Stuart’s GoldWing Blog

The time-honoured way of keeping a Group Ride together, or at least getting them all to stay on route so they can meet up again at the next planned stop, is a system of marking turns on the route by getting a bike to halt at a turning point, so that the other bikes will know which way to turn. In other words a “Drop Off” system. There are several variations on drop off systems and I will come back to that subject in more detail later, in a future Article in this series. This one concentrates on motorway group riding, when of course drop offs cannot be used because it is both illegal and highly dangerous to stop on a motorway – so a very different approach is needed.

A short hop on a motorway in your home locality for your regular group of rider presents relatively little difficulty, although there are potential problems, so there is little need for elaborate planning. But the principles of group riding on motorways are the same however long or short your journey might be, and if you are part of a group which is trying to make a ferry deadline to get back to UK you might face quite a long motorway slog across what is in some parts of Europe quite a complex network of motorways. And then you really will need to give some thought to how to keep your group together.

The only reliable way I know of keeping a group together on motorways requires each rider’s willingness to keep up, willingness to keep a reliable eye on the bike immediately behind (so no swapping around the riding order, so no overtaking) and an understanding of what to do if the bike following you drops back or disappears altogether – which is to slow down, keep it in view for as long as possible, so the Leader gets to know by the knock on slowing down of the whole group that something is up. Of course if you are touch with the Leader by radio you can tell him that way, but not all bikes, and not even all GoldWings have bike-to-bike radios.

Slowing down deliberately should have a fairly rapid knock on effect up the line, slowing the whole ride down so that the Leader will become aware, even if there is no radio to tell him so, that there is a problem. Unless the Leader already knows about the problem (over the radio) and decides otherwise, the whole ride (less the biker who has broken down and maybe the Sweeper, the rider who keep in position at the back of the group, who has stopped with him) will then automatically leave the motorway at the next opportunity in order to stop and investigate the problem. A mobile phone call between Leader and Sweeper can be useful in these circumstances.

Group riding on motorways is a big topic to deal with in one Article but it make sense to try to cover it this way, so I’ve broken it up with plenty of headings and some pictures in an attempt to make it more readable, recognising that you might need more than one session to get through it, so I hope it works!  Some of what I have written is controvertial, so feel free to comment with your different ideas, the more the merrier.

Communicating on the move

Radios are of course very useful for motorway group riding, especially between Leader and Sweeper.  Radio chat among the group can also add to the enjoyment of a long motorway ride as long as no one talks so much that it prevents the Sweeper telling the Leader about a problem; people sometimes forget that while their own PTT is pressed no one else can hear anyone else.

Maybe, in the absence of radios, there could just be circumstances in which it would be useful for a rider who has spotted a problem to overtake and catch the Leader up, get alongside him and try to communicate the nature of it.  But doing this sort of thing at motorway speeds by means of hand signals or shouting is pretty difficult and potentially very dangerous.  It’s probably better, and much safer, for all riders to stay in position, even when they are itching to pass on their hot news, and to slow down with everyone else and let the Leader work out for himself that he needs to stop the group.  That’s all the Leader needs to know at this stage if he hasn’t got a radio, so detail about the nature of the problem is best left until the group has stopped.

Everyone must try to Keep Up

Keeping up with the speed of general traffic on a motorway is an important safety factor for bikes.  Riding slowly and therefore being overtaken frequently, especially on a busy motorway, increases the risk of another vehicle colliding with a bike from the rear or the side.  Any collision with another vehicle at motorway speeds is likely to have very serious consequences for a biker.

Group riders must therefore be briefed in advance that it is necessary for safety reasons for the group to keep moving and keep up unless it becomes necessary to slow down, for example after an incident has occured or to make a route turn.

The group must try to stay more or less intact as a group all the time, so no dawdling.  It only takes one rider who likes to chug along at a steady 55 mph in the nearside lane come rain or shine to make things very difficult if not downright dangerous for a group of bikes.

