Group Riding Etiquette

 This past Saturday, I went on a group ride with a bunch of guys on big
fancy dual sports that hang out on one of those adventure websites
with lots of pictures. I was on my not so big and not so fancy XR250R
dual sport and my buddy was on his TE250. Since we didn't know anyone
in the group, we opted to hang back at the tail end and just see how
things played out. We'd be riding in sand, and we weren't sure how our
pace would mesh with the big dual sports.

There was the standard speech about waiting for the rider behind you
before we headed out. About 5 miles in, a rider on a BMW R1200GS had a
spill when the sand started to get deep. Less than a mile later, he
had another couple of spills in quick succession. He was new to "off
road" riding and had never ridden in sand before. Riding the huge BMW
was a significant handicap. It took at least two people to pick the
bike up in the sand. Anyway, it took a while to get things sorted out,
and nobody from the group doubled back to check.

After making a plan to leave him there (with food and drink, and at
his suggestion) and pick him up later, we set off at a spirited pace
to catch the group. They were gone. We found out later that they'd
waited about 15 minutes before deciding that we must have turned
around and gone home. They didn't leave a lone rider which would've
been very bad IMO, but they did still leave without knowing the status
of part of the group. Bad form from the group leader? Bad form from us
for leaving him there alone?

I wasn't comfortable leaving him there, but at the same time, I wasn't
looking forward to picking his bike up all day. He suggested that we
leave him, and indicated that he had plenty to drink, good cell
coverage and a GPS. He could've walked out in a couple/few hours if
necessary. We agreed to (and did) come back later to help him get back
to solid ground.

As it turned out, it worked out perfectly for us. Three of us stayed
back to help the rider having issues. After he parked the bike, we
discovered that we all enjoyed a similar pace and we were able to do
more riding and less stopping riding as a smaller group. My only
regret is that none of us knew our way around, so we couldn't find
some of the highlights of the area.

What would you do in the same situation?

 
Aside from not riding again with the douchbags that BF'ed you three?
You three may have bailed together, or one crash may have taken out
two of you and the third guy was trying to find the group to get help.
If a sub-lead of the group was with the missing guys that'd be one
thing.

I would also have been reluctant to leave the guy, especially as he
was about a mile into terrain he was having difficulty with.

I was leading a small group last year, one guy decided it was too
rough and just announced he was leaving and took off while we were
taking a break- I worried he'd have trouble finding his way outta the
woods, and rang him up later on.


Dave

 
Two thoughts:

1.  The situation you describe is one reason I always try to have my
GPS (with appropriate maps loaded), my CycoActive BarPack (http://
www.cycoactive.com/mc/bp3.html) with appropriate paper maps loaded,
plus money and extra 2-stroke oil with me when I go riding.  Even with
the very best group, you can still lose people (I've lost two people I
can think of off the top of my head when I was leading plus I was left
at least once with no clue where the group went).

2.  I hope I'd treat the experience as a learning experience and chat
with the riders who waiting 15 minutes then left and see if they saw
the error of their ways.  If not, I'd be very leery of riding with
them again.

3.  I do my very best to NEVER leave someone alone or even let someone
"ride back to the truck" alone.  Sometimes this causes a bit of an
argument when the injured, exhausted, broken-bike rider insists "I'm
fine, I know my way, I'll make it easy."  I'd rather have a riding
buddy pissed at me for not letting him out of my sight than have to
explain to his wife & kids how their husband/father died of internal
bleeding or whatever.

-Joe

 On May 27, 1:54 pm, "Wellen - '02 200exc & '04 MTD 38\""

Must be something wrong with my fingers... I count three.


Yep. I had a GPS, map, food, drink, money, tools, etc. I wasn't
worried about me at all. :) He had a GPS and a gallon of gatorade and
who knows what else in the big bags. The ride back consisted of
exactly zero turns. We'd made one fork coming in, but it was a
straight shot back out. If he'd have decided to walk out, he'd have
encountered other traffic once past that fork.


Those that have posted are apologetic. There are also a couple of
claims that they came back to look for us. I don't doubt them, but
they couldn't have tried very hard as we were on a main fire road. It
really wasn't a big deal given the circumstances, but it certainly
could have been.

I forgot in my original post that one rider literally rode around the
downed BMW and took off to catch the group. He knew exactly where we
stopped, and would've known where to send the search party... Assuming
he had any idea where he was, and it's very possible that he didn't.


He wasn't hurt (slow speed tip overs in beach sand), and wasn't at all
interested in riding back alone. His suggestion was to set up in the
shade and enjoy some time alone in the woods while we went to play.
Given that he was well prepared and had good cell coverage, it wasn't
too hard to agree and leave him alone. Normally I think like you do
above. I'm feeling a little guilty about leaving him, even knowing
that all was well.

I guess my biggest concern is that I rode with a bunch of guys I
didn't know and ended up having to 'take care' of one of them. I
certainly didn't mind helping out at all, but I would've liked to see
more help from the core group.

Craig

 
I never have been very good with numbers.


I guess there are those who ride away and those who don't.  I sure am
grateful for folks like you who are in the latter group.

As much as this happens dirt biking, in my experience at least, it
happens MUCH more snowmobiling...

-Joe