So you want to lead a group? Great!! You don’t need to be this ultra-experienced rider to lead a group, I’m not and I’ve lead tons of group rides now. What you need to do is be confident, research thoroughly group riding, have ridden the route you will take at least once by yourself and have a wingman with tools and a first aid kit that can ride sweep (ride at the back of the pack) that has done the same research you have.
I started leading groups after a bad experience on a “casual” group ride. It was anything but. Another rider and I got left behind within 2 minutes of departure. It was dusk, the territory we were riding in is well known for having tons of deer at night and the group was riding like they were on the Isle of Man. The other rider was on a nice Street Glide and as I was going through a particularly nice “S” turn I saw him completely blow the corner and go off into the gravel on the far side of the road in my mirror and so I pulled off the road and we agreed that trying to catch up the group was pointless. So we finished the ride on our own and I learned a couple lessons. One lesson was to research the pace. The pace these folks were setting was ridiculously fast for the roads and conditions according to my own risk tolerance. No judgement on my part, just too fast for me. The other lesson I learned was ride your own ride. We almost had an accident due to trying to keep/catch up. That’s just a bad idea, period. So, I decided I would organize my own group rides, setting a pace I was comfortable with and ensuring everyone got home safely.
To be clear, I’m still learning. I’ve organized and led a lot of rides now but every ride still has something to teach me. An example of this are two friends of mine who ride two-up on a Road Glide. We regularly group ride around something we locally call “The Loop”. There are several sections with very little traffic and some good twisty corners but also a lot of bumps from frost heaves and the hills slowly moving down towards the ocean. My adventure bike eats up those bumps no problem but I hadn’t considered what those bumps would do to a 1000 pound Harley loaded down with two passengers. It wasn’t that the Harley was slow or the rider timid, but the fact that they bottomed out so much it was too dangerous for them to ride fast on those roads. It took me too long to clue in on that one. Another important lesson was bathrooms. Planning out stops where there are bathrooms is really important for all riders.
Leading a group ride doesn’t need to be this big complicated thing. If you’re just going out for a couple hours on local roads and are going to meander you can skip the planning steps below. If you’re going to take a specific route for 4-7 hours or more, heading away from local roads, I’d suggest following the planning steps I outline below.
Planning the Ride:
Again, planning the ride doesn’t need to be complicated. For riders new to this process though, here’s a list of things to consider when you plan out your ride. Many of these items will be useful in your ride advertisement and briefing.
- Date and day.
- Route.
- Weather.
- Briefing Time.
- Kickstands Up (KSU) Time.
- Finish Time.
- Start Point Location.
- Mid-point Stops.
- End-point Location.
- Food.
- Bathrooms.
- Gas.
- Who is the group leader and the sweep?
- Who has a first aid kit and tools? (Hopefully the sweep)
- Pace (As an example, we use within 10km/h of the speed limit as a guide for “casual pace”).
- Rules of the ride – i.e. Ride your own ride, no passing within the group, when and how to use single file versus staggered formation, not to push yellow or red lights, spacing etc.
- Do all your planned stops have parking for enough bikes and bathrooms?
- Restaurant reservations?
- Is it a drop-in ride or do you need to sign up? Sign ups are good for a couple reasons; one is that you can limit the number of riders. This is important when you are the only person willing or able to lead a group. The max group size you want is approximately 10 riders including yourself. Any more and it starts to get a little sketchy when you’re riding with people who haven’t ridden together before or much. Sign ups also give you the option of making restaurant reservations. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve shown up somewhere and there was no room or a huge wait which threw off the whole schedule and forced us to go with an alternate plan.
- Hazards.
How I Estimate Time:
Over time, I’ve come to the realization that while Google isn’t bad for estimating time, it’s not accurate until the day and time of the ride. It depends on the route we’re going to take, but if we take The Loop from the image above, you will see it’s 245kms and Google says it will take 4 hours, 11 minutes, an average of roughly 60km/h for the whole trip. For planning purposes I knock that back to 50km/h because with newer riders we will be slower in some sections. So I wind up with roughly 5 hours to complete not accounting for stops. That then leaves me with the following calculation:
Road time: 5 hours
2 rest stops: 30 mins
1 lunch stop: 1 hour
Total time: 6 hours, 30 mins
Likely we will get it done faster than that, but if I tell everyone we are starting at 10am and will be home by 4:30pm that will actually happen and riders can plan out their day accordingly. Partners really appreciate it when riders make it home by the time they say they will!