We’re all likely to have noticed the effect of just one car cruising a low speed in the nearside lane of a busy UK motorway, the driver either oblivious to what he’s doing or maybe sometimes doing it deliberately, as his arrogant way of trying to impose his ideas of safety or fuel economy on others.  He gets in the way of all the lorries, which are governed to 56 mph these days and so try to keep that speed up when they can, so lots of them end up having to try overtake him but then find themselves losing speed while doing so going uphill and can’t.  The car driver exerts his rights and maintains his slow speed, so the lorry drops back.  This sort of thing causes traffic to bunch up across all three (or even four) lanes and in no time at all there is quite a backlog of traffic.  The whole motorway slows down and starts to get clogged up, frustration builds, vehicles in the outside lane end up getting closer and closer together, someone brakes when they get too close and an accident might very well happen.

A slow rider in a group of bikes will have a similar effect but worse, because he will turn the whole group of riders into a slow moving vehicle which is the length of the whole group, so maybe a quarter or half a mile long.  This will have a similar impact to a train of slow lorries nose to tail, virtually closing off the nearside lane of the motorway – except of course that a line of bikes will look to other drivers as infinitely easier to penetrate than a train of lorries when they want to get into or through the nearside lane.  This makes the line of bikes an unecessary target and puts them at unnecessarily increased risk.  Whenever this slow moving group of bikes passes a junction, a potentially very dangerous situation arises as other road users try to barge through the group of bikes to enter or leave the motorway.

Bikes are much safer on motorways if they keep up with the general flow of traffic and use their speed and acceleration as necessary to ride defensively in relation to other vehicles – and this is just as true for a group of bikes as a singleton.

All GoldWings are capable of cruising at the maximum legal speed on motorways for hours on end without coming to any harm and keeping their riders in reasonable comfort while they’re at it. If any rider is unwilling (or for any reason unable) to keep up on a motorway, he really shouldn’t inflict himself on a group of riders, it’s just too dangerous for everyone else.  If he doesn’t get the message when you explain it to him nicely, tell him he will have to ride on his own.

Sorry if that sounds like a bit of a rant but I think it’s important.  These few people who are oblivious to the impact which their dawdling on motorways has on others or, even worse, think they’re entitled to impose their ideas on everyone else by exercising their legal right to stick to 50 mph on a motorway, get right up my nose.  There is absolutely no excuse for a biker behaving in this way.  End of rant.

Riding together in a very large group can also create delays and difficulties for other motorway users, even if they ride at motorways speeds, simply because of their overall length.  Consider breaking your group into smaller sub-groups if necessary, so that other road users enjoy the spectacle of your passing, rather than feeling tempted to help bring it on. Anything over a dozen bikes should probably break into sub groups with gaps of at least half a mile between them to avoid being antisocial.

Setting the right pace

This doesn’t of course mean that the Leader should automatically maintain maximum legal speed on a motorway even if the general flow of traffic is doing so, because that wouldn’t work at all.  But when riding a GoldWing as part of a group on a motorway each rider should be prepared to use his bike’s capacity for speed and acceleration to keep up because it may be necessary from time to time for overall safety reasons that he should ride at the maximum legal speed.

As Leader of a motorway group ride I would usually set my own speed at 5 to 15 mph below the legal maximum, depending on the weather, traffic, how many lanes etc but I will always try to aim for the higher end of this range, providing the group can stay with me.  If there is a lot of rain and especially spray from lorries it might be necessary to ride much more slowly or even to come off the motorway altogether because it has become too hazardous for group riding.

Frequent mirror checks and no overtaking among the group

And if the volume of traffic starts to separate the group, as often happens, each rider must exercise considerable vigilance to keep the following bike in view at all times, slowing down as necessary to do so, although of course never actually stopping.  Non-group bikes may well overtake and infiltrate the group from time to time – hence the importance of no overtaking among the group, so each rider in the group knows which particular bike he is keeping an eye on in his mirrors.  So overtaking among the group must be discouraged; each rider needs to have the same, recognisable bike behind him to keep an eye on if he’s going to manange to do so when the traffic gets busy and he will have to lots of other things too in order to keep himself safe.

