Originally Posted by OKMICK

Frank, while we agree with your assessment you're about 177 posts too late. We are well into the derision phase of this thread.

Originally Posted by firehawk6

Hooked up with some people my son knows Sunday morning and has ridden with before, all seemed to be decent people on touring bikes, no hard core biker types. My son and I were the only riders on Sportsters.

Only a couple of 'problems', first we turned off onto a county road than made a quick sharp left and then a quick sharp right. A guy behind me kept crowding me seeming to want to ride side by side. I had to make it clear in curves, I OWN the whole lane and I'm not going to have you try to ride beside me especially in my blind spot. Apparently he got the message as he didn't try that again. Second time was we were turning left off a state road and a guy in a pickup headed the other way stopped to let us all turn. A car blew around him on the right side, luckily no one was turning at that time. Another guy and his wife who was behind me then, and when it became my time to turn I paused to make sure no one was coming from the right side of the truck, didn't want to get t-boned... The woman on the bike starts screaming TURN, TURN God damn it. THAT pissed me off as I thought to myself, I will turn when I feel safe to do so. Cool your jets %$#@*...

All in all, had a good time I guess, nice sweeping curvy roads and beautiful weather. I might do another group ride but I seem to prefer to ride either with just my son, a couple of close friends, or just by myself.

Originally Posted by wolverinehusky

I also went on my first "group ride" on my way to my first bike rally (Anacortes Oyster Run). I'm a complete noob (riding my first touring bike that I picked up a few months ago).

It went well. My main riding buddy was with me and he looked out for me and motioned me to get to a certain spot if he felt I was not where I should be, which helped. Honestly, my riding buddy, who is awesome, stresses me out more than anything, as he's pretty hard core and is looking to race, show off, etc. from time to time and he wants me to keep up. If he feels like someone is challenging him he'll get moving pretty fast, which is kinda annoying but oh well.

Rode staggered the whole time, biker in first lane would stop traffic on certain intersections, and people used hand signals (a number of hand on head taps for LE ahead which was interesting ha ha).

I went in kinda nervous but came out with a positive experience.

Just my noob observations.

Originally Posted by Redoilokie

I respect your buddy for taking you under his wing, so to speak, but you apparently know your limitations. That's the important thing. Do not ride beyond your comfort zone. Just don't do it. If he can't deal with that, let him ride on ahead and you find your own way.

Originally Posted by firehawk6

My intention was to bring up the rear, but the two bikes just kept hanging back, so I ended up being in front of them. As far as 'group etiquette' goes, I figured anyone would know not to bunch up in a corner. Kind of a 'duh' thing IMO. I ride close to the centerline/left tire track normally, move to the edge setting up for a corner and then cut back to the inside of the lane thru the corner. As I said, I own the WHOLE lane there.

After those two episodes things went smoothly. We hit some nice smooth sweeping curvy roads and everyone went single file then. Other than those two times, it was a fairly enjoyable 180 miles.