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I've been member of a no-fee motorcycle riders club for the past 2 years and found out about it from a craigslist ad. The organizer is also a mechanic. He's been pretty good at organizing bi-weekly rides and updates his web site, has some decent features like a guestbook, events information page, FAQ about riding safety and general repairs, mechanic's tips, photo gallery, etc.
However I also noticed he's pretty anal about some things, one of them is that he refuses to ride in the rain altogether, calls the local weatherman at 5am to check their forecast and will cancel a ride if there's more than 50% of rain forecasted...okay, no one really likes to ride in the rain, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. He likes to send out notices by email about upcoming rides, asks for ideas, wants # of participants confirmed in advance...standard stuff, but I find the guy is too controlling and not exactly a "go with the flow" type of guy. He takes the organize role really seriously, perhaps too much so.
A couple of days ago he had a meltdown, posted to the site and by email that all remaining rides for this season were canceled effective immediately because according to him, "because of lack of interest and/or criticism as to planned times, destination, meet up points or what have you, I'm again putting the invitation out to join the planning session for the remainder of the season. Either attend the session, send your input by email, or we'll assume you have no interest and remove you from the site and mailing list as no shows"
He went on to rant (sending this email out to every club member)
"We've gone from 15 interested parties down to 1 (for a recent ride), in either cancellations or general lack of response, not even those who asked about Sunday instead had the courtesy to write back, or if they did they ended up saying they can't go. The person whose idea the ride was hasn't even bothered to confirm or not.
As such, I'm cancelling any kind of associated meetup with it. If you want to go to xxxx, by all means go and have fun on your own. The same holds true with the remainder of planned rides for the season. We had the same four people at both of the planning meetings, and we end up with a ton of criticism from folks who have put in zero effort to join in on the planning about where the rides go, the time of day, the day of the week. I won't even bother telling you how many people on the mailing list have confirmed in the past for rides and don't bother to show up or write.
I'll give it one more shot. Everything going forward is hencefourth scrapped...if you want to remain a member of the club, show up this week at xxxxx , at 7:00pm, or we'll assume you're not interested and remove you from the site."
Now I understand that people's plans change and that initial interest in a ride may be replaced by the reality that they have other commitments. But I don't know what to say to the organizer beyond what I've told him before. I'm busy looking for an apartment, work weekends and am simply unable to come to regular rides. I feel like laying into him for his demands and anal retentive way he goes about organizing the rides, but don't want to burn bridges since I still rely on him as my mechanic. His rates are fair, he's just kind of temperamental. I feel should say something in response to his demand to attend a planning meeting or give input by email, but don't know what to say.
What would you do/say and do you have experience with club conflicts like this where the organizer does all the legwork and gets frustrated when things don't go his way?
I would say that he generally has some legitimate complaints about how people don't show who say they will or suggest a ride and then not bother to confirm that they'll be there.
He probably feels he's doing most of the work and that more people ought to be more forthcoming in their own seriousness about belonging. I'm guessing he's set a solid date with the threat to be removed from the roles of membership for not attending because he's frustrated and wants to see who is really serious. Sometimes it's necessary to draw the line.
The no riding in the rain part seems kid of extreme, but many people with Harley's avoid rain like the plague. Personally, I enjoy a nice rainy day ride!
If you like him as your mechanic, I'd stay on his good side!
Well this can't be in New Hampshire. Around here, if you don't ride in rain, you just don't ride. This guy needs to deligate responcibility to others in the group. It is plain to see he is over loaded.
It is a lot of work to set these up, and then everyone who goes, gets stuck waiting for no shows.
He is right in you show up on time, or ride your own ride. Anyone on a ride with a problem should say so and bail, unless they really need help.
Last Saturday eatting lunch in the Adderondaks, someone working at the place burned a lot of cardboard in a large outdoor fire pit. The place was packed with riders. Ashes blew in the wind and a lot of hardware was covered in ash. A spec of ash managed to float inside the tent eattery, and got in my eye. At first after leaving I thought I was fine, but something in that ash gooked my eye up pretty bad. Stringy goobers formed and some pain began.
Of course the more I tried to clear my eye the worse it got. Finally I told the group to leave me behind, as I was a danger to the whole group.
