Unsafe Ryder

[Desert Spyder]

Let me ask you guys something because this is the largest Spyder forum on the web: what would you do if you witnessed a young ryder at the Spyderwood Red Carpet Run driving in an unsafe manner? This young man was zipping around other ryders on the mountain roads and going around others at the stop signs once we got back in town. I felt like putting my arm around his neck and telling him to lets take a walk once we got to Pickwicks but he was with family and I didn't want to start a scene. Especially since he was from a minority race. Did anybody else see him? He may be a skillful ryder but very immature. I hated bringing this up but its been bothering me ever since. If our community is to present a good image to others we need to police it now. Especially when there's hundreds of us crawling on the mountain roads at one time. Hope I don't get flamed for this thread but I hope if his family is seeing this thread maybe they would take action to save his or anothers life.

 

[zzneonzz]

Let me ask you guys something because this is the largest Spyder forum on the web: what would you do if you witnessed a young ryder at the Spyderwood Red Carpet Run driving in an unsafe manner? This young man was zipping around other ryders on the mountain roads and going around others at the stop signs once we got back in town. I felt like putting my arm around his neck and telling him to lets take a walk once we got to Pickwicks but he was with family and I didn't want to start a scene. Especially since he was from a minority race. Did anybody else see him? He may be a skillful ryder but very immature. I hated bringing this up but its been bothering me ever since. If our community is to present a good image to others we need to police it now. Especially when there's hundreds of us crawling on the mountain roads at one time. Hope I don't get flamed for this thread but I hope if his family is seeing this thread maybe they would take action to save his or anothers life.

I don't think there is much you can do but take note and not ride with him in the future. This is one of the reasons I prefer to be at the back of the pack when riding in a group. It allows me to ride my own pace and if someone wants to act stupid well I know i've left myself enough room to stop and/or get out of the way.

 

[fastfraser]

Let me ask you guys something because this is the largest Spyder forum on the web: what would you do if you witnessed a young ryder at the Spyderwood Red Carpet Run driving in an unsafe manner? This young man was zipping around other ryders on the mountain roads and going around others at the stop signs once we got back in town. I felt like putting my arm around his neck and telling him to lets take a walk once we got to Pickwicks but he was with family and I didn't want to start a scene. Especially since he was from a minority race. Did anybody else see him? He may be a skillful ryder but very immature. I hated bringing this up but its been bothering me ever since. If our community is to present a good image to others we need to police it now. Especially when there's hundreds of us crawling on the mountain roads at one time. Hope I don't get flamed for this thread but I hope if his family is seeing this thread maybe they would take action to save his or anothers life.

:agree:It only takes one bad :spyder2:driver to spoil the nest. I think i would have spoken to the gentlemen in front of his family as they are most likely unaware of his lack of driving skills.

 

[Smylinacha]

I don't think there is much you can do but take note and not ride with him in the future. This is one of the reasons I prefer to be at the back of the pack when riding in a group. It allows me to ride my own pace and if someone wants to act stupid well I know i've left myself enough room to stop and/or get out of the way.

Sometimes riding in the back of the pack is worse and you're better off up front w/ the skilled riders. In group riding, normally the most skilled riders and the road captain are up front. There's another skilled rider at the very end - the tail gunner. So if you are stuck in the back you might very likely be stuck with people who don't have a clue. I ran into that over the weekend. Also it's like an accordian effect back there and you could be speeding up and slowing down constantly. When we were riding on Sunday I was behind one of my friends who has his moments. Not sure how much weed he smoked that day but he wasn't sticking to a constant speed and it drove me nuts speeding up and slowing down behind him. One minute he'd goose it to catch up to the pack and the next he was daydreaming and slowing down.

At one point he was riding next to some SUV. We were on a road with a double lane. Not sure if he was yelling at the person or talking to them, who knows but it became unbearable and It was at the point where the road turned into one lane ahead and it was at a part where it was a great ride an you could go fast. At this rate, the SUV was about to be right in the middle of our pack as it was getting down to one lane.

Well I saw an out and probably shouldn't have done it but after revving it up, beeping the horn at him to tell him to get off his a$$ and to speed up, I saw an opening on the right and went for it. That saved me from the accordian ride and I got to be in front with the "better" riders who kept a steady pace.

Depends on who you ride with and if you ride w/ the same people often enough, you know who you don't want to ride behind or near.

As far as the idiot who was riding like a nut, nothing you can do -they are everywhere. Just hope he doesn't kill someone.

