Going on a group ride with adventure bikes usually involves covering some un-tarred roads. This leads to potential problems which might get the group spread out over great distances, due to dust (very large following distances), technical sections (sand, stones/rocks, loose pebbles/marbles, mud, clay, etc), a wide range of bike capabilities (engine power, tyres, suspension), rider capabilities (some new to offroad riding), technical problems (punctures and breakdowns) and more.
Not every bike will have the planned route visible to the rider on a GPS or smartphone navigation app, so it is imperative that steps are taken to prevent riders getting lost or separated from the group.
Leading the group
Ideally there should be a designated route leader who is in charge of navigating, preferably with the planned route on a GPS or a smartphone and navigation app mounted where it can be seen while riding. The leader might change on different legs of the route. When the lead is handed over to someone else, ensure that person knows where to go, or has a GPS /Nav App and knows how to use it!
If for some reason you find yourself unexpectedly out front, and you are not 100% sure of the route, then do not just continue riding blindly, as you may miss a turnoff, wasting time and fuel and causing some confusion and frustration with the group.
Slow down, or pull-over while you wait for the leader to catch up.
If you miss a turn-off while everyone else behind you has already turned off, then you will be lost without a map of the route.
Handling turnoffs.
No-one wants to miss a turnoff and then after a while, wonder where everyone else is. Where did they turn off? In which direction? How far back? For the entire group to wait until everyone arrives at each turnoff, would waste a lot of time. The most common technique to handle turnoffs is known as “The Tag Game”, where at each turnoff, each rider ensures that the rider behind him has seen him taking the turnoff.
This applies to turnoffs, T-Junctions as well as forks in the road.
Forks tend to be the biggest problem with people not realising they have passed a fork, the guys behind get to the fork and there is no-one there… they cannot just guess which way to go. They should wait at the fork until someone comes back to find them.
When you approach a turnoff, you need to do two things:
- Let the rider ahead of you know that you are aware of the turnoff. Activate your turn indicator. If the rider ahead is waiting for you at the turnoff, raise your left arm up high to indicate you have seen him, so that he can move off.
- Ensure that the rider behind you is aware of the turnoff.
If he is visible close behind in your rear-view mirror, check if his turn-indicator is on. If the rider behind you is not yet visible, stop at the intersection where you are clearly visible, with your bike pointing in the direction of the turnoff. Do not go find a shady tree to park under. When he comes into view, look for his signal that he has seen you, before moving off (turn indicator goes on, or hand-signal).
It is important to know where you are in the line.
If you think there is someone following you, however you happen to be the last rider without realising it, how long will you wait at the intersection?
Conversely, if you think you are the last rider and you take a turnoff, then if there happen to be bikes behind you, they will miss that turnoff and it will be your fault. Chasing down missing bikes is no fun for anyone, and causes unnecessary delays for the entire group.
Regrouping.
Occasionally the leader will decide to regroup. This might happen at a turnoff, or a view-site, or a distinctive landmark, or just a convenient parking area. It is the leader’s responsibility to choose a safe spot to do so.
There are two types of regrouping:
- Quick regrouping, where the leader will stay seated on his bike, as does everyone else.
Switch off engines to be able to chat. As soon as the last rider appears, the group immediately starts to move off. This is just to check that everyone is still together and no-one has broken-down or gotten lost. - If the leader gets off his bike, removes his gloves and helmet, then this usually indicates it is a rest-stop, smoke-break, photo-opportunity or just a bit of leg-stretch and a chat. The leader should advise how long after the last rider arrives, the ride will resume again. Typically the last rider to arrive, gets anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes rest. If you need to smoke, or need a toilet break, start as soon as you get off your bike, not when everyone else starts to get ready to ride. Keep an eye or ear out for the leader’s indication to start getting ready to ride.
With large groups, the leader should carry a whistle and give two short blows, or two taps on his bike-horn when its time to get going again.
Moving Off
Whenever the group moves off from a gathering, either at the very start of the ride from the initial meeting point, or at any of the stops along the way where everyone gets off their bike, it is a good idea to follow this procedure to ensure a smooth getaway.
As soon as you have your helmet and gloves on, start the engine, then ride to the exit of the parking area, just before getting onto the road, but within sight of the rest of the group, then wait there for the entire group to arrive. This way, the leader can see when everyone is ready to ride, and can move off as soon as the last person arrives.
