[SurfinGator]

A friend from work invited me to a group ride yesterday. Cruisers ... Harley and lookalikes. Sharp girl, seems fun ... and didn't have anyone else who wanted to ride Saturday afternoon ... so cool. Caught the stunters show with Malboro Man from kawiforum in the morning ... bolted at 11 to catch the gather point. the stunters were cool ... post some pics below ... so kind of late getting out. Find myself on the freeway going back and forth with a truck ... 90-100. Get there just as they are firing up, wait till the back of the group goes by and roll. About 30 riders. All good ... get to say hello to a few as we stop and go at the lights. Seems like a good group, a little back and forth between some of the riders. Here's where it gets wierd ...

We hit the twisties ... and they are creeping along ... side by side ... 30 in a 35 ... for miles and miles .. so here I am doing 5mph UNDER THE LIMIT ON TWISTIE ROADS ... Sunny day ... open road ... and I am stuck at the back of 30 bikes that have traffic backed up behind them because they are going sooooo s l o w. Just as I am looking for a good turn off to slide out of there, we hit the freeway going south to the park where everyone is meeting up. Ok, freeway ... they dial it up to 70 ... in a 65. Not blistering, but ok ... the park they are heading to is pretty cool ... a lot of bikes hang out there. So ... I hang. Then we get behind two trucks pulling trailers ... and they won't pass'em... ???? Sixty in sixty five ... OMG! So I bolt man ... turn it up to 75 and wave goodbye.

like ten minutes after me they show up at the park ... "man, you were flying!" I'm looking at them like ... you're kidding right? hard for me not to start laughing ...

How can anyone just sit on a motorcycle and putt along like that? I would have to be drugged ... heavily ...

anyway ... had to share the moment.

here are a few pics of the show here ... met some cool people ... met some cool people at the park too ... just what a waste getting there.

 

[Guest]

lol i would've left them and went on my own

 

[ZeRo_C0oL]

Sometimes you have to enjoy the scenery around you, and savor it.. It's not always all about hauling ass everywhere you go, but I do understand what you mean. I rode with over a hundred (maybe two hundred) bikes a few weekends ago and it was interesting to say the least.

 

[motojustin4]

Had to ride with cruisers before. but doing under the speed limit I wanted to kill my ass. yes you say its not always about the scenery but putting around starts to kill all my joints cause get to thinking about so much shit since im doing so slow lol!

 

[SurfinGator]

Bro, I ride easy. I'll turn it up when the road is clean ... but I am very casual. I love to catch the views. But, I couldn't catch anything but the bikes in front of me ... why it is so important to ride side by side on narrow @ss roads? My eyes were glued forward, just waiting for a bike to hit a pot hole or catch some dirt... and take 10 or so bikes down. And I noticed none of them was rubber necking the views ... their heads were glued front.

Who cares what you look like when you ride? Some old biker flick from the 70s? Put some distance between you and the guys around you for Pete's sake ... enjoy the ride for the ride.

imo

 

[SurfinGator]

oh, btw ... nice people. very. got to meet most of them at the park. just different approach to a way of living and riding ...

just not for me.

 

[TO_oSLoW]

I would have been waiting for them at the end of the twisties

 

[caboose]

well if you're on a cruiser, you're probably not all about speed.. LOL.. but 5 under the limit? thats stupid

 

[anarion55]

Riding with a large group is not quite the same as hittin' it with a few buddies... the main thing with a group that large is to travel at a speed everyone is comfortable with (i.e. - no faster than the slowest member, and you NEVER leave them behind by themselves).

Yeah, it's droll on a firebreather, but as said above; relax & enjoy the scenery that you usually blow by too fast to see...

My g/f rides a V-star 650 (which she hates - she wants a Heritage Softail - DON'T say it.. I know)... and she rides VERY conservatively. So when we ride together, I hold it back quite a bit. If there's a fun section of road, I'll zip up ahead & then wait for her. That's how we mostly rode at Deal's Gap - I stayed behind her on the Skyway for several miles, but she said I was making her nervous, so I went ahead & just waited at some of the rest stops. Everyone happy. Yay.

 

[rockstar84]

It's a lot easier to go slow on something that has to shift every 15-20 mph and doesn't feel very safe going fast. I agree, it would bore the hell out of me. It's hardly safe to be on a motorcycle going slower than the flow of traffic, but to each his own.

 

[the_gooey_1]

Think you've got it bad. hehe. My wife rides a Yamaha Vino 125 scooter for christs sakes.....If i rode beside her all the time I could totaly throw away my throttle. Hmmm she gets nervous with me too. Wonder ehats up with that .

 

[antimatter]

Different strokes and all that. I find I cannot ride with large groups of motorcycles. Four or five bikes is about my limit or I start to go nuts and I am a VERY conservative rider on public roads. When groups get real big there's kind of a rubber band effect where you speed up, then slow down, then speed up again. Every time someone brakes at the front of the group, the effect gets magnified towards the back. Also, all the times I've seen someone crash due to riding beyond their abilities, it's been in a big group. The faster riders go out, then a less experienced rider tries to keep up and runs off the road. I think it's easier for folks to ride their own ride when 30 other riders aren't watching them.

Generally I either let slower groups go ahead and then wait 20 minutes or so before starting, or I make sure I'm in front of them before they get rolling.

 

[636Rick]

Thats funny I rode with a few cruiser guys a few months after getting my current ride, a few of them were dragging pegs,exhaust ,and of course there were the idiots that had to be in front but were scared as hell in the twisties. It was funny because two of the Harley guys kept up with me in the twisties and were not scared at all to ride their hogs ,one of them as I remember was a screamin eagle Road glide.

 

[Mr Crunk]

i get a bigger trill from riding on my cruiser. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE MY 636 there is nothing like it. But riding with a full face helmet is far different than a half helmet. I don't have a windshield on my bike. A nice day outside and I opt for the cruiser first, but that's just me. The wind blowing in your face makes you feel like you are going fast.

 

[uniongoon]

Yeah, open face helmet is like forced induction for your lungs, I think you actually catch an adrenalin buzz from all the extra air you pack in to your lungs.

 

[anarion55]

Originally posted by uniongoon
Yeah, open face helmet is like forced induction for your lungs, I think you actually catch an adrenalin buzz from all the extra air you pack in to your lungs.

Nah, it's the extra protein you get from all the bugs you swallow...[:M23]

 

[sunnyd72]

My old man rides an 81' goldwing and he scrapes the stand when he gets into the twisties, we leaned it over after the ride to see how far he actually had it down, it was a little lower than in this picture
But he's been riding longer than i've been alive, my other brother rides a 2005 HD Ultra Classic, but he rode sportbikes before that, so everyone in the family loves twisties

 

[moloko]

Originally posted by uniongoon
Yeah, open face helmet is like forced induction for your lungs, I think you actually catch an adrenalin buzz from all the extra air you pack in to your lungs.

Also works great as a chin reduction device, if you go down. Unless you're Jay Leno, it shouldn't come out very pretty.