Who do you ride with? Or Solo?

I had mostly always ridden by myself or I would already be out and run into fellow riders and join up until my route took me elsewhere. Around a month ago, I did that /impromptu ride with a group and it turned into me meeting a Great local Forum that are extremely organized. My solo rides still happen (and I do commute on my VFR) but riding with a well organized and Safe group is the way to go! Shout out to:

Tampasportbikes.com


Ride Red!

 

lone wolf, hardly see another sport bike, mostly harley doods that dont even wave.

 

Went out at lunch yesterday /Solo ride and bikes were all over - Squids mostly. The Harley crowd are the Worst at returning a wave; most of them are Posers anyway.

Ride Red!

 

Typically ride with a few VFRW members, VFRMan44, OC_Landspeeder, Duccmann (when he's not working weekends), and Scubalong a few times. There's also have a few non VFRW riders that will tag along with us, but if not in a group, I usually have the wife as passenger. The key is finding riders who don't ride like idiots idiots, can ride "the pace" and know how to ride in a group. It doesn't hurt if they ride within the same level that you do as well.

 

Ride mostly solo except when my girlfriend is on the back. Ride with a few friends a few times a year. But do as many track days as possible and ride with a bunch of friends as various tracks. Jennings, Homestead International, PBIR and did Mid Ohio and Barber this year.

 

@ OOTV

Yup, I went on my 1st official ride with Tampasportbikes this past Saturday and started out in the back. Within 20 miles, I saw their skills and knew that I was with the right group. We did almost 200 miles and had no incidents. They also do Meet & Eat nights which I have participated in also.

Ride Red!

 

@ Gator

That is my next goal; a Track day. Many of the guys that I ride with have been to Jennings. What part of Florida do you live/ride?

Ride Red!

 

Most of my riding since my son Liam was born (he is now 6) was solo and consisted mainly of back and forth to work. Liam began riding with me when he was almost 5, and only short commutes to the park back then and less than 15 km's return. He has now stretched his riding legs, as it were, and we completed our longest ride just this fall with Liam logging in a 150 km's. He is a great little passenger and just loves his "daddy time" as he likes to call it. Just me, him, the burble of the exhaust and the open road. Great times, and Liam celebrated a large milestone in his eyes as he surpassed 1000 km's as a passenger. He can hardly wait till the time comes when he gets to ride in front. All in good time my son, all in good time................... and over his grandma's dead body. LOL





The stuffed Elephant in a couple of the photos was "Ellie", my son's grade 1 class mascot (if you will) in case some of you are wondering. The stuffy elephant goes home with one kid in my son's class every weekend and then they are supposed to write a short blurb on "What did you and Ellie do this weekend?" The teacher in the class is trying to encourage the class to get out and do things and to help increase their writing skills, spelling, sentence structure, and awareness of what others are doing. Every Monday morning the child who had Ellie for the weekend gets to stand up in front of the class and tell the rest of the students what they did with Ellie on the weekend. The teacher said that Liam had, by far, the most exciting story to tell and that he was really well spoken when he described the outing to his classmates. He was already the talk of the class when I dropped him off at school that morning on the back of the bike. He also wanted me to leave him his helmet and jacket so that he could show the class his safety gear. Not even the teacher understood what ATGATT meant until Liam told him very matter of factly, "It is an acronym that stands for All The Gear All The Time". His teacher said he explained with great enthusiasm that you have to wear proper safety gear when riding to help you not get hurt and that was why his sister can't ride yet, cause she is too small and they don't make a small enough helmet or jacket for her yet. It sounds soooo cute when he explains it to his sister, and I wish I could have been there to hear him tell his class.

 

@ Zoom,

My daughter loves to ride also but I only take her on short neigborhood rides. ATGATT is a great lesson for kids; my daughter asked me why is it important to wear gear? I simply told her: Run as fast you can and jump down/slide on the ground in your shorts....

She replied: that would be crazy.... oh, I get it

Ride Red!