Failure to do this, often leads to everyone waiting for everyone else and no-one really knows when everyone is ready to ride.
Breakdowns and delays.
There always exists a chance that a bike has a breakdown, experiences a puncture, or the rider has an incident that delays him (falling in thick sand, crashes, has a medical issue, etc).
The leader cannot always see the guys further back in the line, especially if it is a bigger group. In order to prevent the guys up ahead leaving part of the group behind, each rider must check occasionally if he can still see the bike behind him, especially if the group is spread out, such as riding in dusty conditions where the following distances may become large. Good opportunities to look back (in the rear-view mirror or over your shoulder), are just before cresting a rise, or on an open curve, or any place where your view behind is not restricted by dust or topography.
If you do not see the bike following you, then slow down for a while.
If after a few minutes you still do not see him, then find a good spot to pull over where it is safe, and affords you a good view back. If after a few minutes you still do not see him, then start backtracking to go find him.
If everyone does this, then the chain-reaction will bring everyone back until eventually even the leader will get back to where the problem exists. If it is a technical problem, then more hands, tools, spares, knowledge and experience could expedite a remedy. If it is a medical emergency, then the entire group can assist with a plan of action.
Maintaining a safe pace
This technique of slowing down if you have not seen the guy behind you for a while, also helps to keep the entire group’s speed down to that of the slowest rider. Never ride faster on dirt than you are comfortable with. Do not try to keep up, if the guys ahead of you are riding faster than you feel safe to do. At worst, they will wait for you at the next regrouping.
Keeping the line short.
In a large riding group, the line of riders might stretch over many kilometers, especially in dusty conditions. When there is no dust (tar, damp dirt), riding in a staggered formation (left-right-left, etc), allows for a more compact group but still allows for adequate stopping distance. If the bike in front of you stops unexpectedly, you can overshoot to his side, if you cannot stop behind him. For an effective staggered formation, avoid riding in the center of the road or lane. About one-third over from the side allows the guy behind you to be one-third from the other side, with plenty of room.
Even if you are staggered left/right, you still need to maintain a safe distance from the guy immediately ahead of you, just in case he falls and tumbles into your path.
On multi-lane tar roads, try not to fill both lanes. Allow other traffic to pass the convoy if they wish.
At traffic lights and stop streets, the leaders should try to keep an eye on the trailing guys, to keep the group together. Slow down to wait for the others if possible. If the trailing part of the group gets stuck behind a red light, they might lose sight of the leaders, and might miss a turnoff. Pull over somewhere safe and wait for the tail end to catch up.
On gravel roads, dust trails tend to spread the group out much further. One trick to shorten the line quite a bit, is to ride in pairs as follows. This can be a bit risky, so make sure both riders in the pair are aware of the protocols and do this only on good, wide gravel roads in good condition. It helps a lot if a pair are in communication with bluetooth intercoms, or they are regular riding buddies who trust each other to do this safely.
Basically: The less experienced rider, or the smaller bike, sticks to the left side, and sets the overall speed.
The more experienced rider is on the right side, either alongside (abreast) or 45 degrees behind. This places him close to oncoming traffic, so blind rises and blind corners require special attention. On an open dirt road with good visibility ahead, the pair utilise the full width of the road. When an oncoming car approaches, or when approaching a blind rise or obscured corner, the rider on the right slows down and pulls in behind the rider on the left. The rider on the left should recognise the situation and assist by initially moving forward with a small burst of speed, to give the other rider more space to pull in behind him, but be gentle on the power to not rooster the guy behind with a shower of gravel or stones. On a road with lots of twists or rises, this can take much concentration, so the guy on the right might decide to have a break and fall back for a while so that he can be closer to the left side of the road until the road topography improves again.
Overtaking on dirt
On dirt roads, especially if its a bit gnarly, a rider might make full use of the entire width of the road in order to find the best line through, avoiding potholes, ruts, rocks, puddles, mud, sand patches, and so forth.
Overtaking in these conditions can be tricky.
If you do approach a slower rider and you wish to overtake him, be sensible and wait for a safe place to do so. Ideally you should wait until he notices you. He might pull over to the left, or even give you a signal to go past. Go around as wide as possible, and don’t spray him with dirt by accelerating too hard.
