get a sidecar thats where he belongs

 

now thats funny

 

It is tough when one rider does not match the speed of the group. With one group I ride with it is expected that you will keep up. Despite being friends, he needs to ride alone or find another rider who rides at his speed. It is dangerous to not be riding your own speed, always looking back, and waiting when some pass but he does not.

My recommendation is that someone talk to him, find out why he hangs back and if that is where he is the most comfortable, have him find different riding partners.

I have a friend that rides just under the speed limit. He will not change. So I only go on short rides with him. Your friend needs the same respect. You need to tell him that when you are riding with your buddies, everyone plays by the same rules. If he can't, then he needs to ride alone or with someone who rides at his speed.

You are risking trouble by allowing this situation to continue. It should not affect your friendship if he is a friend. It is placing stress on him and your group.

Deal with it. He may think you are the only group to ride with and as long as you allow him to slow you all down, he will not look for another group or slower rider. I'd love to introduce him to my friend Steve, they sound like they would be great slow riders together. I felt I was in more danger slowing down or waiting for Steve, so we do not cruise together anymore, yet when we just want to screw off on the local farm roads on our vintage bikes, we do.

You are being unfair to him, yourself and your other buddies. He is not going to ride faster. Period. Either all of you slow down or solve it the only other way, he rides his own ride and you ride yours.

Added: What I said goes for guys that ride frequently together. It differs when you are taking a trip with someone, especially if you have new or novice riders. Then breaking the group up and having an experienced rider run sweep is just good form. This keeps people from getting strung out with cars inbetween. I have ridden sweep many times. What I was saying is that style of riding is different from a regular group of riders. They need to have similar skill levels and a willingness to approach riding with a similar attitude. When my girlfriend is along, I sit back and let her take the corners, while not slow, slower than I would. When I am with my EGGs, I am prepared to ride 10-15 over most of the time.

When I am on a weekend ride with my friends it is understood that you'll be comfortable keeping up. In this group I am not the fastest. But I am not uncomfortable keeping up with the fastest when someone else is leading. When I lead, I ride fast enough for them, when they lead, we go even faster. It is just part of being a team.

If your team is mixed skills, then the whole group rides differently. I ride to a lot of rallies in other states, meeting friends along the way. We stay together despite different skills and bikes. When I ride weekly with my friends, we may do 300-400+ miles. Someone who wants to putt along 5 mph under the speed limit or who is not ready to ride 6-8 hours had better find other friends who ride bar to bar, stop frequently, and generally ride the same way that slow riders does, because they are not going to enjoy keeping up with us and we don't enjoy sending someone back tracking because they gave up.* You say you are going to ride with the group, you better do your part to keep up and still remain in your comfort level. We are not scary riders, just barely legal riders and sometimes...well you know those sections of the road as well as I!

* we had this happen several weeks ago. Guy someone knew, supposedly experienced international rider joined us and kept falling behind, finally some 100 miles from home he just pealed off and we could not find him. Sent riders back in several directions and waited in Darrington for him to show. He decided to take another way home. Too bad he had not let us know on the last stop. Maybe internationally they have different rules, but I doubt if he will ever ride with us again because he rides slow and 50 miles for him is a long ride. He might as well be riding a XLCH. (I know, I have one and after 50 miles my *** hurts and I am ready for a beverage.

Getting back to the original question, I think you need to cut the cord with your friend and let him find other riders. Otherwise you may lose him as a friend.

 

I lead most of the time when riding with 1 group I ride with. Most I know are experenced riders. If the guy is an experenced rider have him ride in the middle or ask him to go on his own ride. I try to have someone I know is experenced ride in the back. I am always looking to find him or her then I know the group is all together & nobody is lost or having a problem. I respect everyone riding abalities that is riding with the group. We try to keep the most inexperienced up front. That way I can keep an eye on them & hopefuly give advice at resting points.

 

I hate groups. Hate 'em.
That said, when with a group, I always ride last. And, I'm not slow. I find it much less stressful.
Just let me know where the stops are and I'll meet you there. It is bad form to leave tail-end Charlie at a turn/exit, etc.

I usually try to keep unwanted vehicles from getting between me and the next to last guy but don't freak if it happens.

The IQ of any group is calculated by taking the lowest IQ and dividing by the number of people in the group.

 

We have group of 4 most of the time on long trips 2 males and 2 females, we will start up together but within 50 miles we always end up 2 and 2, me and wife like to keep up with the traffic but my friend's wife is very cautious and falls back in the curves and we always have other vehicles in between us but we stay in touch via CB mostly.Every one rides slow and cautious in the beginning but with experience get better but then as we get older start to fall back again.Let the slower guy ride in the back on his pace or have one experience rider run sweep to keep eye on him that is what we do with our local HOG rides.

 

When I ride in a group, I like to keep the slower rider in the 2nd or 3rd spot. Experienced rider in front and also at the sweep. If the slower rider is near the front, the ride captain can see any gaps developing earlier and can adjust accordingly.

 

I too have found that smokers(Cig) ride slower. The nicotine relaxes them into a laid back chilled out state. They just are too relaxed to want to keep up. Plus if they lead they stop too frequeltly for me, just so they can burn another cig.

 

some people are never going to ride fast and some just like a certain gap and then if you slow down they slow down more to keep there comfort gap , just ride and let him catch up when he can

 

I agree with what Jinks said. If he is truly an experienced rider, find out why he lags behind. Unless you are all riding way in excess of the speed limit, he should have a good reason for not keeping up with the pack. If he really wants to ride that slowly, then maybe he isn't a good fit for your group. I hate leading a ride and have riders constantly lagging behind, it is very frustrating.

Shakey