Route Planning:
The first step in organizing a group ride is route planning on the map. Google maps is an excellent tool for this. You can play endlessly with the route. When planning the route, consider the following:
- Start point location: Have this be somewhere with loads of parking and easy access to your route.
- Rest stops: Trial and error has shown me that rest stops should be about once every 45 minutes to 1 hour. Longer gets to be a grind for people. Ensure there is adequate parking and bathrooms.
- Mid-point destination: If you’re doing a loop, the mid-point destination is usually where you are going to turn around or start looping towards home. I typically plan a lunch or beverage stop at the mid-point. This may also be a good time to get gas.
- End point location: A place where you will either stop to wrap up the ride or just disband as you pass it. Could be the same place you started.
- Traffic along the route. I always consider traffic along the route. I take the least busy route where possible and consider things like rush hour traffic and end of weekend or holiday traffic and plan to avoid it.
- Time allowed for the ride. I always pad this number by about 25%. No one gets upset if you end a bit early, but being late causes problems for people with family/work commitments.
- Is the route suitable for the type of bikes that will be along for the ride? An obvious example is if gravel/off-road is planned, make sure everyone knows and will have a suitable bike. If riding with bikes that have smaller gas tanks, plan gas stops if necessary.
- Is there cell coverage over the entire route? What do you do in an emergency with no cell coverage?
- Is there construction? Will this add time? Will it be a pain and disrupt the entire ride?
- Road Hazards: Is there a particular stretch that is bumpy or full of blind hills/corners?
- Twisties: Is there a section that is quite twisty? Would it make sense to split the group up prior to that section to allow the faster, more experienced riders to go out ahead so they can enjoy the curves?
Once you’ve planned out the route on the map, it’s a good idea to have ridden it at least once preferably with your sweep to assess current local conditions on the route. Ride the route, confirm the map plan and then you’re good to move on to the next step. This is not strictly necessary if you’re really familiar with the route obviously but I don’t like to be surprised by new construction or a big pothole in my favorite corner.
Advertise Your Ride!
Using whatever platform you use – we use Facebook Groups – post your ride! It doesn’t have to be fancy, complicated or contain too much information.
I take a screenshot of the google maps route and post that as a picture. Then in text below, I add the following:
- Date/Day.
- Start Point Location.
- End Point Location.
- Briefing Time.
- KSU Time.
- End Time (The approximate time you will arrive at the end point).
- Sign up or drop in?
- Pace. i.e. Casual pace, meaning roughly within 10km/h of the speed limit.
- Picture of the route.
- Brief description of the ride. Here’s an example:
Create Your Briefing:
The next step in the process is to write out your briefing. With people that you are completely unfamiliar with, you want to be specific and not miss any details, so having some notes to refer to is good. With a group you ride with all the time, it’s pretty simple – “You all know what you’re doing, our first stop is XXXXXX” Below is an example briefing:
- Introductions – Introduce yourself and the sweep. If practical and time dependent have each group member introduce themselves. A lot of riders do group rides to get to know other riders.
- Everyone got gas?
- Route – Only brief the first stop and the mid-point destination. Most riders won’t have researched the route and won’t remember the route if you explain it in detail. Give them what they need to know – where you’re headed to next in case they get separated.
- Rider Safety:
- Ride your own Ride!
- No passing within the group.
- Pace will be roughly within 10km/h of the posted speed limit.
- At stop signs and red lights, always come to a full stop and scan in all directions before proceeding. Don’t try to push with the person in front of you so you won’t get split from the group.
- Don’t push yellow/red lights to stay with the group. We’ll stop before any turns to let you catch up.
- Leave some more space than usual on corners, close up on the straights.
