the number one tip that i learned from following through on a kind of sketchy group ride is to
so a few days ago i watched a couple videos on how to go on a large group motorcycle ride
and stay safe and then i went on a large motorcycle group ride with a bunch of sport bike
riders and i quickly realized that at any given moment only about 5% of sport bike riders were
going to be following good group riding etiquette I'm all about being here for a long time and a
good time so i want to make sure that i live to ride when I'm dead so I'm making this video to
tell you what to actually expect on a group ride and i want to give you the secret tips and hacks
for how to stay safe when you know almost everyone around you is going to be a hooligan not me though
this video is not going to be a stay in staggered formation and have a good safe following distance
while those are obviously the gold standard that we're going to be striving for on these group
rides it's rarely what happens in real life and that's what you're dealing with in these large
motorcycle group rides unexpected realities you don't have ideal conditions no traffic and
everybody suddenly is a pro rider that knows what they're doing so this video is those secret tips
that nobody really wants to talk about because it would mean that they have to talk about the messy
and borderline illegal reality that motorcycle group rides can be i got you though the number
one tip that i learned from following through on a kind of sketchy group ride is to leave if you have
to there is zero reason to stay if you feel unsafe or in my case since i'm comfortable with a little
bit of risk overly unsafe once i hit a threshold where i'm no longer in my comfort zone and i start
cringing inside of my motorcycle helmet more than i'm actually smiling or having a good time
i'm out it's not worth it to me to have my motorcycle wrecked or have it wrecked for me
i love spicy boy he doesn't deserve that and neither does my wallet like i said i want to
ride for a long time and have a good time in this scenario i excuse myself once the riding group got
a little bit larger and then the weather started looking bleak as well the last thing i wanted to
do was sketchy riding in the rain in a big group ride one way that you can peace out early without
really leaving the group ride is just to know what the final destination is and if you have
some stops along the way you can either peace out at one of those stops and just meet the rest of
the group at your final destination at a later time or by taking a different route or you're
essentially riding by yourself or in a smaller group of people that you're comfortable with
in my case i just broke off from the group ride a little bit early i did my own thing for a couple
hours before finally riding back this brings me to my next best group riding hack that i figured out
if you can get to the meetup early and see the people that are pulling in you know who is wearing
proper gear who is not that'll immediately tell you something about that rider and if you have
a few minutes to talk to a couple of people you can get to know what kind of people share your
riding style and which riders are likely to be doing rolling burnouts popping wheelies or
going to get road rage and rev bomb every innocent car driver that gets in their way seriously just
talk to people for a few minutes and you'll catch on quick i actually didn't do this because
i didn't think to do it until i was in the middle of the group ride and i saw another rider who was
actually being more careful and a little bit more advanced in his riding style than the rest of the
people and he was also wearing some decent riding gear which not everybody at the group ride was so
that's the kind of things i would suggest you look out for so my goal for the ride was to try
and stay as close as i could to the riders that were riding a little bit more safely rather than
the riders that were weaving in and out of traffic when we were lane splitting or they were starting
or stopping abruptly so i definitely recommend being a little bit judgmental and stereotyping the
riders that you think are going to be the safest and then trying to stick around those types of
riders another huge tip is to try and avoid the herd mentality that comes with a lot of group
rides this is actually extremely difficult to do the bigger that the group ride gets
people alone on their own are really smart but people in a group are not so smart this is a
kind of like all transcending truth when it comes to big crowds anyways when it comes to combating
herd mentality i really think there's only about two tools that you have to do this number one is
leaving your ego at the door nobody who already rides is gonna be impressed by how fast you can
go on your leader bike so if you pass somebody to show them how fast you can go they're not
impressed they're now just speeding to catch up to you and now you're both speeding welcome to
herd mentality if one person does something dumb it gives permission for the rest of the riders
to do something dumb so if you feel that your ego is starting to guide your right wrist you need to
adjust your mindset basically calm down honey but all right the second tool you have to combat herd
mentality is to adjust your position in the actual group ride i learned from the group leader on our
ride that if you stay towards the back of the pack you're basically going to be playing the catch-up
game which means you'll be speeding to catch up to the riders in front of you the more that the group
actually gets stretched out which will naturally end up happening so i recommend you stay in front
of the pack within the first few riders being behind the group leader is actually ideal because
you'll be limited by the pace of the ride that they set so assuming they're not crazy riders
you're gonna be using the same pace that they're at the riders in the back of the group don't
really have this pacemaker advantage because they have the whole herd in front of them they can't
really avoid herd mentality with the whole herd in front of them but if you're towards the front
of the group you only have one or two riders in front of you that's not really a herd it feels
like a much more cozy and more controlled ride if you're in the front so there you have it my three
biggest secret hacks for what to do if you find yourself in the middle of a group ride that's a
little bit more than what you bargained for let's recap one you can leave the ride early if it gets
past your comfort level or risk tolerance number two get to the meetup early and feel out who's
gonna be a safe rider and who might be a crazy rider and number three avoid herd mentality by
not showing off and staying towards the front of the group where you can't really see the rest of
the herd you can't follow herd mentality if you can't see the herd if you want to check out more
tips and hacks videos about writing there they are and i will see my spicy squad in the next one