Of course on a day’s ride out and a short hop on one of your local motorways to get to the country roads a rigid approach to no overtaking may be a bit OTT, but when you are making a longer transit journey by motorway as a group, especially abroad, it becomes much more important.

So a rider only ever abandons the following bike if that bike has had to stop altogether, when he will hopefully have seen something of what’s gone wrong, so he can tell the Leader when he gets the chance, and by which time his deliberate slowing down will have had a knock on effect and slowed the whole ride down, including the Leader, who will also therefore know that something is up.

Whenever the group behind him slows down, it should of course prompt the Leader to have a good look behind him and count headlights to see if his group are all still there.  And if he has a radio, check with the Sweeper that all’s well too.  In my view every moving motorcycle should have its headlights on day or night anyway, but headlights are even more important in a group on a motorway; a Leader doesn’t stand much chance of counting bikes behind him unless all the group are running with headlights on.

Even if there is no radio communication, the Leader is likely to find out before the next exit that something is wrong once the group starts slowing down.  He can then leads the group off the motorway at the next opportunity, stop and begin to sort the problem out.

Backtracking for one or even two junctions on a motorway if necessary to sort a problem out is achievable. But if the group gets separated and spread over much bigger distances it becomes much more difficult and time-consuming to regroup. Of course it might not be desirable to hold the whole group up while a problem with one bike is sorted out, especially if there is a deadline to catch a ferry or it’s important to get to the hotel before the bar closes. You have to work out what’s best in the particular circumstances and if the group has stopped to take stock, at least most of you will be together to talk the problem over and make that decision.

Punctures and breakdowns

Repairing a puncture on a GoldWing is not a five minute job.  Last time I took the back wheel off my GL1200 it took a couple of hours.  So I always carry a tyre plugging kit when I’m touring abroad, even though I also always have ultraseal in my own tyres, which should prevent a puncture from stopping the bike.  Maybe just carrying the tyre plug kit has the same effect because so far I’ve never had to use it.

Inserting a tyre plug and then using a GL1200 Aspencade or a GL1500’s on-board compressor to pump the tyre back up can get a bike moving again within half an hour or so and without having had to remove the wheel either. (GL1800s don’t have compressors, so older GoldWings are always worth including in your invitation list for a group ride. If your group consists only of GL1800s it’s worth someone having a small 12v compressor in one of his saddlebags when you’re abroad.)

No point in holding everyone up

When the Leader has found out what the problem is (or was) a decision can be made about how to deal with it. It will often make sense for the majority of the group to continue with the planned ride, rather than everyone hang around unnecessarily, maybe leaving one or two volunteers to help the casualty.

Alternators on GoldWings can fail suddenly, but two or three like bikes can ride on together in stages, swapping batteries every 20 miles or so and still make reasonable progress. Or it might be expedient, or even necessary, to abandon the broken down bike and its rider to await the recovery service.

You have to do what you can in the circumstances and you have to be realistic when it comes time to call out the recovery service.  It is of course essential that every Winger who tours abroad as part of a group has both breakdown and accident recovery insurance.

If in doubt, come off at the next safe opportunity and check

So the other essential ingredient for staying together on motorways is that if the group does get separated for any reason and it cannot be established by radio communication that there isn’t really a problem, everyone must come off the motorway at the next opportunity in order to regroup. It’s no use pressing on in hope unless you are prepared to accept that the group has separated at least until the next planned stop, and only then if eveyone knows where it is and finds it successfully.

Continuing slowly on  motorway never really works either.  If someone has stopped to solve a problem, even briefly, it will take ages to catch up even at dangerously fast speeds. A brief stop to check what, if anything, has gone wrong is very worthwhile compared with the risks of not doing so – and ending up with the group getting separated irrecoverably.

Making it a bit more foolproof

This system for group riding on motorways is not infallible as described so far for two reasons:

1. The next motorway exit might be a turn on to another motorway, which could take the group miles off route.
2. Someone might fail to spot that the group has left the motorway and zoom on ahead.

So it could make much more sense to continue along the route to the first opportunity to leave the motorway and stop, otherwise the group would be taken many more miles off route before it’s possible to stop. So the Leader has to make this assessment on the hoof if necessary, based on his knowledge of the route, and if the leader doesn’t turn off at the very next exit, other riders shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that he doesn’t know about the problem or that he has lost the plot.