One guy I never met before, said he would ride at the back and wait for me at any intersections. Neither of had been in the area before, so I told him to stay in the group as much as possible, but he chose to wait at each new turn, then ride to the next, leaving me to find him waiting at the next turn. That guy was a fast rider.
I could see but not tell distance. I was more afraid of hitting a bike in the group than I was to be lost.
A leader rider has a lot of work to do. A straggler adds over load if the group is large.
I would say that he generally has some legitimate complaints about how people don't show who say they will or suggest a ride and then not bother to confirm that they'll be there.
Yeah, I understand it must be frustrating to have let's say 15 email him saying they'd love to come and then the day before either cancel or say nothing and not show up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRTurner
The no riding in the rain part seems kid of extreme, but many people with Harley's avoid rain like the plague. Personally, I enjoy a nice rainy day ride!
The organizer rides a Japanese bike and says he avoids the rain because according to him the rain and debris kicked up from a rainstorm corrodes his bike's aluminum frame. He wants to keep the bike in showroom condition and keeps it **** 'n span. It does look great, I'll give him that, however by cancelling and for being such a worrier at even the slightest hint of rain spoils the fun.
I'm with you JRTurner, rain or shine, it's all good to me. As far as I'm concerned, as long as you ride sensibly with the right gear, why let rain stop you. Our riding season is only about 7 months anyway, might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JRTurner
If you like him as your mechanic, I'd stay on his good side!
Good point. I just emailed him about the next service appointment and will hold off on feedback about club ride organization until that's over with. Besides, he already knows I'm busy with work and looking for new housing this summer that even if he did decide to remove me from the club's mailing list, as long as he continues to want to work on my bike, it's all good. That being said, it would be cool to finally join a group ride when I do have time...
So far I've just ridden solo, which isn't exactly the safest idea either if you're not so mechanically inclined to do your own roadside repairs.
I have AAA Plus, and if you carry a cellphone and can hit a tower, they'll send a flatbed truck out to pick you and the bike up. I virtually always ride by myself; it's the way I like to ride because I can stop when I want and travel at the speed I like.
LOL you got nannied for S p i c 'n span........ Acid rain eats up all bikes and cars, add that to the sulfur emmissions from cars on the road and it just gets worse. The claim is semi valid.
Not riding in rain for it is about the same as to coming to a torn up road repair, where they workers dump a salt to take moisture from thin air and keep the dust down, and seeing that, to turn around and call the day's ride off then and there.
There are waterless cleaners like Honda Clean, Kawi Clean and others to get the crud off with no water, then sealers like Luster Lace paint and chrome sealers to seal crud out.
OT: Luster lace products are top shelf stuff. The For Chrome cleaner polish ONLY is great stuff, the 'BEST' IMO, but don't use it on paint. It will cut right thru paint, but is not abrasive a bit.
Last weekend I went on a rare group ride for me with mostly all Kawi Nomads. Several guys commented on how clean my 06 Nomad is. The truth is I hadn't really cleaned it well in 2 years, but did a long detail clean before riding from NH, almost in Maine to Lk George NY.. Man I had all sorts of stuff opened to clean the insides of things.
I do some on line tech bits and wanted the bike to look right. LOL My air cleaner cover is a cheap junk Spector for cars 9 inch tin, and it had a few specs of rust and that luster ate that right up and the sealer made it look 'Deep'.
There is no excuse for not riding in the rain, except one and that's Chicken! Like I said if you don't ride in rain in NH you don't ride at all. Now yesterday is an example. I didn't ride at all yesterday but it rained here 5 times.
I have AAA Plus, and if you carry a cellphone and can hit a tower, they'll send a flatbed truck out to pick you and the bike up. I virtually always ride by myself; it's the way I like to ride because I can stop when I want and travel at the speed I like.
I'm pretty sure you need AAA Plus RV to get motorcycle coverage.
"100 miles of towing for eligible recreational vehicles (RV’s), motorcycles, travel boat trailers, and fifth-wheel RV trailers* that have become mechanically disabled."
*Coverage not available in all club areas. Please call local office to confirm availability. In affiliate club territories, member may be required to pay for towing of boat or fifth-wheel RV trailers and submit for reimbursement.
I've been under the impression that it would send help for a bike, but I'm not 100% of it.
It will. I've used it several times. It has a distance limit of 100 miles as opposed to the +RV's 200, but that is sufficient for me.
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