How I Feel About Group Rides

Logan Thompson
Feb 24, 2017
2 min read

It's time to talk about group rides! This topic was suggested by Grape Ape from the Moto Amino app. It's a really good topic to cover, so thanks to him for the question!

Group rides can be a great way to share your love of motorcycles with others, but it can also be dangerous! First of all, it's simple math: the more riders there are, the more likely something bad will happen. Someone is bound to crash some way, somehow. Second of all, it's harder to keep track of more riders. The lead rider's responsibility is to make sure everyone stays together and gets home safe, but when you have more than 3-6 riders this starts to become quite the chore. I've done my share of rally rides, the biggest being about 75 bikes, and it's sketchy. People popping wheelies and all sorts of stunts in the middle of the pack, others zipping around the pack... It's an absolute recipe for disaster. That kind of riding has its place, but not on a group ride. I'm all about safety and because of that my stance on group rides is that I only ride with like 5 riders max, and only riders who I know aren't going to ride dangerously or push me outside of my level of riding ability.

I'm not saying I don't or won't ride with guys who wheelie or go fast, I like to go fast, I want to learn to wheelie. However, when someone pops a wheelie in front of you with no room for you to avoid them if they loop it, lose balance, etc. is just a HUGE red flag to me as far as how considerate of a rider the person is. It's all about when and where. Don't wheelie if the other riders can't avoid you in the case that you wreck; give them some room. Get farther ahead, off the side, whatever.