MarkB
Well-known member
Go grab you an adult beverage, cup of joe, or make that run to the head because this is probably going to go long. Just sayin'! :yes:
I had marked today on the calendar as my first attempt at riding with GWRRA after picking up a copy of the Riverside chapter's newsletter at Highland Cycles a few weeks ago. They were doing a ride to meet up with the Temecula chapter for their monthly meeting. The ride was to start in Riverside, of course, at 7:00 AM, which meant I needed to leave the house at about 6:15. :shock: On a Saturday. :shock: :shock:
I started preparations the night before. I stopped on the way home to pick up a J&M headset, then gassed up the bike. I wiped the Wing down, installed the J&M headset in my helmet and got everything ready to go. My oldest daughter said there was no waay in heck she was not going to ride along, so she got herself ready, too. We were both a little giddy the night before and the excitement made it kind of hard to find sleep.
As usual, when it's something I want to do, I was up before the alarm went off and out of bed. Some cofffee, a good warmup of the bike and we headed for Riverside. Light traffic meant for a pretty quick trip and before we knew it, we were pulling up to the gathering of Wing riders. They all looked me over pretty well as I rolled up and that's when nerves started setting in. It was broken pretty quickly, though, when one of the members, a big fellow named Steve, walked up and introduced himself. Everybody else followed suite and pretty soon, I had more names floating around in my head than I knew I could keep track of. We were warmly greeted and that was JUST the start! I got some really nice comments on the '83 and I was really happy I had picked up the headset when one of the riders quickly asked if I had a CB. They told me what channel to dial into and so I was good to hit the road. A brief ride meeting was held and it was explained what was to be expected, the general route and a few hand signals were explained.
We rolled from the parking lot in formation and merged onto the freeway. I was smart enough, as the new person, to stay in the back, just ahead of the sweep rider, Steve. I was way, way nervous at this point; even my daughter picked up on it. This was my first time riding with the group. It was my first time riding in formation like this. There were directions given in the parking lot, but did I understand them correctly? My butt was fairly well puckering! :beg: It didn't take but a minute for me to appreciate the CB radio and the communication it allowed between riders. The lead rider and the sweep rider teamed well in taking lanes and making it possible for our group to maneuver safely through traffic. I've pacelined on bicycles at 25-30 mph, your front tire inches from the next guys back tire, but this was way different. Cruising at 70 with bikes all around you and cars everywhere there weren't bikes was a little disconcerting, to me. Eventually, though, I settled down and started doing much better. We started out with eight bikes, but picked up a few stragglers along the way. I think we were 12, or 13 as we rolled into Temecula.
The meeting was held at a Hometown Buffet, so the first order of business was doing as much damage to the buffet as we could. I was still so excited that I didn't do as much damage as I ordinarily would have, but I have to tell you...... There were some dudes there that had to be making the manager a little nervous! The people there were almost over the top friendly. I got my hand shaken so many times, I thought I was going to develop permanent tremors, or something. Even got some hugs. From the ladies, you pervs! :good:
It turns out, there are so many chapters around here that you can pretty much ride with any of them and all of them, if you like. You don't join the chapter, you join the club and you can ride with any and all the chapters you want. Well, now... How cool is THAT?!!? There were people at the Temecula meeting from no less than 5 different chapters. I think we met representatives from all of them.
After an hour of grubbin' and socializing, they got on down to business. Some of it was pretty interesting as they were talking about upcoming events and such. Some of it I could have done without. They did mention there were 33 bikes at the meeting, a couple cages and I think 7 trikes. After awhile, I was pretty done sitting there and I was coffeed out and ready to get back on the bike. Traditionally, they do an after meeting ride and that's what I was hoping for. They mentioned over the radio on the way down, though, that Temecula was doing CPR training afterwards. So, after we all went back out to the parking lot, I knew somebody was doing a ride somewhere, so I started asking around. Sure enough, one of the guys was going to do a backroads trip home. I knew the roads he was talking about from bicycling trips I had done, so I was excited to do it on the Wing.
The trip did not disappoint. We started with a total of eight bikes and one trike. By now, I was much more at ease taking my place in formation. I held my line and kept my distance; following directions from the ride leader. The hills were much easier under power then I remembered on my bicycle and the miles melted under our wheels pretty quickly. I was having so much fun, that I skipped my first chance to bail from the group. I had committed to doing a bicycle ride with a friend of mine upon our return home. I thought I had plenty of time, so stuck with the group instead of peeling off. This was almost a mistake. We got into Canyon Lake and there was road construction. We were compressed down to one lane and it was crawling. While stopped, I glanced at my clock and realized I had made an error. Regardless, I knew there was another bailout coming up and when we came to that, I said my goodbyes over the radio and peeled off. Even on my departure, I was wished well and invited to Riverside's meeting next Sunday.
All in all, I was pretty impressed with the group. They were very nice and I got lots of props for the '83. One guy said the 1100 was one Goldwing he wished he'd have kept. I certainly didn't come away feeling like anybody was looking down their nose at me. One thing they told me, though, was that every chapter is different and that I really should try them all for sometime before I really pick a "home" chapter. Nobody really turned me off, except for the one guy at the buffet. He was kind of scaring me. I was afraid my hand might get in his way. :smilie_happy:
I learned a lot today. I felt like my bicycling experience really did help out. I learned that there are squirrels on motorcycles (the people you want to stay away from) just like there are on group bicycle rides. The importance of holding your line is the same. I thought there were just a lot of similarities, to tell the truth.
We got 152 miles in on the bike and met lots of new friends. I wish I knew their names, but there are just too many floating around in my head! I had a great time and looking forward to the next.