The general the plan should be to stay on route on the motorway (making a turn onto a different motorway if necessary in order to stay on route) until the first opportunity arises to exit the motorway while still on route. Then stop and sort the problem out.

And when the group does stop, ideally someone will be nominated to watch the motorway and/or monitor the radio, to watch for anyone overshooting the temporary halt.  If anyone who is trying to catch the group fails to do so within more than one junction of motorway, they should also consider coming off (and maybe then straight back on again) at the next junction and/or telephoning or waiting within view of the motorway for a few minutes, to establish that the group are not now behind him.

Navigatioal nightmares at motorway junctions

The need to take steps to prevent getting separated on motorways is far from being a hypothetical requirement, especially when you are touring abroad because there are lots of complex motorway intersections on the Continent. Keeping a group intact and on route becomes a considerable challenge of leadership, even when everything goes according to plan.

Around the Dutch City of Eindhoven for example, which is on commonly used routes taken by British bikers to and from the Channel ports, the motorway junctions on the Ring Road are a bit of a navigational nightmare, with different motorways splitting off and joining up left right and centre.  You really need to concentrate to make the correct turn.

And it’s no use some clever sod saying “you’ve all gone wrong” over the radio to the bikes in front as he peels off down the correct exit road to make the planned turn because it will be extremely difficult to get everyone back together if this happens – the two (or more) sections of the group will be out of radio range of each other within minutes if not seconds.

Get lost together if necessary

Then you’re in a foreign country and scattered among a maze of motorway and other junctions, the leader is faced with an almost impossible task getting everyone back together and back on route.

So one of the rules for group riding on motorways abroad (and probably in UK too) is that everyone stays together, even if they have taken a wrong turning. That way you can at least all correct the single mistake as a group, without adding any more complications.

You shouldn’t follow the group over the edge of a precipice or on to an un-rideable rough track, but within reason you should always get lost together rather than split up.

My approach to leading a group on Continental motorways therefore involves trying very hard to prevent the group splitting up or going wrong at a motorway junction.  Approaching a turn point I slow down early to bunch everyone together and get them all into the correct lane -  well before the turning point, probably starting this process two miles or more before the turn, so easily can things otherwise go wrong.  And I check and recheck which turn I am looking for as I approach to try to make absolutely sure that I lead the group to the correct exit ramp.

Consideration for other Motorway Users

A staggered formation works well on motorways but it must not be used inflexibly. Other road users must not find themselves blocked from joining or leaving the motorway by a huge and impenetrable chain of bikes which takes on the character of a single vehicle which is half a mile long, even if it is moving along nicely at motorway speed.

Riders in a group on a motorway must allow other road users to break the line as necessary for their purposes, otherwise road rage could arise.  Bikers are in a weak position if it ever comes to a barging match. For the sake of what will often only be a few seconds of disruption of the group sequence, let other road users in, it’s much safer than resisting.

Far Sighted Leadership

Leading a big group of bikes on a motorway journey involving a substantial volume of traffic, even on a dry and clear day, is not easy. The Leader needs to read the road a long, long way ahead as well as keep an eye on what’s happening behind him.

He needs to set and vary his riding speed, choose his lane and choose whether and when to overtake with the safety of the whole group in mind.

It’s no use the Leader overtaking something, then slowing down again in front of it because this puts everyone behind him in the group in considerable difficulty. There has to be room ahead for everyone to complete an overtake safely, including pulling over to get out of the way of faster traffic which might by then be pressing to overtake them and which the Leader might not have been able to see coming when the overtaking manoeuvre started.

Sweepers must be seen to be useful

It is of course much easier for the Sweeper to catch sight of the Leader from time to time on a motorway than the other way round because a riders visual range via mirrors is nothing like as good as the direct view which the Sweeper will have.  If only to give comfort to the Leader by allowing him to satisfy himself everyone is still there from time to time, it helps if the Sweeper is even more conspicuous than the other bikes in a group on a motorway.  Riding behind a group of GoldWings, being even more conspicuous than they are presents a bit of a challenge.

On motorways a GoldWing’s low level fog or driving lights can make it a lot easier to distinguish on Wing from another through the mirrors even in daylight, so if the Sweeper’s bike has them they should be switched on – and ideally everyone else’s should be off.  The Leader will then be able to pick out the Sweeper through his mirrors much more easily.

Because it will often be possible to keep the whole ride in view on a motorway, the Sweeper can perform a valuable role by keeping an eye out for when the Leader starts an overtaking manoeuvre. He can then move out into the overtaking lane early himself and this can help the whole group to complete the overtake without interference.

European Motorways

But Sweepers shouldn’t try doing this in Italy on the Autostrada, which are mostly two lane motorways with relatively narrow lanes which require a lot of overtaking of lorries as well as watching your mirror intently for faster traffic, of which there will always be plenty. If you don’t already have someone right on your tail flashing his lights as you move into the overtaking lane, you will have someone doing it to you within the next ten seconds. Italian drivers take no prisoners and they don’t surrender tarmac lightly. Compared with an Italian Autostrada, I found the Nurburgring relatively tame!

Belgian motorways can also be race tracks and certainly Belgian drivers are among the most aggressive in Europe. Their roads are generally poorly maintained too, so the only bit of Belgium I enjoy riding in is the Ardennes which, by the way, is a superb biking area.

Luxembourg is a bit like Belgium but more expense for everything except fuel, which is usually relatively cheap. And Luxembourg is about a GoldWing tankful from the Channel ports so the service station on its ring road is a good place to fill up. (South Eastern Luxembourg has some scenic bits and has called Little Switzerland, but I found it about as exiting as riding in Surrey. Stick to the Ring Road and move on.)

I find Holland pretty unattractive for biking roads too but maybe I have not looked hard enough.  Their motorways are OK, apart from the confusing motorway junctions near Eindhoven, and they’re free.

French motorways are well maintained, far cleaner than their public toilets and often carry relatively little traffic compared with our UK motorways.  The motorways  near the Channel ports and all the ring roads around big towns and cities are free but elsewhere in France the motorways are usually toll roads.  And who wants to pay to ride a bike on a motorway when there are all those lovely non-motorway roads all over France to use instead?  Even the Millau Bridge provides a much better riding experience going under it on a country road than riding over it on the motorway between high barriers which block the view.

The German Autobahn used to have no speed limit but nowadays there is a general maximum of 130 kph. As almost all German roads they are well maintained and they are free. But keep an eye on your mirror for cars, usually Mercedes, which travel at well over 130 kph, speed limit or not; they are upon you in a flash and they will let you know they don’t like being held up.

It’s common practice all over European motorways to leave your off side indicator flashing when you are in the outside lane waiting to get past someone who is holding you up.  I quite like this convention; it’s a less provocative way of doing it than flashing headlights, which is the way it’s done in UK.

There are lots of tunnels on motorways in parts of Europe too, especially when you get near the Alps and sometimes, especially in Italy, you can find yourself going in and out of tunnels, from bright sunlight to quite dim levels of light, far too quickly for reactive sunglases to cope.  You need to anticipate this dramatic change in lighting level and make sure you will be able to peep over your shade if necessary when it suddenly goes dark.  I have found this a bad enough problem to be worth briefing the group about because these tunnels can be a bit disorienting as you ride into them anyway until you get used to them.

Toll Plazas

Toll Plazas are a bit of an obstacle for a group of bikes and in my experience it’s always best for everyone to stop just on the other side of them to regroup before moving on.  Someone will almost always get delayed; either they will not be able to get a ticket out of the machine or they will drop their money or get stuck behind a car with a similar problem – and of course if they’re Yorkshiremen it will inevitably take them ages to part with their money anyway, because they need time to grieve.

So for one reason or another the Leader should always pull over just beyond a Toll Plaza until everyone is through.  Otherwise it can take those bikes which get delayed ages to catch up, even riding at very high speed.  Even using all available lanes and suffering no delays, it’s still worth stopping to regroup on the other side of a Toll Plaza and on the Continent there is always plenty of space to do so safely. There is often a pull-in just for that purpose.

