Ride Protocols
Just To Keep Us All On The Same Page

Ride Captain Guidelines

Responsibilities:

Leading a group ride is much more than just getting everybody to a destination and back. When accepting the position of Ride Captain for a Wanderers group ride, your priorities are:

1. Conduct yourself and your riding style in a manner which will promote the safety of the group as a whole
2. Provide the leadership and supervision to the group which will ensure that the participants enjoy themselves on the ride.

Planning:

A successful ride hinges upon prior planning. Know what your destination is and map out how you plan to get there. Be familiar with current road conditions. Consider weather variations or extremes due to the time of day or elevation changes. Know the anticipated travel time and mileage. Plan for fuel stops, butt breaks, meals, and the expected time to return. If at all possible, do a pre-ride of the planned route to avoid any surprises. If this is not practical, at least consult maps and/or travel guides to prepare yourself with as much information as possible.

Once you have established the plan, including the meeting time, departure time and location, and ending location, post it on the web-site or via email to the list-serve. Establish a pre-ride meeting time to review the route, safety rules and concerns and for organizing the group. And then stick to the plan. Many riders will decide whether to attend a ride based upon some or all of the above factors. Last minute or whimsical changes while enroute tend to irritate some people, or may lead to some riders traveling roads on which they are not comfortable.

Pre-ride Meeting:

Know your riders in the group. One of the most obvious and visible things you will do as a Ride Captain is to set the pace for the ride (we'll discuss this further a little later). In order to do that, you'll need an idea of the riding abilities of the people you are leading. We often have new members or guests join us on our rides. Meet with them during the pre-ride meeting and get a feel for their experience level and especially whether they have done very much group riding.

Assign an experienced "buddy" to new riders. This can help to make the new rider feel more comfortable with meeting new people as well as serve as a training example while on the ride.


Read aloud the "Wanderers Rules of the Road" (bring along extra copies). This is especially critical if we have riders who are new to our group. Review with the group the planned route and destination. Include where you plan to take butt-breaks, obtain fuel, have breakfast or lunch, and any other information which could be of significance such as the type of roads and any specific safety concerns or hazards.

Establish who will be your sweep or drag rider(s), and secondary leader(s) if necessary . Meet with them to determine exactly how many bikes will be in the group(s), and review your communication signals. (More on this later.)

When you are ready to depart on the ride, stage all bikes in such a manner as to facilitate a safe and orderly departure from the staging area on the street or road. Stage any new riders and their buddy at the front of the group so that you can observe whether you are setting an appropriate pace on the ride.

Safety Concerns:

One of the major attractions of riding a motorcycle is the individualistic freedom it provides. However, when riding in a group, and especially as the Ride Captain, you give up a significant portion of that individualism. You're not riding your own ride at that point; rather you're riding the group's ride, and your mindset has to be adjusted accordingly.

First and foremost, safety is your primary concern. Does this mean you are personally responsible for the actions of all individuals? No. But it does mean you are to set the example for others to follow on the ride. But what if someone is riding or behaving in an unsafe or unwelcome manner? The Ride Captain should take the first opportunity (or make one) to take that individual off to the side and politely and diplomatically point out the problem. If the problem persists or the individual is uncooperative, the options at that point are to ask the individual to leave the group, or in a very severe case, end the ride at that point. However, if everyone understands from the pre-ride meeting what is expected, there are rarely any problems of this nature.

Some common sense approaches to leading a ride:

Group Size. What's the right number of bikes to have in a group? From experience, 10 seems to be a pretty manageable number. Beyond that, it becomes really difficult to keep a group together in a pack, maneuver in traffic, and be able to observe what's happening behind you. As our club continues to grow, we occasionally have larger turnouts for our rides. When this happens, the advised course of action is to split the group into two or more sub-groups, with each sub-group having a lead and sweep rider. Of course, each of the lead and sweep riders should be well briefed on the ride itinerary.

Set the pace. But what's the proper pace? That may vary as much as the direction of the wind. But it is why you need to know the skill and experience level of the riders following you. The Wanderers promote ourselves as a "cruiser-style" of riding club taking leisurely rides through San Diego County backroads. If you are hearing comments like "I scraped pegs coming around that curve", you're probably setting too fast a pace. Conversely, you don't want to keep it so slow that you have to wake up your sweep rider from a nap. A good rule of thumb is to watch the riders behind you. If you're seeing large gaps between bikes, you're riding too fast. If you see that everybody is all bunched up behind you, better pick it up a little. We all like to push our personal performance envelope from time to time, but a group ride is not the place to do this. As the leader, others will follow you. There may be that guy somewhere in the middle of the pack who doesn't have your skills but will try to keep up anyway. A good hard lean into a tight twistie with an open throttle may be a lot of fun and within your skill level, but it may leave him behind, busted up on the turn.

Avoid the "accordion" ride. You know the one, where jack rabbit starts from stop signs or traffic lights, or sudden bursts of speed on open stretches leave huge holes in the group. When that happens, riders following will hurry to catch up, then have to adjust their speed to match the rider ahead. Suddenly, everyone is squeezed up behind the lead and has to slow down to maintain spacing. This is really annoying to those in the middle or back of the pack and is not the mark of a good ride leader. To repeat: you're riding a group ride now, not your own.