I told you it was long!!
Mark
I had marked today on the calendar as my first attempt at riding with GWRRA after picking up a copy of the Riverside chapter's newsletter at Highland Cycles a few weeks ago. They were doing a ride to meet up with the Temecula chapter for their monthly meeting. The ride was to start in Riverside, of course, at 7:00 AM, which meant I needed to leave the house at about 6:15. :shock: On a Saturday. :shock: :shock:
I started preparations the night before. I stopped on the way home to pick up a J&M headset, then gassed up the bike. I wiped the Wing down, installed the J&M headset in my helmet and got everything ready to go. My oldest daughter said there was no waay in heck she was not going to ride along, so she got herself ready, too. We were both a little giddy the night before and the excitement made it kind of hard to find sleep.
As usual, when it's something I want to do, I was up before the alarm went off and out of bed. Some cofffee, a good warmup of the bike and we headed for Riverside. Light traffic meant for a pretty quick trip and before we knew it, we were pulling up to the gathering of Wing riders. They all looked me over pretty well as I rolled up and that's when nerves started setting in. It was broken pretty quickly, though, when one of the members, a big fellow named Steve, walked up and introduced himself. Everybody else followed suite and pretty soon, I had more names floating around in my head than I knew I could keep track of. We were warmly greeted and that was JUST the start! I got some really nice comments on the '83 and I was really happy I had picked up the headset when one of the riders quickly asked if I had a CB. They told me what channel to dial into and so I was good to hit the road. A brief ride meeting was held and it was explained what was to be expected, the general route and a few hand signals were explained.
We rolled from the parking lot in formation and merged onto the freeway. I was smart enough, as the new person, to stay in the back, just ahead of the sweep rider, Steve. I was way, way nervous at this point; even my daughter picked up on it. This was my first time riding with the group. It was my first time riding in formation like this. There were directions given in the parking lot, but did I understand them correctly? My butt was fairly well puckering! :beg: It didn't take but a minute for me to appreciate the CB radio and the communication it allowed between riders. The lead rider and the sweep rider teamed well in taking lanes and making it possible for our group to maneuver safely through traffic. I've pacelined on bicycles at 25-30 mph, your front tire inches from the next guys back tire, but this was way different. Cruising at 70 with bikes all around you and cars everywhere there weren't bikes was a little disconcerting, to me. Eventually, though, I settled down and started doing much better. We started out with eight bikes, but picked up a few stragglers along the way. I think we were 12, or 13 as we rolled into Temecula.
The meeting was held at a Hometown Buffet, so the first order of business was doing as much damage to the buffet as we could. I was still so excited that I didn't do as much damage as I ordinarily would have, but I have to tell you...... There were some dudes there that had to be making the manager a little nervous! The people there were almost over the top friendly. I got my hand shaken so many times, I thought I was going to develop permanent tremors, or something. Even got some hugs. From the ladies, you pervs! :good:
It turns out, there are so many chapters around here that you can pretty much ride with any of them and all of them, if you like. You don't join the chapter, you join the club and you can ride with any and all the chapters you want. Well, now... How cool is THAT?!!? There were people at the Temecula meeting from no less than 5 different chapters. I think we met representatives from all of them.
After an hour of grubbin' and socializing, they got on down to business. Some of it was pretty interesting as they were talking about upcoming events and such. Some of it I could have done without. They did mention there were 33 bikes at the meeting, a couple cages and I think 7 trikes. After awhile, I was pretty done sitting there and I was coffeed out and ready to get back on the bike. Traditionally, they do an after meeting ride and that's what I was hoping for. They mentioned over the radio on the way down, though, that Temecula was doing CPR training afterwards. So, after we all went back out to the parking lot, I knew somebody was doing a ride somewhere, so I started asking around. Sure enough, one of the guys was going to do a backroads trip home. I knew the roads he was talking about from bicycling trips I had done, so I was excited to do it on the Wing.
The trip did not disappoint. We started with a total of eight bikes and one trike. By now, I was much more at ease taking my place in formation. I held my line and kept my distance; following directions from the ride leader. The hills were much easier under power then I remembered on my bicycle and the miles melted under our wheels pretty quickly. I was having so much fun, that I skipped my first chance to bail from the group. I had committed to doing a bicycle ride with a friend of mine upon our return home. I thought I had plenty of time, so stuck with the group instead of peeling off. This was almost a mistake. We got into Canyon Lake and there was road construction. We were compressed down to one lane and it was crawling. While stopped, I glanced at my clock and realized I had made an error. Regardless, I knew there was another bailout coming up and when we came to that, I said my goodbyes over the radio and peeled off. Even on my departure, I was wished well and invited to Riverside's meeting next Sunday.
All in all, I was pretty impressed with the group. They were very nice and I got lots of props for the '83. One guy said the 1100 was one Goldwing he wished he'd have kept. I certainly didn't come away feeling like anybody was looking down their nose at me. One thing they told me, though, was that every chapter is different and that I really should try them all for sometime before I really pick a "home" chapter. Nobody really turned me off, except for the one guy at the buffet. He was kind of scaring me. I was afraid my hand might get in his way. :smilie_happy:
I learned a lot today. I felt like my bicycling experience really did help out. I learned that there are squirrels on motorcycles (the people you want to stay away from) just like there are on group bicycle rides. The importance of holding your line is the same. I thought there were just a lot of similarities, to tell the truth.
We got 152 miles in on the bike and met lots of new friends. I wish I knew their names, but there are just too many floating around in my head! I had a great time and looking forward to the next.
I told you it was long!!
Mark
arty: :yahoo: :ahem: :ahem:
