The CB1100 Community Forum

Great philosophical take on riding with buddies.

[url=https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/how-to-be-a-good-riding-buddy]How to be a good riding buddy.

Nice article. The "goober" mentioned in one of the captions lives near me and I've talked to him a few times. He likes the CB1100...maybe I should see if he wants to cover the Berea rally for CycleWorld!! LOL

Enjoyed that. Thanks Stichill.

I had to laugh when I read this line: Who gives a cuss about that punctured tube?

I'm thinking to myself "well in my case, the guy whose bike I rode off with might care since I don't own an EX", lol.

Joking aside, this article was actually pretty informative for me as I pretty much tend to ride exclusively by myself. The first time I ever went for a ride with someone else on the street I was actually a bit nervous about it. I don't know that it had yet been more than a year since I had returned to riding motorcycles at that point in time. I wanted to be a "good riding buddy" and not get separated. But I found that focusing on more than just my own ride was a bit of a challenge at times. What I learned that day was that basically I needed to do a better job of figuring out what situations were appropriate to check the mirrors for hints of my buddy's presence and what situations weren't.

At one point I was leading and he was following as we were headed back into the city. We were on a very heavily-travelled, winding, 40 mph street. We were both on our Hawk GTs (that commonality was how we came to meet one another). As I quickly discovered, this was definitely NOT an appropriate time to check my mirror. As I returned my attention to that which was in front of me I was greeted by the vision of the back end of a car coming to a stop in order to turn left onto a little hidden drive tucked away in the trees. I was coming up on this car way too quickly and it was an alarmingly short distance away. I'm guessing that they had never travelled to wherever they were going and hadn't seen the drive coming up until it was almost too late.

Many Hawk enthusiasts will note that the front brakes (a single disk setup) could really do with an upgrade and for track riding I'm sure that's true. But I learned that day that the stock setup was at least capable enough of lifting the rear wheel and bringing the bike to a stop far quicker than I ever imagined possible. Thankfully the Hawk and I both survived unscathed. My buddy later noted that he thought for sure I was a goner as he had a front row seat to the whole ordeal. I was grateful that I had lucked out of a really bad situation that I had put myself in. But I can't begin to tell anyone how embarrassed I was that day. Even though I realized what I had done wrong, after pouring over all of the mistakes I had made I didn't ride with anyone again after that for a long time. That was, and I hope that it will remain, the single most frightening moment I've ever experienced on a motorcycle.

(03-01-2018, 12:25 PM)EmptySea_imp Wrote: [ -> ]Nice article. The "goober" mentioned in one of the captions lives near me and I've talked to him a few times. He likes the CB1100...maybe I should see if he wants to cover the Berea rally for CycleWorld!! LOL

Well, if you actually get along with the guy then you've got nothing to lose by asking. If nothing else he might just have some free time and enjoy going on the trip for the sake of the trip.

I have a buddy. Weird guy when taken as a whole, but a great motorcycle travelling companion. Taken many trips with him including the Bucket List ride to Cali in 2014. He has once again quit motorcycling for like the 4th or 5th time, but when he is into it, we have some great trips. What makes him great as a traveling companion? We both obsess about motorcycles and gear and have similar motorcycle backgrounds going back to 1973 RD 350s. We keep similar schedules as far as waking and sleeping (up early, in bed early). We eat pretty much alike (we can do fast food every meal but enjoy a better meal every once in awhile as well). Neither of us smoke or drink. We both ride a similar pace on similar sized bikes (usually liter bikes), and we can both ride all day from 7:30 AM to 7:30 pm with no complaints. He prefers a better class of motel than I (Holiday Inn Express vs Comfort Inn), but when we travel each one picks the hotel on alternating nights, so every other day he gets his fancy and I get my cheap lol.

My buddy on our Cali trip along the Pacific Coast Highway

(03-02-2018, 12:59 AM)The ferret_imp Wrote: [ -> ]I have a buddy. Weird guy when taken as a whole, but a great motorcycle travelling companion. Taken many trips with him including the Bucket List ride to Cali in 2014. He has once again quit motorcycling for like the 4th or 5th time, but when he is into it, we have some great trips. What makes him great as a traveling companion? We both obsess about motorcycles and gear and have similar motorcycle backgrounds going back to 1973 RD 350s. We keep similar schedules as far as waking and sleeping (up early, in bed early). We eat pretty much alike (we can do fast food every meal but enjoy a better meal every once in awhile as well). Neither of us smoke or drink. We both ride a similar pace on similar sized bikes (usually liter bikes), and we can both ride all day from 7:30 AM to 7:30 pm with no complaints. He prefers a better class of motel than I (Holiday Inn Express vs Comfort Inn), but when we travel each one picks the hotel on alternating nights, so every other day he gets his fancy and I get my cheap lol.