Filtering

Filtering through standing traffic on a motorcycle is illegal in most European Countries, including on motorways.  Fortunately their traffic volumes are much lighter and so standing traffic is rare and filtering may never be necessary.

The need, or at least the opportunity, for filtering does of course crop up on UK motorways but group leaders should remember that only some GoldWing riders are comfortable doing it.  It’s probably best on a planned ride to steer clear of sections of motorway which are so busy as to present a risk of standing traffic and failing that, just settle for being stuck in traffic like the cars.

Boldly filtering, boldly, can be a fun challenge for some GoldWing riders but it will inevitably split up a group.

Clearways and other no-stopping roads

Technically the no-stopping rule applies to Clearways as well as motorways and there are other roads, such as red routes in big cities, where stopping is prohibited by law. Solo bikes can perhaps get away with stopping briefly to mark a turn on a Clearway if absolutely necessary but otherwise the problem of keeping a group together has to be tackled a different way.

Ideally the problem would be solved by better route reconnaissance, better planning and briefing and by bunching the group together so that marking turns in a Clearway section of a route becomes unnecessary.

Clearways can however be many miles long and unlike motorways they can have lots of junctions and roundabouts, situations can therefore arise in which the only legal way to keep a group together is to brief all the riders on the difficult section of the route and tell them to navigate their own way through it, regrouping as necessary at the other end.

As a last resort it would be legal to stop in order to drop off a passenger on a Clearway to mark a turn, with a plan for the Sweeper to pick the passenger up again as he passes. This could be a high risk strategy, especially if something goes wrong and the passenger gets abandoned, unless of course it’s part of a cunning plan to get rid of her!

Summary

The key requirements for group riding on motorways are:

• No one should overtake, so everyone has the same recognisable bike behind them to keep an eye on
• Each rider makes an effort to keep up with the speed of the group as a whole
• Each rider slows down as necessary to keep the following bike in view but never stops
• Each rider bears in mind that other road users need to be allowed to change lanes
• Consider breaking up groups of over 12 bikes to avoid causing an obstruction to other motorway  users

The Leader sets and varies the pace:

• To keep everyone more or less together throughout
• To take account of traffic volume, weather, road surface and speed limits
• To bunch the ride up close well before any critical navigational turns
• To ensure that there is room for the whole ride to complete an overtake before starting one

Radio communications:

• Can help the Leader to learn about and deal with incidents or uncertainties
• Leader can use it to warn of an impending navigational turn
• Sweeper can use it to warn others of fast overtaking traffic
• Safety messages between Leader and Sweeper should have priority over general chat
• Chatting on the radio can also add to the enjoyment of a long ride for everyone

The Leader needs to consider:

• The needs of any ladies in the group for proper toilet stops -also those of old men with weak bladders, for whom frequent stops, proper or otherwise, can be vital.
• Coffee, food and fag stops according to need.
• The fuel state and range of all bikes in the group.  Classic GoldWings and GL1500s have a shorter range than GL1800s
• If you’re riding with toy bikes like Fireblades, you need to remember that some of them need to stop at every fourth lampost for fuel
• Riders of bikes lacking windscreen or fairing are less comfortable than modern GoldWings on long motorway rides, so their riders may be ready for a break before those lucky enough to be on a GoldWing
• In really cold weather it can be a worthy and charitable thing for a Winger to offer to share body heat with the pillion passengers of lesser bikes from time to time, or at least let them sit on your heated seat for a few minutes.

If you have any extra or different ideas about group riding on motorways please feel free to make comments on this Article; this is the sort of subject on which it is very difficult for any one individual to think of everything and to get everything right, indeed there probably isn’t a right and wrong about most of it.

I will update this Article to include any additional ideas which are offered, in the hope so that it might develop into a source of reference work on the subject – so come on, put your brains to work and let your experience speak out for the benefit of all bikers!

The next Article in this series will deal with Drop Off systems. Now that might well provoke controversy…….