Side by side riding???

kiwi

kiwi

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Was coming back yesterday from up north. Spotting riders riding side by side in the same lane several times. These were big bikes too so not much room to maneuver should you need to avoid road debris.

Is this the new trend???

Or people watching reruns of CHiPs/Easy Rider ;)

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Yeah, I find that a bit silly. Personally, when someone plays "sidecar" with me I usually get rather P-Oed.
 
Frig...I had a guy that did this to me yesterday...an R6 pulled into my lane...I was in the middle of a cruise with friends...explained this to him when we got to a red, but then he continued to ride next to me.

i just dropped back and maneuvered around him with the rest of the group behind me...

IMO, riding side by side...not cool...and soooo not safe =/
 
I lift my visor, slowly creep towards them in the lane, life up my clutch hand and scream "HIGH FIVE BRO!"

I rarely have this problem for long.
 
I ride with only people I know and feel comfortable riding with. We don't use hand or turn signals, and we ride side by side and at times really close together. Were comfortable doing that and never have a problem. I wouldn't ride with anyone I don't know like this however, and you dont just roll up beside people you dont know. If you dont want to ride like that then dont, pretty simple. If someone intrudes on your comfort zone, then pull back or take off....
 
the riders I saw were just a pair, and not a large group and it was open road highway riding, not in a suburban st.
 
It's perfectly safe, that's how the Ontario police ride their bikes.
 
Was behind 2 cruisers saturday night doing this. Guy in the left track had his highway pegs over the line and the dude on the right was basically on the white line and almost went off the hard top a few times...
Then they passed a car at the same time, side by side around a bend... Stupid.
 
Not that safe.. There was a huge bike pileup south of the border that could have been avoided had they been riding stagger. On one occasion, just the stagger formation saved me from the consequences of a major brain-fart. That's why, if you insist on trying to hold my hand while riding, I'll kick your bike over. However, i the group pre-arranges that and wants to do it despite the risks, it's their skin, their choice. Where it stops being their choice and starts becoming my rage is if they're riding side-by-side taking up 2 lanes and making it impossible to pass them without lane-sharing. That's one of the circumstances where I wholeheartedly approve of the lane-sharing practice :cool:
 
AGAVE said:
It's perfectly safe, that's how the Ontario police ride their bikes.
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Yep, and no need to wear any gear and only the most basic and barely legal brain bucket. Great examples they set eh?

Makes all their propaganda about "speed kills" ring even more hollow.
 
I hate it when people ride side by side, it makes it so much harder to pass them on the right.
 
JohnnyP636 said:
I ride with only people I know and feel comfortable riding with. We don't use hand or turn signals, and we ride side by side and at times really close together. Were comfortable doing that and never have a problem. I wouldn't ride with anyone I don't know like this however, and you dont just roll up beside people you dont know. If you dont want to ride like that then dont, pretty simple. If someone intrudes on your comfort zone, then pull back or take off....
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+1

I ride side by side on occasion, though normally its staggered. The people I ride with I know and have been riding with for a while, or in some cases since we all got our licenses 15 years ago. I am comfortable with the people I ride with, if its with people I don't really know or know there riding style, I don't and will keep ahead if they try and pull up beside me, though rarely does that happen with strangers.

Also, I am the lead position with the majority of our rides, so make sure I pull well ahead using blinkers and at times, hand singles so not to surprise anyone behind with a turn coming up, and allow everyone to get back into staggered formation if they need to.
 
I pull beside my wife at stops from time to time to discuss where we are going or...
I don't ride beside her
 
Griffin said:
Yep, and no need to wear any gear and only the most basic and barely legal brain bucket. Great examples they set eh?

Makes all their propaganda about "speed kills" ring even more hollow.
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If you want to see a motorcycle cop get angry and defensive really quickly ask them why they do it. I've asked several times to several different motorcycle cops and all I've managed to get was an angry "We have our reasons for riding side by side and we are not here to set an example for you"
 
I've seen this mostly with cruisers. Yes *sigh* I'm going to generalize now...(I know not ALL cruiser riders are like this!) with cruisers, it seems they are less aware in general of group riding 'rules' and techniques compared to the overall population of sport bike riders. There have been several instances when I've given hand signals to cruisers and they were clearly baffled. 'Cop' signal, 'slow down', etc. All I got in response was a confused look, second takes and even the odd shrug of "wha?"

There are plenty of riders that know the 'rules' and follow them...and lots that don't (I see SS riders do all sorts of crap that tells me they haven't taken a course and don't really know what they're doing!) but I seem to see much less knowledge of these group riding standards, techniques and 'rules' with cruiser riders than with any other group.
 
Riding side by side is a bad practice IMHO. Maybe its okay for the Police to do it, because they get some fairly extensive motorcycle riding training (but that is a big MAYBE!) Everyone else is better served by riding staggered - and not too close to the personal space of the rider in front of you, either. Each bike should control the whole width of the lane in which they are riding which means it is very easy to tailgate if you don't pay attention to what you are doing.
 
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I only see cruisers doing this but they also ride a lot slower than we do on our sport/sport touring bikes. What puzzles me more is why cruisers and others hug the centre line even when riding solo with on-coming traffic that is doing 100 K. I understand they want to block their lane as they should, but they really do put themselves at risk by being that close to the centre line.
 
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The reason I was curious about this behavior is that I was worried about the on coming bike colliding with my Vehicle as I drove the other direction the bikes approaching made me really nervous of this as others mentioned.

Staggered riding position has saved me and others in the past.

Anyway, just food for thought I guess.
 
Let adults make their own decisions. Let them deal with the consequences of those decisions as well and worry about yourself.
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