 

[Bersquack]

Man, this sounds like a Dear Abby moment.

Don't get me wrong, I hate those jerks too and maybe something should have been said. There is always a politically correct way to say things.

Maybe they will only learn after something does wrong.

By the way, even though I was not in LA, I think I know who you are talking about. I think this guy has a few videos on youtube showing off and acting stupid on his spyder.

 

[Firefly]

I don't care much for riding in groups bigger than 5 - and it would take some pretty crazy riding to get me riled up - but if this guy was that crazy around me I would have been giving him an earful before he even got off his bike. His race has nothing to do with it. A simple "Hey pal, if you keep riding like that you're going to hurt yourself or someone else."

That would have been enough to get the point across - if he was doing that much crazy stuff it's not like he didn't know he was doing it.

Whoever was in charge of the ride should have noticed and said something too.

 

[bone crusher]

Let me ask you guys something because this is the largest Spyder forum on the web: what would you do if you witnessed a young ryder at the Spyderwood Red Carpet Run driving in an unsafe manner? This young man was zipping around other ryders on the mountain roads and going around others at the stop signs once we got back in town. I felt like putting my arm around his neck and telling him to lets take a walk once we got to Pickwicks but he was with family and I didn't want to start a scene. Especially since he was from a minority race. Did anybody else see him? He may be a skillful ryder but very immature. I hated bringing this up but its been bothering me ever since. If our community is to present a good image to others we need to police it now. Especially when there's hundreds of us crawling on the mountain roads at one time. Hope I don't get flamed for this thread but I hope if his family is seeing this thread maybe they would take action to save his or anothers life.

You're 100% good to go with your concern...however, there is nothing you can do...period! Jerks are jerks...as others have noted, many won't change unless something goes wrong.

Don't ride with people like this and if something goes wrong, hope it only affects the idiot ryder and not others...just like with drunk driving...if someone gets killed, best to be the drunk, although it never seems to be that way, sadly...

 

[WackyDan]

I think the fault is with the organizers. Did they in the ride description or pre-ride briefing address that this was a ride with a lot of spyders and that extra care should be taken in regard to safety and ryder patience?

I've dealt with idiots like this before right out in front of my house. One got out of his vehicle and come into my driveway threatening me twice. - I was unarmed that day.

The next was another young punk who was full of excuses as to why his intentional drifting in the rain around a corner in a residential neighborhood was justified... and that his losing control and ending up on the neighbors lawn didn't hurt anyone.

You can not reason with someone like that alone. Mob rules would have probably worked, but the best action would have been to flag one of the organizers so that the conversation was coming from an "official" and not a fellow rider. Perhaps you can cite the experience with BRP and suggest they run smaller groups next time or have more BRP event staff mixed in on the rides to supervise. Terrible thing to have to suggest when we are all adults.

 

[SSPSpyder]

ethnicity/race?:dontknow:

No matter who, what, where, when - "You can't fix stupid!"

 

[LADD619]

Let me ask you guys something because this is the largest Spyder forum on the web: what would you do if you witnessed a young ryder at the Spyderwood Red Carpet Run driving in an unsafe manner? This young man was zipping around other ryders on the mountain roads and going around others at the stop signs once we got back in town. I felt like putting my arm around his neck and telling him to lets take a walk once we got to Pickwicks but he was with family and I didn't want to start a scene. Especially since he was from a minority race. Did anybody else see him? He may be a skillful ryder but very immature. I hated bringing this up but its been bothering me ever since. If our community is to present a good image to others we need to police it now. Especially when there's hundreds of us crawling on the mountain roads at one time. Hope I don't get flamed for this thread but I hope if his family is seeing this thread maybe they would take action to save his or anothers life.[/quote

I would first say the spider is a great bike and there are people that want to test the potential of it which should be done in a controlled environment that is safe to do so. A group ride is not the place to show off or do dumb things that could get yourself or someone else hurt. I feel the issue should have been addressed with the rider in a non-confrontational manner because it would have affected us all and been front page news if something went wrong. I would say that you should never use terms like minority because it doesn't sound correct and the dynamics of america are changing. It makes it sound as if you don't feel a minority should be able to own a spyder because they are not used to anything versus addressing it as an unsafe act.

I think that we should start setting up chartered spyder riders clubs to govern our riders better. If you look at good motorcycle clubs they always have a safety briefing and they are about image when wearing their name on your vest.

This is just something for us all to think about and we do have a responsibility to address unsafe practices and mentor younger riders that are about being cool versus safe. Us military guys should know this because the actions of one affects us all versus the individual.

