Lost another local biker

 http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-now-accidentid.o15,0,2314397.story

The paper reported his age as 58, but a co-worker who was the guy's
neighbor said he was 61. Here's the story the paper didn't print...

61 yo male; new to riding. Bought his first bike a month ago. Took the
MSF course and started riding on his own about 2 weeks ago.

This past Sunday, we had a local run called Roar to the Swamp with
hundreds of bikes culminating at a local festival of crafts, food,
entertainment. I was going on that ride, but due to over-exertion on
Sat moving furniture, I coudn't make it.

The rider went on this group ride as his first.

As the caravan of bikes was exiting the highway onto an exit ramp
(that typically is curved and fairly long in these parts), the biker's
right foot went down as he felt himself lose control negotiating the
curved exit ramp. He was going too fast and his foot got caught in the
pavement and pulled behind him, causing his to start sliding off the
bike. He panicked and grabbed the handlebars to hold on, but
unfortunately, twisted the throttle all the way back, propelling him
into the guard rail at a higher rate of speed.

He died at the scene.

His entire neighborhood is in shock. His wife was getting ready to
retire in 3 weeks to start their next phase of life together.

For newer riders, the MSF course is a neccessity, but it doesn't
prepare you for group riding. Group riding has its own set of
dynamics, part of which is keeping up with the pack as this rider felt
he had to do.

For me, I waited nearly a year after getting back into riding (after a
25year hiatus) before going on group rides where you have to worry
about the guy in front of and behind you and the guys in front of and
behind them since any of them can cause you to wreck.

In this case, it was the biker's inexperience with riding in general
and group riding in particular that caused him to exceed his
capabilities.

When they say "ride your own ride", they mean ride for your own
safety. Can't keep up? Then hang back and catch up later or just turn
around and go home. You don't feel comfortable executing the group's
maneuvers? Then don't. Take a different route or better yet, just meet
them at their destination.

Group rides can be fun being part of such a large crowd, but when you
consider the range of riding experience these riders have from 2 weeks
in this case to many decades, the mix of riders in these multi-group
rides makes it a bit more iffy.

Greg

 
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<snip>

Nope.

In this case, it was the biker's inexperience with riding in
*particular* that caused his crash.

 
Yeah, the only reason i said that was because it was relayed to me
that he was trying to keep up with the pack and that maybe if he had
been solo, he wouldn't have felt the need to take a curve faster than
he could handle.

In any case, 2 weeks of riding didn't give him the experience to keep
up with high speed traffic, much less hundreds of bikes.

Greg

 oasysco wrote:


Fault lay with the experienced riders who didn't place an experienced
rider in the sweep position. This means that no matter how slow the
newbie goes, he never feels he's being left behind because there is
always one slower than him behind.

When riding with a newbie, you ALWAYS have a sweep and explain that all
need to ride 100% within themselves. When I ride with a newbie and it's
only she / he and I, I ride sweep so they make the pace.

 wrote:

The only problem with this group is that it wasn't a single group. It
was comprised of single riders and riding clubs. I didn't ride, so I
don't know who the ride captain was or what protocol they used. In any
case, I agree with you that someone should have taken responsibility
for smaller parts of the group and ordered people according to riding
experience if thta was possible with hundreds of bikes.

Greg