Thanks everyone for joining us on Saturday. We had a huge turnout. I sorta-counted somewhere between 25 and 30 folks just at Toss. Considering that we have, I believe, 55-60 paid members in the club, that’s a ludicrously high participation rate.
So cool to see.
For folks new to the club, or to organized rides in general, you may be thinking, “holy cow, 30 people on a group ride! No thanks!”
But here’s the deal:
As I said when I began my ride brief in the parking lot, the only way this works is if we DO NOT ride as a big ass conga line of 30 friggin’ bikes. And I can assure you that BCADV will never even attempt to keep a ride that size together on the trail. It either can’t be done, or it’s so inefficient that no one will enjoy themselves.
Instead, we have a culture of teaching everyone accountability and navigation skills so that:
- Everyone knows this group of 30 people in a parking lot will organically break into smaller groups according to rider skill pace, goals for the day, etc. In fact, as more people attend more rides, you’ll network, meet people, and find your love connections – folks with similar riding styles and agendas. You’ll then just naturally pair up with these other members on rides.
- These smaller subgroups know how to navigate / follow a GPS track, and maintain accountability within their group.
- Everyone knows they are expected to be relatively self-sufficient (tools, comms, navigation, attitude, etc) so that if something does go sideways they are prepared to be an asset to the group vs a liability.
And so a BCADV group ride will be organized, in that it will have:
- A published route, whether that’s a GPS track or bullet points in a forum post.
- A published start time and location
- Expectation that the group will NOT ride together as a massive group and will instead break into small sub units of ~2-6 riders reach.
- The expectation that everyone in each group will know the route, or at least be able to self-navigate with the aid of published tracks, carries basic tools, and is prepared to be a team player with regards to solving problems, etc.
Finally, in parallel to us developing a culture of club rides, we’d like to see more rides organized and posted by knuckleheads with names other than “Rich” or “Gino.” 
Want to ride your motorcycle off road but understand that solo riding isn’t the safest activity? I see two choices:
- Stand on the wall at the prom and wait for someone to ask you to dance / organize a ride for you to participate in, or…
- Figure out what YOU want to ride, put a ride together, do your ride and meet others to ride with again in the future.
