South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

As I have been shamlessly nicking from VD today, here's a good description of the drop off system, by a diferent name.



The Marker System

This requires a leader, a tailender, and the riders(you!).

* The leader - is familiar with the route, and follows it. He should carry a mobile in case of problems on route. He should point out to the first person behind him where to sit to be best positioned to mark each junction.

* The tailender - is idealy familiar with the route also, but doesnt have to be. They will stay at the back for the entire ride and will be pointed out at the beginning of the ride. (They may wear a fluro vest to make them obvious, ( SWB dont do this, 1blue) ). The tailender is exactly that, everyone else stays in front of them, so they should move the junction marker on once they arrive, this also ensures there is no confusion as to who is the rear bike.
They should carry a mobile with the leaders number in case of problems on route.
If anyone drops out of the group the tailender should stop with them and find out what is going on.
If there is a problem they should get in touch with the leader, or if they are just stopping for a pee wait with them so the marker stays in place at the next junction.

* The riders - at any point the route deviates from the strip of tarmac in front (ie at every turning off the road we are following at the time, 1blue) , the first of the riders behind the leader will stop to mark the way at the junction in a place prominent to the rest of the following group.
THEY MUST NOT MOVE UNTIL THE TAILENDER ARRIVES.
If it seems like you have waited ages, wait some more. If they still havent arrived, phone the leader as he may have heard from them.

Once the tailender has arrived, the junction marker can then work their way carefully back towards the front. Overtaking is ecouraged, but please be courteous!
If anyone sees someone making dangerous overtakes (repeateadly - we all make mistakes sometimes) point it out to the leader, who will have a quiet word. If they carry on they will be asked to leave.
Meanwhile the group all move forward one, so number two, becomes number one behind the leader so marks the next junction.

If riders are going to drop off the back of the group (behind the tail ender), they must inform the tailender what's going on.

Ah ha, a Very useful post from His blueness

That makes sense, many a time when I'm am out on a ride and tend to lose people behind me.. and they end up taking a wrong turn..

This is a great system but imo is no good for the swb rideouts. Its fine for Plymouth mcc whos rideouts tend to be at quite a sedate pace but for any rideout where people are all riding at their own speeds (and tbh these are the only rideouts worth going on) this system just won't work.

In my experience swb rideouts are either of small groups where everyone can wait for the slowest man or of large groups of very mixed riding abilities and speeds. In this case we rarely have people with sufficient knowledge to mark the route, or have enough fast riders.

Remember you would be asking someone to stop at a junction let everyone past and then try to catch up behind the leader again before the next junction (or at least within a couple of junctions if you have a couple of guys who know the route). I can't see this happening, I think its asking for trouble to expect people to catch back up with the leader, sorry but sometime us guys at the front aren't going slow and i can only think of a few riders i've met on swb who are fast enough to catch back up with the front guys.

I think where rideout numbers get really big then you should employ the marker system but still need to first split the rideout into groups of fast and slow riders. I have never minded waiting for people but I don't want to ride at any other pace execept my own.

Have to agree with Andrew. Stick to something too rigid and it becomes more of a "parade" rather than a 'rideout'

we've done it on a few recently, and its worked well when its been used

no one has to "race" to catch up. whoever is second can stop. and no one but the leader has to know the route.

On some rides people doing it off their own back, have stoped others getting lost.

And as someone who likes to go a bit faster occasionally, I quite like the chance to ride a bit quicker and catch up.

This allowes everyone, execpt the first and last, to ride at their own pace, without anyone getting lost. It just asks that every so often the second rider waits for the tailender to come along.

I welcome a system like this, when we tried it on one of the last rideouts the drop off system worked really well and the slower riders are able to ride at their own pace if they know someone will be waiting at a junction for them..

If people really must feel they have to race everywhere then maybe a group rideout is not for them.....

on my first ride out 2 weeks back, i was one of the slower riders, and people would always wait at junctions which was great, i think without the assurance of people waiting, i think i would of not gone, as i feel im not experinced enough to go at some of the speeds the faster riders were going.

A system is good to have on a ride out, but at the sametime, shoulnt restrict the faster riders at the same time.

andrew wrote:Remember you would be asking someone to stop at a junction let everyone past and then try to catch up behind the leader again before the next junction

That is not actually the case. After the back marker has reached you, theoretically you could stay just in front of him at the back of the group until it was your turn to wait at a junction again........or you could ride quickly and get back near the front.
That's why this system works so well regardless of the speed or ability of the group as a whole.

All for Blue on this, worked well on the last one....

Errr well I always stop waiting for you buggers anyway


I am open to Ideas (just won't do it on the day )

Usually at most of the ride outs I have atttended, we use our own system that we like to call 'FAG BREAKS'.

What this involves is that all the fast riders take up smoking, then when we get to a junction, we pull in & have a fag waiting for the others to catch up.













Always worked pretty well before

so really, the slower riders, get maximum fun, as they r always riding

gareth wrote:so really, the slower riders, get maximum fun, as they r always riding

Another way to put it:

Everybody knows that riding bikes is dangerous, that's why I ride at a good pace & take plenty of breaks.
i.e. The less time spent on the road, the less change of an accident.

all very sensible...

i won't get to ride in air ambulance...!!