise?    What are your first impressions of taking the bike to the continent?

[happychappy]

Barry T; may I be so impolite to say it was "a piece of pi**"    I certainly didn't have any trouble at all, and found it to be a great trip. Some complaints from Fazer thou rider who thought we'd ridden too much (..Doh!). Passes into Italy from Switzerland still shut at the top, so headed back north a day early. Eastern France (Mulhouse, Colmar, Strasbourg) was particularly good. (see photo on separate thread)

The general concensus among the 4 of us was that we'd try to arrange a week next September (2005) in the north-ish end of France; rent a villa/house with a pool that sleeps 8, 10, 12, whatever, and use it as a base for the week. Anyone fancy coming along?
I may not be at VIM next year beacuse of this.

The only casualty was the R1; stopped at the side of the road, put his foot down into a hole, and the bike tipped onto a marker post, breaking the front fairing. Sorted in seconds with some tape.

[Barry T]

The general concensus among the 4 of us was that we'd try to arrange a week next September (2005) in the north-ish end of France; rent a villa/house with a pool that sleeps 8, 10, 12, whatever, and use it as a base for the week. Anyone fancy coming along?

Glad you enjoyed the trip.   There is only one place in the North of France worth taking a bike and that is the Ardennes.   That corner where Belgium meets France and Luxembourge offers really first class riding.