Day 88, Sunday, September 11

John and Susan invited me to join them for a motorcycle ride today with some of their friends. The Robins have a Harley Road King (I think?) and they really dress up for the ride. Both of them have their black leather jackets, chaps, and boots which get complimented by a full assortment of other Harley attire (shirts, dew rages, helmets, buttons, ….). To me they look really cool all dressed up. Apparently to Noel, their older son, it’s a bit embarrassing! The ride took us from Duncan up HWY 1 (the Trans Canada Highway) to the town of Courtenay. This is the port from which I plan to take the ferry over to the main land in a couple of days. John, Susan and I parted company with the main group in Courtenay. The rest of the group was planning on riding a bit further up the island, but were planning on getting there exclusively on the TCH, neither a scenic nor twisty route. Why bother? Leaving the group, John, Susan and I, along with one other rider whose name escapes me headed back South by the old highway (HWY 19) which winds its way along next to the water. MUCH better! The scenery was beautiful. There are countless quaint little towns and harbors along this route and because the route parallels the shore, it’s squiggley by nature. Perfect.
Time for another side note foray. Anybody who has participated in group motorcycle rides knows that there are generally two accepted ways to do it. No, actually three. First method: bikes arranged or rather disarranged in a totally random mess as they ride down the road. Not a particularly smart way to ride in a group. There’s no way to predict what your fellow riders are going to do and no set way to react when they do it. Second method (frequented by Harley Davidsons): divide the group into pairs who ride two abreast down road. This is a slightly more organized way to ride because it keeps group order and provides a safety margin between each rider and the one in front of him, but is dangerous (and not smart in my opinion) because riders have absolutely no room to react in an emergency situation. Actually, I guess you have about two or three feet of room to react side to side, but in a relative sense, that’s nothing. Third (and by far the best) method: You ride staggered. The lead rider always rides to the front left. The second rider follows a second or two behind the leader but on the right side of the lane, the third rider follows directly behind the leader but about 3 or 4 seconds back, the fourth rider takes up a position behind the second rider and additional riders follow the pattern. This arrangement gives each rider the full width of the road to react to any situations, but also keeps the maximum number of riders packed safely into the smallest amount of road possible. The way a good rider rides in a group like this is by never crossing the line of the riders beside you unless absolutely required to. For example, if the group wants to switch from the right lane into the left lane, riders 2 and 4 shouldn’t move over until riders 1 and 3 have already moved over. Changing back is similar. Rider 1, the leader, signals the lane change to the right, but riders 1 and 3 shouldn’t actually move over until riders 2 and 4 have started to move over. This method of group riding is very safety conscious because it ensures that all riders keep track of at least 3 other riders (the one in directly in front of them and the two to the side of them). Why did I start on this track? Because the rider who came with the Robins and me was a method 1 rider. He always wanted to ride first but for some reason insisted on riding to the front right rather than the front left and frequently swerved back and forth across the entire lane as he headed down the road. It made following in a safe manner extremely challenging. He also insisted on riding well below the posted speed limit. It just about drove me up a wall! The way I coped with this was to place myself as the last rider in the group and simply hang a ways back. John Robin is definitely a very safe method 3 rider but I let him cope with the other guy rather than attempting to do it myself. I lost count of how many times John had to get on the brakes because the other rider had slowed abruptly or swerved randomly into John’s path. Other than that, the ride was wonderfully fun and definitely one I’ll repeat a few days from now when I head up to the ferry.