 

[GI Jane]

I agree with LADD619. Any organized ryde should have a safety briefing. This type of unsafe ryding should have been addressed at the time. It reflects on all of us.

 

[Roaddog2]

If you can't ride with the big dogs stay to the rear.
Some riders are more agressive than others though I agree this guy might have been riding like a jerk if you don't like being passed or keeping your speed with the front of the pack you should ride towards the rear:ani29:

 

[Dragonrider]

You witness this action every day by sport bike riders, Hardley riders with obnoxious pipes, etc.

All you can do is lead by design and ignore the idiot(s). Hopefully Charlie will find them and the resulting insurance premium will take them off the road - assuming they have insurance...

 

[Lamonster]

I have just as much issue with guys who ride too slow. I say pick the group that rides like you ride and don't worry about the rest. I pretty much hate group rides but I thought that went pretty well for as many Spyders that were there. :doorag:

 

[Al Bragg]

I did not see they rider you are talking about. But we did get a safety brief before the ride, and we where all told "this is a fun ride, ride at your own pace, this is not a race. Be safe."

 

[Smylinacha]

I did not see they rider you are talking about. But we did get a safety brief before the ride, and we where all told "this is a fun ride, ride at your own pace, this is not a race. Be safe."

Understandable it's not a race but in group riding, riding at your own pace sort of screws things up. A safe pace should be set and everyone should try to adhere to it. Guess that is why I don't do any formal group rides.:dontknow:

 

[mjw930]

If you can't ride with the big dogs stay to the rear.
Some riders are more aggressive than others though I agree this guy might have been riding like a jerk if you don't like being passed or keeping your speed with the front of the pack you should ride towards the rear:ani29:

While I agree that if you aren't comfortable keeping up then falling back to the rear is a viable option but passing in a group ride, especially on Spyders which use the entire lane is simply NOT appropriate in ANY group ride situation unless the person in front waves you past.

Race has no bearing on this discussion. If he was unsafe then I would have said something to the effect that he needs to cool it and adhere to group ride etiquette or break off and ride his own ride. If that didn't work or your weren't comfortable talking to him then you should have pealed off from the ride.

I've done both and have only once had someone get, "in my face" and that wasn't a big deal, he ended up leaving the group ride. This is yet another reason that I now pretty much avoid group rides larger than my immediate friends.

 

[mjw930]

Understandable it's not a race but in group riding, riding at your own pace sort of screws things up. A safe pace should be set and everyone should try to adhere to it. Guess that is why I don't do any formal group rides.:dontknow:

I agree 100% with this. It's up to the group leaders to set the pace and announce what pace they plan on setting from the beginning. If riding your own ride means you are constantly falling back from the pack then the tail gunner should let the lead rider know to slow down the pace. There's a huge difference between a large group parade (what this ride sounded like) and a group ride where people end up braking out into smaller groups with similar skills. In a group I used to ride with there were 2 of us who enjoyed a more aggressive riding style and we would usually lead. The other members of the group would "ride their own ride" and we would usually slow down to let them catch up or simply meet them at the next destination, they were never made to feel like they had to keep up. That's something that's pretty impossible to do in a large group of unfamiliar riders.

Of course this is JMHO and YMMV

 

[Spyder#353]

Do you think only two wheel bikers are 1%'s.:roflblack: It's just a matter of time before you'll will see Spyder 1%'s doing what they want. When they want.:yikes: And the best thing you can do. Is avoid them stay in your little world. And they will stay in there's. I'm going to stop. Remember it was the AMA who gave young bikers that name a long time ago. That means we are 99%'s hyea:That' enough info from me.

 

[Desert Spyder]

I'm not sure if the young man had family in front of me or not and that was why he was zipping. Probably the main reason was the front of the pack set the speed and with that many riders, it was probably 10 mph too fast. I was on that road 3 times that weekend and kept it mostly at 45. I was trying to be considerate of my wife on back and enjoy the view. BTW, the view past the Big Tujunga is spectacular. Race shouldn't ever play a part but when you are in a big group setting and you have no idea who your neighbor is it pays to be careful. Some of my best friends are black or Latino, and I pray with them and laugh with them...I harbor no bigotry except for people that don't like me...and I hate people like that. I've been a Californian all my life and like it or not, things have changed in this state. I should have said something to them/him, they were almost sitting right next to me at the BBQ. Just didn't want to take the chance of spoiling the atmosphere...do you blame me?