 

Best check the local minimums for passengers in the States.

http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/Rights/State-Laws.aspx?stateid=47


Kind of a rule of thumb is if the passenger can't reach the pegs it's a no-go... and please don't point out that all that would need be done to fix that would be a drill and a couple of handtools and some aftermarket pegs or broomsticks and hot glue.

 

I was always a lone wolf for many years until I found folks I trusted to ride with. Now I ride with my boys and a few good friends and family. Hey zoom, your post brings up fond memories. I have two boys and they started riding with me around the age or 6. They raced mx also. Now 18 & 24 we ride making new memories. They love bringing up all those rides we took. Your building a bond that will last forever.

 

We have similar legislation now in BC. The rules brought in last year on Jan 1/2013 in BC stated that the passenger must be able to reach the FACTORY passenger footrests while sitting on the passenger portion of the motorcycle seat.

 

I'll ride with pretty much anyone except squids. And I do know quite a few of them.

There were a couple of years I went with a group to a stunt show. About 400+ bikes leaving Jersey City and NY. I would bet that if there were 400 to 500 bikes, less than 3 people actually wore gear. And I was one of those 3. These guys couldn't ride worth a damn. They'd do 165 on the highway, but as soon as you came to the first bend in the road, everyone was doing 65. Then back up to 150. It was a joke, and I swore I wouldn't do that anymore.

I ride with a few guys from this site and VFRD, although not as often anymore.

I did meet up with some dude on an RSV4 a year or so ago. He had it imported from Poland. He didn't know how to get back home from where we were, so I told him to follow me. We went about 50 miles on roads I know, that quite frankly are some of the best in northern NJ, and I couldn't shake that guy for the life of me. I thought I lost him once because I couldn't see him in my mirrors. Turned my head around to see he was basically parked on my back tire. LOL, bastard.

 

Used to ride with a friend and his mom, dad, sister and a few other friends when they had time off. I would stop over at my friends place and his dad would ask if I was busy that weekend as they were thinking of going somewhere. Was great to hop on the bikes early Saterday morning and head to Banff, Jasper Alberta or head down to White Fish Montana and riding through Logan's Pass in early summer when you drove under the water falls.

A few of my old riding buddies are looking at getting bikes again now that I picked one up and their wives/girl friends are giving me a semi hard time about it when we go for coffee. So I will be a solo rider next summer unless some of them get bikes.

 

@ Snake Pliskin

Check out the 1st pic on this thread, that is a brand new Aprilla RSV4 next to my VFR, belongs to the guy in the White Dainese jacket. He was the slowest guy in the group. He told us, that he loses confidence in the corners. He is a good kid though and listened as us old guys gave him some pointers.

Ride Red!

 

He rides with solo...does that count????

 

Boooooooo!

 

I agree with Pliskin. A pic of Luke or Lea on Endor riding a speeder bike would have been kinda slick....

Ride Red!

 

Last year I did most of my riding in groups. The shop puts on a group ride, the third Sunday of every month so I do that. I have hooked up with several local MeetUp groups and have had several rides with them including one overnight ride. They are mostly metric cruiser and Harley riders but I have been treated with nothing but respect for my choice of rides. I went on a couple of sport bike group rides as well but they are not so much fun. I can't afford tickets nor can I afford hospital stays or long recuperation times and it seemed to me that they were trying to get both. Crashing out is not my idea of a good ride. The only time I cook along is when it is at my own pace and when I can discern the road ahead. I think I enjoy the group rides more because I really like people. I am a pretty boring person so I get tired of my own company pretty fast. I am also not the kind of guy that can go and ride just to ride. I tend to need a goal. I don't mind if it is the goal of someone else. I'll ride along.

 

I live down in Palm beach County, not far from PBIR. A lot of guys in your neck of the woods ride there sometimes, only about 2-3 hour drive. Great surface there, not great on facilities. Fast as hell on the back straight, 6th gear on the limmiter then down to a 2nd gear turn. It will pucker your butt the first time there. lol Jennings is a fun track, especially for 600's as it is very technical. I ride my CBR there geared 1- +1 and it is a bit of work still.