My buddy on our Cali trip along the Pacific Coast Highway

Ferret, your traveling/riding style sounds like a mirror image of mine except I'm even cheaper as I prefer camping but a cheap dingy motel will do in a pinch.

When traveling in the US I actually stay in State Parks whenever possible. Even though they sometimes lack amenities they are cheap ($10-15 on the honour system) and usually have someone assigned as a "caretaker" who isn't paid but camps for free. All the ones that I stayed at had Veteran as caretakers (perhaps this is some kind of program?) so evening conversations were enjoyable.

W/R I used to camp, but as I've gotten older I can no longer get down and up off the ground very well anymore (and can't kneel at all) so I need a raised bed. Bet I haven't camped in at least 6 years now. My brother and I talk about doing it every year, we just never get around to it. Still have all my motorcycle camping gear lol.

I did a trip in 2010 with a buddy, each of us on KLR650s. We left from San Antonio and had about 25 days to travel Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. An amazing trip.

When we got to Guatemala, we found a lot of challenging, sketchy mountain roads that we both handled fine on the KLRs, but his skill level riding at speed through mud, gravel, loose rock and sand was higher than mine. Fun to be challenged trying to keep up, but mentally tiring because I was maxing out and he was just riding like he always did on such "roads". During one break, he "kindly" offered pointers on how to ride faster, trust my bike's capability more. I reminded him of certain realities--us being married with kids, their expecting us to return home. I felt whatever one's skill level, we had to tame it down considering where we were at--in the middle of nowhere, hours from any towns among primarily Mayan descendents who spoke no Spanish, much less no English (he and I are bilingual but Mayan is not the 2nd language).

We agreed he would ride his way and I would mine, that way if anything happened to him, I'd catch up. He said he would stop at any cross-roads where it wasn't obvious where to go. After an hour, he would pull over and wait for me, take pictures, eat something while I would catch up. We were both happy that way. I was usually only a few minutes behind him, but realizing we liked to ride difficult terrain at different speeds made a huge difference.

An unforegettable trip...we shared lots of laughs and still talk about minute details from all the crazy encounters, many of which happened because we were riding together instead of solo. But we hadn't ridden off road together prior to the trip; fortunately, we talked it over and found a solution so that we were both happy...it made all the difference.

After parting ways in San Antonio, he for Kansas City--I still had to ride home to Oregon--the longest stretch of the trip! It was weird riding alone after all that time checking mirrors to see where he was, or mostly following his tailight. We're supposed to travel to Alaska together sometime...but now he has a BMW R1200GS. If he leaves KC at the same time I leave Portland, he'll probably catch me before the Canadian border.

wow pdedse, that sounds like a heck of a trip. Once in a lifetime kind of thing. Yea travelling at different speeds is an issue, and I must say, having ridden with guys who will "wait for me" at the next whatever, not one I am very fond of.

My buddy above, went on one trip with another buddy of his that rides like a road racer all the time. He came back so exasperated from the experience, trying to keep up all the time, getting left behind, and feeling like he was "on his own", he actually sold his bike immediately after getting back and quit riding (for awhile).

Everyone should ride their own ride, but in a group (of 2 even) sometimes compromises must be made for the slowest member of the group IMO.

For me, a good riding buddy is more about what they don't do than what they do do.

Don't:
[ul] [li]Fall way behind, out of sight, causing everyone to wait over and over[/li] [li]Ride unpredictably (suddenly slowing down to fiddle with mirrors, swerving, etc.)[/li] [li]Fail to pay attention to what's going on in front of you (near-collision, etc.)[/li] [li]Always be the last one to be ready to leave, while everyone else is geared up and cooking in the sun[/li] [li]Change the ride plan for no good reason, missing cool sights or lengthening the ride to no end[/li] [li]Not have a full tank of gas at "kickstands up"[/li] [li]Fail to signal turns and lane changes[/li] [li]Play with your GPS excessively, causing delay[/li] [li]Violate stagger formation on straightaways[/li] [li]Pass rapidly to get ahead in the formation without cause[/li] [li]Agitate at stops to get going again (enjoy the stop!)[/li] [li]Bring a motorcycle in a poor state of maintenance[/li] [li]Be grumpy, high-strung, or act like you wish you were doing something else[/li] [li]Run through yellow lights as the leader vs. stopping with the group at the light (if it is a quick light, slow down and pull to a re-grouping spot within sight of the intersection)
[/li][/ul]