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Wow! That's 7 hours of riding plus stops. I can't imagine be in a formation for that long; especially if the route is through the Hills.

One thing I always notice when riding in staggered formation is that folks try to maintain formation going into sweeper turns instead of moving in or out entering the turn. That scares me when I see the guy in front of me maintaining his outside position on a fast left turn.

What event is this that you're planning?
 
Discussion starter · #22 · (Edited)
It is a combined Make A Wish and Children's Medical Services charity ride. Gonna have everything from weekend warrior surgeons up to...yes I meant UP to...some 1% Club Chapters. The Club chapters are stepping up to help some.

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Just some random thoughts:

Sometimes people who are good at organizing can overdo it. Planning things down to the 'nth degree can sometimes suck the fun out of an event. It's more important for riders to have fun (and contribute to the benefit) than to do things "right". Of course, you don't want to have so much fun that you run out of refreshments, lose riders, etc.

Individual riders or small groups are safer than large groups. If I have to ride with people I don't know and follow hand signals, I'm not going on your ride.

The more winners you have the better. Have lots of drawings, door prizes, etc. If you've got $100 to give away, split it up as $50/$30/$20, not one $100 prize.

If you know you're going to have a lot of 2-up riders, give the passengers something to do. Ride the route ahead of time and make a list of "observation" questions about things along the route, and give a small prize for the most correct answers. For instance, "which town has an orange water tower?" Ask questions about billboards, strange yard ornaments, anything that's eye catching.
 
An old post, I know, but...

Be courteous to cage drivers and don't give motorcyclists a bad name.
+whatever on this. When I worked at the H-D plant in Kansas City, I went on a lot of rides with the employee riders group. One year we rode to Ft. Riley near Manhattan, KS. Had around 75 bikes. We rode straight down I-70, but the ride leaders for some reason had us riding in the left lane at sub-posted speeds. I was riding tail and there where a lot of cages that got fed up with the left-lane bandit stupidity and tried to barrell up the right lane, only to get caught behind other slow cages and forced to fall back behind us. One idiot decided that two feet off my rear fender was an acceptable position to take. After a few "hand signals" ("That means you're number one with me!") he/she finally got the message and blasted up past us. I sent up word to let him/her to merge in and get around us and finally he/she was on down the road, no doubt cursing "stupid motorcycles". I talked to the lead rider about it when we got to our destination and was told that "if they don't like it they can suck it." I just shook my head and promised myself I'd never ride with that idiot again. No need to piss people off just to satisfy some misguided sense of control. Six people is a HUGE group for me nowadays!

Also, when it comes to hand signals, I, and everyone I ride with, use "foot points" to indicate road hazzards. I've found that the "arm at 45degrees" isn't clear enough and can be misinterpreted.
 
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group rides

having rode in many large groups,and riding very fast,you want your best riders up front,or the ones that know the road the best.you also want someone in the back that will not allow anyone to get in your pack.and make sure to tell everyone that if someone breaks down, let everyone know whats going on and where you at.if you got people that your unsure of tell them to ride in their own group or by themselves.if feelings get hurt..to bad,its better than having the whole pack go down.most important to find out how far everyone can go,so you can plan gas stops.there is lots of things i prolly left out.these are just a few
 
Here is just a couple things to add. These are things we use in our group rides with 10 to 30 bikes.

The lead and sweep have to have CB radios on our group rides. They communicate during the ride to keep the group together. Others with CBs are welcome to listen so they know what is going on as far as turns ahead. They also communicate information about problems or hazards on the road.

When approaching a slower vehicle in our lane and we want to pass, the lead tells the sweep to "grab" the passing lane. The sweep moves over, and then tells the leader he has the lane. Once the lane is clear between the sweep and leader, the leader moves over. After the leader moves over, the following riders then slide over in order.

When on the Interstate, we try to move the group to the middle lane if there is 3 or more lanes. That way other vehicles can still pass, and we don't have to worry about vehicles that are entering the Interstate from the entrance ramps. This helps to keep the group together. If we get separated, the leader slows down (just a little) to encourage other vehicles to pass and bring the group back together.

We used the above in most of our rides. But this was very useful to get about 80 bikes from Indy to Washington DC for the Ride to the Wall. We also divide the large group of bikes in to smaller groups of about 15 to 20, each with a leader and sweep. These smaller groups usually stay within sight of the group in front of them, but far enough away from each other so other vehicles can move around the groups easier and have room to exit the highway.
 
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sum advise to ther person putting on a event make sure u try an get a police escort with that many bikes.. i do the halloween ride every year here in boston an its about 5-10k bikes an il tell u with out the police escort the ride would be a terrible idea if u cant get any police escorts then u need EXPERIENCED BLOCKERS an such tokeep the group together.. there is also a bunch of other stuff u need to know but i see alot of people have most of it covered.. i was in a MC for about 4 years worked my way up to a board member an i had to be road captian sometimes when he was not available
 
1st time logging into this thread. Personally have only ridden in a couple of organized group rides although have ridden for many yrs. Have put together a couple of group trips the last 2 yrs. with 4-5 bikes in each. Organizing the route, lodging and attractions are only part of the job I have found out. Trying to keep the group in formation and together has proved to be my biggest challenge thus far. There are several suggestions here that will help and I appreciate all the tips. What are the responsibilities of a sweeper, and would one be needed for such a small group? From the response of this last group trip I suspect our road trips will become an annual event. And of course that means the group will no doubt increase in size, so I would like to be as prepared as possible. Keep the tips coming.
 
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