Saturday, May 2, 2009

Guys Like This Give All of Us a Bad Name


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It was a beautiful day for a ride, but I had to work, so only got out for a short time. On my way back, a group of 30 or so mostly Harleys was stopped at a light going the opposite direction from me. They were sprawled over their left turn lane and the two adjacent driving lanes.

When their light changed, some of their group positioned themselves in front of our lanes to allow their entire group to pass as one. They turned left from all three of their lanes.

We who were blocked had to wait two changes of the light.

Guys like these give all of us a bad name. They blatantly broke the law so their group could stay together. They should have been in at least four separate groups, each with its own leader and sweep.

I gave them a thumbs-down and shook my head to indicate my irritation at their brazen, selfish, illegal action. One of the lane blockers looked as though he wanted to come see who I was, but thought better of it when the last of his group went by and threatened to leave him behind.

Thumbs down, group, thumbs down!
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2 comments:

redlegsrides said...

it's a herd mentality thing with guys like this....anonymity in this herd enboldens bikers like these.

think about it this way, they're apparently scared to ride alone....or have this weird thought that doing this makes them "bad"....

yeah, they make all motorcycle riders look bad, but then again, I don't consider myself in the same league.....

shake it off, go ride some more....they probably only rode long enough to get to a bar, then stopped for the day to drink and pose....

rc5695 said...

Sorry, but I don't really see the problem with the blocking part of it. If they want to ride in a big group and keep it together, so be it. Your bike didn't overheat and explode into a ball of flames while you were waiting. Once they were through you were able to go on your way still. I've been in groups that have done this before, albeit not as large as described.

As for groups this large, the safety aspet can be debated both ways... That's a pretty large group. Keep in mind, this was done for YOU AND I last year on the ride we did for that church down near you, to keep the group of 20-30 bikes we had together at stop signs (don't recall about stoplights).

Now regarding them in a bunch of lanes, I agree they should be in their correct lane. If they're turning left, then they should be in the left turn lane, for the sake of the safety of the riders in their group. But that also means they're going to be blocking the straight lane for a LONG ways back, and you'd have been waiting even longer.