Clubs and Riding Groups

[grantmac]

Probably not in the right section so Mods please move as you see fit…..
Just curious how many of us are members of riding clubs or riding groups.
We have a very small group of 6 friends here in Holland that all ride. Not really a club. I have my own website where people can read up or request to join. I did start up and run a local club which grew to about 30 members but it became a one man show where I did everything from arranging the social evenings and ride outs snd eventually it became too much to get people to join in so i packed it in..it simple faded away
I did join a local BMW club in The Hague but got kicked out because i was unable to join all their social let alone riding events. Fair enough, if you join then you should partake and contribute. I alao joined the UK BMW Club on subsrciption but when i tried to resurrect the London Branch they also said there was no interest despite saying I would try to pit it togehter again….Also not really my cup of tea…..
Just curious as to what others do …..

 

[Guru Gora]

I have a what’s app group.

I’ll just post on there when I’m headed out, only problem is is I work very odd days so my weekend is often on a Tuesday and Wednesday etc.

I’ve got a group from here headed to Alps via Harz and Dams in June .

That was arranged on here, right bunch of handsome motorcycle gods they are too

 

[glenn2926]

Not a club but there’s a group of riders that are also friends and we have one group ride together each year. There’s around 12ish of us. We ride various bikes and have day rides of varying numbers. There were four of us last week.
This year we’re going to Ireland for 5 days.
Last year it was Scotland.
We usually decide on the last night of our trip where we fancy going the year after.
There’s no one person that has to organise everything. We share the organising for the trip.
I quite fancy a Germany trip next year but we’ll have a chat over numerous beers about it.
We have a WhatsApp group to keep everyone updated about the trip.

 

[Bravo]

I'm off to the South West this Friday to have a rideout with a group i got to meet via the SV1000 portal.
Been going since 2011,lots have moved on from the suzukis and we have all invited other people along over the years but the main core is still the same as when I first attended.
Those of us who travel down ride regardless of the weather, just the local faggots stay at home if its damp @AndyW

 

[Fiddlesticks]

Our local IAM group is very active. Sunday rides most weeks spring - autumn. Good bunch.

 

[wessie]

Usenet newsgroups predates forums like this by decades. They are part of the original university networks and a portmanteau from users networks. They created the threaded discussion format in use today.
UKRM, uk.rec.motorcycles, is a newsgroup formed in the late 1990s and I joined in 1999. It is a spinoff of the USA rec.motorcycles which became enshittified with spam and gun threads years before that term was invented. In its heyday in the early partof this century UKRM had over 1000 posts a day. It is still active, just, on usenet and a Fb group. I don't think there has been a new subscriber in the last decade! We used to have infamous camping weekends at a pub in Hulland Ward, Black Horse, but that fizzled out when the landlord died and his family only kept the pub going for a while afterwards.
We used to have regular group rides in the UK but these have lapsed. There are a number of UKRM subscribers here but they are more likely to post about tractor refurbishment, motorhomes and solar generation than their bike collection. There was even an enduro team riding a 750cc Kawasaki. Not many left racing now. I think one ex TT rider does the odd classic race on his TZ250 or ZXR750 and @siwilson does a few hill climbs. A few are involved in admin at events they used to ride in.
We have had a tradition of gathering across the Channel over the first May BH weekend and this will happen soon at a hotel I have used before in Sedan. Past places have been in Dieppe, Neuville en Ferrein, Caudebec en Caux, Givet, Bouillon and many more I did not attend. The original organiser, bike journalist Neil Murray died a few years ago at 63. Others have picked up the baton to try to keep it going but we have not managed every year. I am happy to suggest a hotel I think suitable for a group of 30+ but I am not taking on the full organisation as you need to be a French speaker and a masochist to take it on.
I will be extending my weekend in Sedan with two friends with another six nights in France. We have been a larger group in the past and the most I have had on a later trip in June has been 12 people on 8 bikes to La Bourboule in the Volcanes. I book the hotels. They book ferries etc and decide their own routes. I do not try to keep everyone together and I sometimes ride solo, especially after the first coffee stop when some will decide my choice of road is not so good two up on a Goldwing. The last newbies to this group were a father and son who we allowed in from one of those new fangled forums. Our group is more about socialising in the evening than riding as a group so I tend to pick a base for 3 nights then move on to another base. I might have 2 or 3 bikes join me on a riding day trip whilst others ride to visit a museum or take a day off riding.
In previous years we have been to the French Alps, Beaune, Vosges a several times, Harz, Loire, Carinthia, Tirol twice, Deutsche Alps, Luxembourg, Champagne, Normandy, Mosel several times, Tarn, Lot, Lake Maggiore, and Switzerland since I started organising these trips in 2011. Some places have been passing through, some are regular stopovers on longer trips.
Given that I only have one couple on one bike extending the weekend in Sedan this year, I think my group trips will fizzle out soon. I will then hang up my DFV (dumb fuck volunteer, TLA from usenet) hat and just carry on with my solo tours for as long as I can. Pyrenees again in September this year.