- Accordion effect in corners, riders slower in the corners catch up in the straight sections.
- Mechanical/Medical:
- First Aid Kit with our sweeper/tail gunner.
- Tool Kit with our sweeper/tail gunner.
- Group Riding:
- Passing – the leader will signal, everyone else signals, the tail gunner will change lanes to stop other traffic from breaking up the group and then the leader will change lanes. Everyone else should then change lanes and adjust their lane positions accordingly.
- Staggered versus Single File – when will we use single file? It won’t be signaled. Just adopt single file when there is no painted shoulder or when we hit the twisties. Anytime you’re approaching a corner, loosen up and adopt single file. You don’t want to go through the corners in staggered formation.
- If you get separated from the group, don’t try to catch up. We’ll either stop somewhere safe to get you back in the pack or if we’re close just push to the next stop. If you have to stop, the sweep will stop to check in on whatever may be going on.
- We’re not the Blue Angels. Tight, acrobatic formation flying is not required.
- Parking: We don’t need to park in a perfect line, all pointing in the same direction. Park wherever you feel comfortable. If that’s off by yourself that’s fine.
- Review of hand signals. Pass them along. Obstacle/danger ahead, obstacle on the road to the left/right, turns.
- Who is a newer rider or never ridden in a group? They will be right behind the leader in the pack. Offer to speak separately with them after the briefing and discuss what they know about group riding.
- Questions about group riding?
- Questions?
Ok so your briefing is ready. Now we skip to the day of the ride. I usually show up 30 minutes early so that new people will have someone there to greet them. I greet each person and introduce myself as they arrive. I introduce riders to each other as they arrive, it saves time during the briefing. Prior to the briefing determine if you have any new riders or riders who haven’t done any group riding. The briefing above is meant for those people. You can cut some of the details out for a group of experienced riders who probs won’t appreciate you lecturing them on how to ride.
When you have the expected number of riders, or it’s the briefing time, go ahead and give the briefing using your notes so you don’t forget anything. Then it’s time for KSU!
Leading the Group Out on the Road:
What I’m going to do is bullet-point some of the situations you’ll face and how to deal with them.
- Highway pace: If you have cruise control and it’s practical to use it (not stop and go traffic) then you should. Otherwise maintaining a constant speed takes some serious concentration. You really want to keep the speed constant and avoid the accordion effect where people all through the pack are constantly having to speed up and slow down. The accordion effect can be dangerous in addition to irritating.
- Pack Order: Put the new riders in behind the group leader. There’s a bunch of really solid reasons for this. Because of the accordion effect if new riders are at the middle or back of the pack they are having to speed up as someone in front may be slowing, particularly just prior to corners. If the newer riders are behind the group leader, they are less likely to be affected by the accordion effect and you control the speed at which they enter corners. See this great video from Ryan at Fortnine. This can be a bit frustrating for more experienced riders and I highly encourage you to plan to split the group up when you hit the twisties, allowing the faster, more experienced riders to go out ahead and meet you at the next rest stop.
- Multi-lane passing: When traveling on a multi-lane road (highway) and you are going to pass, communicate with your sweep (by helmet mounted communications hopefully) and let them know you want to make a pass. The Sweep will pull out into the passing lane and then you can signal, change lanes and make your pass. Hopefully you’ve got loads of room to get the entire group past the obstacle. I typically don’t pull back into the slow lane until the entire group will fit. Again, the Sweep will change lanes and then the group leader can lead the group into the lane change. If you have newer riders along, consider that passing is going to be a stressful activity for them before you decide to do it. For clarity, I definitely do not advocate having the sweep block traffic in any way. The Sweep is just the first person to change lanes in either direction when it’s safe to do so. What we’re trying to accomplish is getting the entire group over into the new lane in one pack. Having other vehicles intermingled in the pack is less than ideal.
- Single-lane passing: If you’re in a small group, or riding with people you ride with all the time, passing on a single lane road should be fine where it’s legal to do so. I say where it’s legal to do so for two reasons; one is that I never want to lead a group of people into a ticket and the other is I’m not out there to make motorcyclists look like a bunch of hooligans. No judgement on anyone, I’ve actually done this against my better judgement on long, lonely stretches of remote highway where someone going slow just wouldn’t pull over.