Safety Stops. There may be many times during the course of a ride where we may have to pull over to regroup, take a butt-break, get gas, whatever. A key point to remember …think of the back end of your bike as being the sweep rider's bike. In other words, be sure to leave plenty of room for ALL of the bikes in the group to pull off of the road quickly and safely. Even though you may be off of the road, you're sweep rider's butt is hanging out there to get creamed by a soccer mom on a cell phone. When choosing a location to stop, it is critical that there be plenty of room for all the bikes to maneuver, well away from traffic, and with good visibility in both directions while exiting and re-entering traffic. If you can't find a suitable location, keep going until you do find a safe place.

And when you are ready to resume the ride, remember…you started on this ride with X number of bikes. Along with your sweep rider, take a head count and make sure you haven't lost someone. It would be pretty embarrassing to find out the next day that someone was still in the head when you left the parking lot, and they returned home madder than a wet hen 'cause they didn't know where everyone went. Wait for a "GO" signal from your sweep rider at the back of the pack. Somebody may still be putting on a helmet or gloves, or loading up a passenger while you're chomping at the bit to hit the road.

Turns at intersections. Right hand turns at a red traffic light are perfectly legal in California. But they're a bad idea when trying to keep up to ten motorcycles in a group. Invariably, a few bikes will get through the turn, then along comes some traffic to screw things up. Wait for the green light.

U-Turns, or the "Wanderers' Double-Left Hand Turn". We didn't get our name for nothing and we occasionally miss a turn or make a wrong turn. When this happens, the safest course of action is to make a trip around the block, or pull into a large parking area. If this is not possible or practical, California does allow U-turns, but these can be very risky for group riding for several reasons. If it becomes necessary to execute this maneuver, ensure that there is plenty of pavement available on BOTH sides of the road and good visibility to check for traffic coming in both directions. And don't try this on a hill.


Maneuvering in traffic. This is where a good sweep rider can be extremely helpful. Don't be afraid to use him. Ideally, as we travel along the highways and byways, we'd like to be able to keep the bikes together in a pack and not be split up by a lot of clueless cagers. While this cannot be avoided all of the time, it certainly can be kept to a minimum with some forethought and communication between the lead and sweep rider (more on communication later.) On busy multi-lane roads or highways and freeways, frequent lane changes are guaranteed to break up a group ride. Pick a lane and stick to it as much as is practical. Experience has shown the second lane from the left to be preferable for group travel on multi-lane freeways as there is less frequent changing in and out of this lane by other vehicles. On a four-lane street or highway, the far left lane is a wise choice for the same reason. However, when lane changes are necessary, the sweep rider can in most circumstances provide a blocking action to clear the lane for the lead rider to lead the rest of the group into the cleared lane. In the same manner, a sweep rider can be utilized to hold traffic to enable a group to leave a parking lot en mass. The logistics of doing this are best left up to the individual lead/sweep riders, dependent upon the existing traffic conditions.

Communication:

One of the elements for having a "successful" ride is good organization, not just in planning, but also in executing the ride. If it seems to everyone that the ride was well organized and not just a bunch of bikes meandering aimlessly, everyone is likely to enjoy themselves more, and we are likely to have much better participation for future rides. Some of us like to use the Chatterbox FRS radios to communicate while we're riding, others have CB band radios, some prefer not to have a radio at all and rely on hand signals. Whatever the method, good communication and teamwork between the lead and sweep rider is essential. Hand signals can work as well as radios if the lead and sweep rider are in sync with each other and understand the signals. The lead and sweep riders should take advantage of butt-breaks and other stops to compare notes on what they are observing as the ride progresses and make adjustments as warranted. At the same time, both should be talking with the other riders and getting feedback regarding their comfort level with ride conditions.

And a little on radio etiquette. Frequently heard are comments such as "How did we get along so well before we got the radios?" And indeed, they can be extremely useful as a tool for those riding lead or sweep. Occasionally, however, it becomes a little annoying if there is excessive chatter from someone else in the group when there is a need to communicate between lead/sweep, or somebody in the middle of the pack with a radio is giving signals which should be left to the lead/sweep riders. While the intentions are good, if you are equipped with a radio, but are not at that time designated as lead/sweep rider, please let these two have the air space when needed so they can work together effectively.

Conclusion.

Does this seem like a lot to absorb? Well, it is. But if we want to ensure the continuation and success of the Wanderers, we as Ride Captains need to provide a riding environment which is acceptable to our membership. Consistency in our rides is very important to that acceptance. That includes being consistent in our approach to safety, being consistent in our riding style, and being consistent in how we lead the rides.

And be prepared to give and take a little constructive criticism from time to time. The material presented here comes from experience and mistakes we've either seen or made in the past. If we all practice some critiquing of ourselves, we'll all benefit and improve.

Arguably as important as the ride leader is the person riding trail for the group.

Print this page.