 

[JoeBiff]

Probably not in the right section so Mods please move as you see fit…..
Just curious how many of us are members of riding clubs or riding groups.
We have a very small group of 6 friends here in Holland that all ride. Not really a club. I have my own website where people can read up or request to join. I did start up and run a local club which grew to about 30 members but it became a one man show where I did everything from arranging the social evenings and ride outs snd eventually it became too much to get people to join in so i packed it in..it simple faded away
I did join a local BMW club in The Hague but got kicked out because i was unable to join all their social let alone riding events. Fair enough, if you join then you should partake and contribute. I alao joined the UK BMW Club on subsrciption but when i tried to resurrect the London Branch they also said there was no interest despite saying I would try to pit it togehter again….Also not really my cup of tea…..
Just curious as to what others do …..

Stick with what you’re doing, Grant.
You’ve hit the sweet spot IMHO.
Clubs are best left for others to bicker in, and about….

 

[Wapping]

In ancient times, before the internet, ‘user groups’, emails and even GPS had been dreamed of, we organised all our days out or trips away by…. Wait for it…. Talking to each other, in the pub, at work or over the telephone. Anything important was usually written out by hand and either circulated when we met or posted. It all worked, just as (presumably) it had worked for hundreds of years, bar the telephone and the post prior to the Penny Black.

The arrival of Word and Excel reduced the handwritten part and GPS served to (at least in theory) keep everyone just about on track.

Wapping Wanders, I advertised and ran via the UKGSer forum. In all, getting on for 100 Tossers (maybe more) participated at various times, with several repeat customers. I forget now how many man miles they all added up to together. The most satisfying? I guess those when I took people either new to riding a motorcycle and those who had never crossed the Channel before, whether on two wheels or more. Several of these bods went on to arrange their own trips and go far further than they ever imagined. Those and a ‘Covid busting’ lap of France I did with a good friend of mine, when nothing else (or very little) was on the road.

I only gave up the Wanders when, one year, I clocked up about 24,000 miles, which is ridiculous. I didn’t ride my bike(s) for a full year or more afterwards. Indeed, I didn’t even open the garage door.

These days, I’d just as soon drive a half decent car, not least as (if you drive the same roads as you’d take on a bike) it’s just as much fun. Organising things? I / we have gone back in time… we talk to each other!

Those on UKGSer and / or outside of it? I guess they organise or participate in events of all sorts, through whatever medium or method they find easiest each time.