- Cornering: If you’re leading a group of people unfamiliar with each other or you have newer riders along, ensure you’re riding at about 60%. For particularly tight corners, make sure you flash your brakes well ahead of time to give the newer riders time to slow down. You really don’t want a new rider to hammer the brakes mid corner and either go off the road or cause a pile-up. Consider also the different types of bikes on the ride. Big cruisers can’t safely rip through the corners the same way a sport bike can and bottom out on bumpy or uneven roads.
- Watch Your Mirrors: You need to be personally hyper-vigilant when you have a new rider behind you for obvious reasons. You also want to try and keep the sweep in sight. I also reflexively watch the new riders come around the corners to see how they’re doing. Also, you need to be aware of whether the group is posing a hazard to traffic. Perhaps your group is full of newer riders and you’re going slow through twisty sections and there are other riders or traffic stuck behind you. Consider pulling off and allowing traffic through. It’s happened to me.
- Traffic Lights: When approaching lights, do not make abrupt stops at yellow lights hoping to keep the pack together. I used to do this and nearly got rear-ended by someone. Just coast through and find a place to pull over somewhere after the light and get the pack re-formed.
- Turns: When nearing a turn, ensure the pack is together if possible. Pull off and get everyone back before making a turn.
- Single-file versus Staggered: There’s really no need to signal this, your briefing should have covered it. People should assume single file in the twisties and on single lane roads with no shoulder.
- Signaling: When making lane changes or turns, signal with your arm in case the riders behind you don’t see your signal lights for some reason. It’s just another warning that you’re about to change speed or position on the road.
- Parking: This is an important one. It’s where the most drops happen. Try to ensure you park on a level spot with loads of room for everyone. Please don’t put people in the position of having to back their bikes up on an incline or on gravel if possible.
- Timing: You’ll have to keep an eye on the time or breaks will always run long and you will be late getting to your reservation or back home. Make sure everyone has a chance to get off the bike, move around for 10 mins or so, go to the washroom or get gas as necessary and socialize. But, keep things moving.
- Rest Stops: Hopefully, you’ve planned out your rest stops with adequate parking and bathrooms. Before you head back out onto the road after any stop, quickly brief the group on the next leg of the trip including the next stop and any possible hazards such as bumpy/uneven roads or construction.
- Lost Riders: If you lose a part of the pack, slow the pace to allow them to catch up. If after 5 minutes you still don’t see them, pull of the road in a safe, level spot with lots of room for the group to be safely off the road and attempt to contact your sweep by phone.
- Use a GPS or GPS App on Your Phone: GPS will make your life so much easier unless you know the route by heart. Highly recommend you use a GPS or GPS app for your phone.
- Helmet Communication System: Really handy to be able to talk to at least the Sweep. Next level in terms of running a smooth ride.
- Phone Numbers: The group leader and the sweep should have each other’s number so they can talk or text if the Sweep has to stop for some reason.
- Weather: Check the weather day of and understand if you want to cancel the ride or change the route based on what you’re seeing. Especially on longer rides, the last thing you want is to slug it out in the rain for 2+ hours on a single day recreational ride.
- Wrong Turns: They’re likely going to happen. It’s embarrassing, but you just need to deal with it. Find a safe place to do a u-turn or follow your GPS back onto your route.
- The Last Leg: On the last leg of a 4+ hour ride, be aware that some of your riders may be getting tired. This is a time for you to be extra cautious. Keep the speed reasonable, no risky or stressful passing, leave lots of room around the pack and focus on getting everyone home safely.
Conclusion:
The planning and briefing steps I’ve outlined may seem like overkill. And, in many cases they will be. Leading a group of 5-10 riders out for a couple hours on your local roads doesn’t need to be complicated. Having said that, when you have newer riders along or people with not much experience group riding, it’s helpful for them if you are organized and thorough and they are more likely to come out again which is what you’re hoping for. Thanks for reading, I hope you got at least one useful tip from this!