If you are the one being approached by another rider from behind, as soon as you notice the bike creeping up on your rear (and likely a bit to your right), try to make room for him to overtake when you find a safe stretch to do so. A good signal to give him to go past, is to take your right foot off the footpeg and stretch it forward for a moment, as if pointing with your foot that he may pass on that side.
Dealing with gates
Inevitably you will come across gates on dirt roads.
Any gate that is locked, the group simply turns around and finds a detour. Never break a lock or damage the gate or the fence in an attempt to get through.
If there is an open pedestrian bypass alongside the gate, then go through that. The locked gate is most likely to deter stock thieves who steal truckloads of livestock at night.
If you see people along the road, slow down and wave in a friendly manner. If they flag you down, stop and have a friendly chat. Take your helmet and gloves off , shake hands, introduce yourself, and be respectful, you are passing through their land.
Gates that are closed but not locked, require some discussion with the group and should be covered in a briefing before the ride.
Every gate should be left as you found it – if it was closed upon arrival, the group as a whole needs to ensure it is securely closed after everyone is through.
If a gate was open, then leave it open. Never close an open gate, you might keep livestock from reaching their water!
If you are lucky and only one or two gates are expected, then regroup at the gate… wait for the last person to come through, make sure someone closes the gate, then continue along the route.
If there are many gates, then its not practical for a large group to gather at every gate, especially if its dusty and the group needs to spread out to avoid following in each other’s dust trails.
This is how we usually deal with closed (unlocked) gates:
The leader opens the gate and waits for the second person (or another volunteer) to relieve him at the gate.
This second person closes the gate, so rides through the gate then gets off his bike, while the leader gets onto his bike to continue along the route.
Anyone else makes sure the leader is not still stuck at the gate, as they will then be leading and might not know the route and potentially miss a turnoff. At this point, a quick discussion with the leader might well arrange to place you in the lead, but only if you know the route and/or have it visible on your navigator, but this must be communicated and agreed with the leader!
That second guy that took over from the leader at the gate, counts the bikes and once everyone is through, he closes the gate and continues along the route. If there is a designated sweeper or support vehicle, they should wait for the guy closing the gate to get going, then follow along.
This way, everyone gets a turn to close a gate as the sequence of bikes gradually changes at each closed gate.
An alternative, is to occasionally use a gate to regroup, in which case the leader will get off his bike before a gate and wait for the last guy to arrive, before opening the gate.
Proper gate etiquette is important. Make sure you know the procedure!
Offroad Tyre pressures:
PLEASE know what your own bike’s correct tyre pressures should be for offroad riding. If it is not detailed in the owner’s manual, then take 20% off the specified tar pressure for gravel roads.
For deep, soft sand, you can go lower, but that increases the risk of damaging the rim or tube (if fitted), if you hit a rock at speed. You need to evaluate the road condition to decide how low to go for deep sand.
You should carry a tyre pressure gauge for airing down your tyres correctly before getting onto the dirt. Ideally, you should also carry a 12V compressor to air up again before getting onto high speed tar, and also for puncture repairs.
What to carry on rides:
What to carry on rides:
You should have all the tools required to remove both the front and rear wheels from your bike. Even if you have tubeless tyres, there will be times that you need to take the wheel off to fit a tube, such as a sidewall tear, which cannot be plugged.
You need at least two tyre levers, and a puncture kit for your wheel type (tubed or tubeless). You should ideally also carry a spare front and rear tube, in case you cannot repair a puncture (yes, even for tubeless wheels). A plastic bottle containing a 20% mixture of dishwashing soap with water (to ease a tyre off or onto the rim, and for cleaning hands after working on the bike).
A basic first aid kit is always handy, including some stretchy bandages for sprains, bandages for bleeding, plasters, something to clean a wound with, a triangular bandage for an arm sling, a space blanket, pain-killers,
A cap or hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, enough liquid to keep hydrated on the road, a snack bar or two in case you get stuck along the road for some hours.
Consider carrying a power-bank or a USB charger on your bike to keep your phone charged, in case of an emergency.
If you have any further suggestions to add to this, please let me know.
Contact Keith at 082 414-8448 or email adv@xplorer.co.za