 

[Mzokk]

I joined a MC Club when I was 22 in 1983. It was, to give its full title the Down Motorcycle Touring Club, (Known as the Down Club) and was formed in 1972. We ran as a club until 2005. We organised tours over the years and my first trip to France in was with a group from the club. We ran a couple of events in the year which were well known in the local motorcycling calendar a midsummer poker/navigation run BBQ and an end of season run in November. The mid summer poker run and BBQ was well attended in good weather and we had up to 160 bikes taking part. About a dozen of us still ride together in various combinations and we are all now in our sixties 70's and retired. We meet at least once a week and usually do a run of 100-200 miles and arrange trips from time to time. This Friday six of us are heading to Connemara for a few days and the week after next seven of us are heading to the Buccleuch in Moffat for three nights and a tour round the borders. There will probably be a trip to Spain or France later in the year. Its nice to have the continuity of riding with folk you've ridden with for years understand and get along with and no one is precious about what you do with whom and when. I think the motivation to get out there might be hard to sustain if it wasn't for the social dimension.

 

[Wapping]

I think the motivation to get out there might be hard to sustain if it wasn't for the social dimension…..

There are those here that will not ride with others at all and (apparently) some that will not even talk to anyone.

 

[grantmac]

Stick with what you’re doing, Grant.
You’ve hit the sweet spot IMHO.
Clubs are best left for others to bicker in, and about….

Thanks, Yes , the smaller group is the easiest. A WhatsApp group and a close like minded group of friends. Would be nice to be able to extend that and I must say I have enjoyed the company of a few on here on longer tours especially in France. These also become my go-to folks when planning something to say...- Hey, I´m looking at this, what do you think?´´
No issues in organizing something as long as people are interested and enjoy it. To me its half the fun. When it become a compulsory thing then it loses its fun.

 

[grantmac]

Its nice to have the continuity of riding with folk you've ridden with for years understand and get along with and no one is precious about what you do with whom and when. I think the motivation to get out there might be hard to sustain if it wasn't for the social dimension

Yup, agreed in my opinion. I tried riding alone. It was fine for a weekend but I´d prefer a 2-4 man group at least to have a banter at stops and in the evening.

 

[MartinK]

We're in 2 (or maybe 3) groups

Alloa Bike Club - very informal. Beers on a Weds night usually attended between 4 and 10 people. In theory if we all attended 14 or so. Plenty of informal rised, including a couple of Euro trips a year. Some YouTube contents:

and

and bigger trips:

Also a member of the IAM, and the local (Forth Valley) group are very active, and has TWO social rides a week.

Also a Blood Biker - we (Blood Bikes Scotland) also have a couple of social rides every year

Finally - on here! Made some good friends - still hoping to attend the KELSO bash but the Mrs is still hedging her bets with a clashing appointment/commitment this weekend.

 

[Burridge01]

Solo rider,thats how I like it.

 

[wessie]

In ancient times, before the internet, ‘user groups’, emails and even GPS had been dreamed of, we organised all our days out or trips away by…. Wait for it…. Talking to each other, in the pub, at work or over the telephone. Anything important was usually written out by hand and either circulated when we met or posted. It all worked, just as (presumably) it had worked for hundreds of years, bar the telephone and the post prior to the Penny Black.

hah!

I bought my first electric typewriter in the early 90s to do a newsletter for a bike club. Single marque, national membership with regional branches. A few of us set up a branch that was originally called Three Counties. I did my first trip to France with a chap I met via the face to face club meeting in 1995. This was where I started being the DFV for group trips, organising one to the Peak District and another to Fort William.

I lost interest and handed over to others when the club became more focused on one of the 3 counties and the born again riders on their 600cc and 1 litre sportsbikes. I had discovered UKRM and the internet, I bought the R1150GS in 2001 and soon got involved here. If I have company on a trip now, the others are largely my friends off the internet.

 

[Wapping]

I bought my first electric typewriter in the early 90s….

A luxury beyond us on the 70’s.

 

[Wapping]

Solo rider,thats how I like it.

 

[er-minio]

There are those here that will not ride with others at all

Hello!

and (apparently) some that will not even talk to anyone.

I do. But ya'll do not understand me.