Leader of the Pack?

Leader of the Pack?

Or Maybe Just the Fool Up Front...

By Spark

I've been on some great rides and some not-so-great rides, and the person at the head of the pack has usually had a lot to do with how the ride turned out. Having led a few of each type myself, I've had firsthand experience at screwing it up and occasionally getting it right. So what makes someone a good leader? I was talking to one road captain after a particularly pleasant run, and asked him his secret. "Catch all the green lights," he said with a wink.

Of course there's more to it than that, and whole chapters have been written about the dynamics of group riding, so let's not go through all that here, But what if you find yourself at the head of a pack? There are a lot of good poker runs coming up this season, and if you are one of the first to leave, you just may find that 20 or 30 or 500 bikes fall in behind you. What can you do to make it a good run for the group? Let's bring it closer to home -- how can you keep from screwing up in front of 500 bikers?

The number one thing that I hear is ride for the pack, not for yourself. A good leader times all the moves to make it easy for the pack to follow. That includes lane changes, pullouts, and clearly signaled turns. This not only makes the ride a real smooth cruise, but it is safer for everyone. The real trick here is timing.

Ben and Paula – You can follow these guys anywhere!

A Second Here, a Second There:

So let's say we have a group of 20 bikes, traveling down the road at 60MPH in a staggered formation, two columns of 10 If the riders are safe and follow reasonable guidelines, they should be two seconds behind the rider in front, and one second behind the rider in the opposite half-lane. That means that the pack should be about 21 seconds long, from leader to tailgunner. A good leader will use that information when pulling out, passing cars, or changing lanes. 21 seconds is a long lead time to give the approaching car when you want to make a right on red. So you end up waiting for the light -- riding for the pack, not yourself.

How about the length of the pack? If you are leading the same 20 bikes at 60 MPH, you are travelling at about 88 feet per second. With the same two-second spacing, that means that you are driving a virtual vehicle that is over 1800 feet long, or better than a third of a mile. This is a big deal if you are heading down the expressway and your 1800-foot vehicle is in the right lane between the soccer mom in the left lane and her exit on the right. The best road captains I have ridden with handle this situation two ways: First, they don't keep the pack in the right lane, often referred to as the "kill zone". Second, they designate one or two riders as breakpoints to split the group in an orderly fashion should the need arise.

Those Things Sticking Up Above Your Grips:

They are called mirrors, and a good leader uses them a lot. I had a tough time on my '97 Fatboy, because everything further than 3 bikes back was just a blur. I have watched the leader head out and ride half a mile before realizing that no one else had made the light. I have also been right behind the leader, vainly flashing my lights to signal a breakdown as he casually surveyed the scenery.

Keep Up, Catch Up, or Meet Up:

Of course the true test of a road captain is that you know where you are taking the group. If you take a couple minutes to go over the route, you can set a place to meet if the group gets separated. This is no big deal on a little poker run where everyone has the route, you can just wait at the next stop. On longer rides it can be a lifesaver. If people know where to meet, they won't be as tempted to shoot red lights to keep up.

Another way to keep the group together is to take it easy on the starts. It's just not the same for a group of 20 bikes as it is for you and your two buddies that have been riding together for years. Three bikes can pull out in traffic and nail it, but in a large group, the tailgunner will be delayed while everyone else pulls out. So the lead bike is a half mile down the road and up to speed before the last bike even gets started. What happens next is that the last few bikes really get cranking to catch the group, then suddenly clamp on the binders as they realize the group has slowed. Bikes running into bikes is one of the reasons many riders won't do group rides at all. A little care by the leader can make it all go smoothly.

Leading From the Back of the Pack:

A good tailgunner or sweeper can really make a difference, particularly if they ride regularly with the leader. In cases where the pack is traveling slower than traffic, say to change lanes for an exit, the leader can signal for the turn, then wait for the tailgunner to change lanes and block traffic. The whole group changes lanes from back to front, allowing cars in the right lane to either exit or pull ahead.

Breakdowns and Other Screwups:

Sometimes it just gets weird. Once I pulled out of the Harley shop on a HOG poker run, leading five friends. Everyone must have decided that was the signal to go, and I suddenly found myself at the head of a 100 bike pack. I did pretty well for the first 10 miles, then one of our five bikes died while pulling out from a stoplight and would not start. I whipped into a parking lot to help out, and was followed by 100 riders, who all thought I was leading them to Mecca or somewhere, and who were mightily pissed to find that they were not at an official poker run stop.

On another run, there was a last-second mixup at a cloverleaf intersection, and the group split up three different ways. We kept riding around and around the various exits and making U-turns, always seeing the others on the ramps but never getting to them. Finally, as strange as it started, all three came back together on the same ramp at the same time, were all on the right road, and cruised on as if nothing had happened.

If you ride in groups, weird stuff is going to happen. If you are leading the group when it happens, you'll just have to take your lumps. But if you are lucky enough to miss all the gremlins, you don't get lost, you don't run off and leave the pack, you and catch all the green lights, you will be remembered as having led one of the most enjoyable rides of all time.