Ride Your Own Ride

If you take one thing from this course, take this. The pace is not a test. If a corner is faster than you like it, go slower and catch up at the next stop. Riding beyond your skill to keep up with strangers is the single most common way a good ride goes bad.

Your call, every time

Following a group can quietly switch off your own judgment. You start taking the speed, the line, and the lane change the bike in front takes, just because they took it. Don't. Pick your own line on what you can see and what you and your bike can do. If the rider ahead makes a bad call, you don't have to make it with them. In the video, MCrider tells the story of a leader's last-second wrong turn that pulled a whole group across live highway lanes, and why you should keep reading the road for yourself.

Want to go faster?

Then this isn't the ride for it, and nobody will think less of you for saying so before we set off. There are rides for every pace. Pick the one that fits, rather than pushing the one you're on.

New to group riding? Say so.

Nobody here thinks less of you for it, and it changes where we put you: near the front behind an experienced rider, not buried at the back where the accordion is worst and nobody can see you. The pace gets set for you, not for the quickest bike present.

The same goes if you're on a new bike, short on range, low on fuel, or just not feeling it today. Say something at the briefing. Everyone has been there, and the pace will adjust.

Never pressure, never be pressured

Ride your own ride works both ways. Don't crowd the rider ahead to hurry them up, and don't let anyone behind you set your speed. If someone tailgates you, let them past at the next stop rather than speeding up.

This course is for education. It doesn't replace a state-approved rider course or motorcycle licensing.