What type of rides do the Desert Ducatisti go on?

[Duki09]

Because of my work schedule, I often cannot go on the typical Saturday and Sunday morning rides that many motorcycle groups plan out, I am more of a late morning, early noon rider who likes to ride for a couple hours in the daytime  and don't care if it's hot out. If the ride is planned out way ahead of time, I'll try to take a day off work.

Besides the schedule, my worst experience with going on group rides is the group themselves.  The first thing they love to preach is rider safety required, but then the first thing they do is go 90mph around the twisties and break every speed limit whenever the police or radar camera isn't around.

Some group organizers say that those who ride in their group should ride within their limits.  So basicially, these group rides are really a bunch of individuals riding their own ride INSTEAD of riding  together as a group.  One rider is going the speed limit, the next is draggin knee going 100mph, the next rider is doing wheelies....That's NOT a group ride, folks!  If you are going at a different speed than others in your group, why even bother riding in a group? You might as well ride alone.  That is one thing I respect about the Harley groups. You'll mostly see them all riding as a single group leaving no one trailing behind because they are all riding at a pace to enjoy the ride as a group and not see how fast they can get from point A to point B.

When riding with others, I like to ride as a group at a normal pace and enjoy the view, NOT  trying to catch up with the group ride leader who likes riding at triple digits and I have to catch up and risk getting a speeding ticket or getting into an accident for trying to ride with other motorcyclists.  Do I like to ride fast at times?  Sure, but on my own time, when I want to and feel safe to do so.

I rode with groups where the group organizers have gotten into accidents more than once.   That is not exactly the type of rider I want to follow in a group.


So what type of riders are the Desert Ducatisti and would it be a group I would like to ride with?

Where and when do most of your rides take place and how long of rides are they?

[Dietrich]

This is a bit of a touchy subject.  For one thing there is some question about wether the "club" is allowed to sponsor rides at all due to liability.  What usually happens is individual members post up ride invites and whoever wants to go goes.  Everyone is encouraged to post up ride invites and events, not just the club officers!  This can range from "Hey I'm going to go to the Rock Spring Cafe for breakfast, anyone interested?" to a more organized event.  It's very casual.  There is no single person in charge of setting up rides. 

I'll preface the following with the fact that it is my own personal opinion, and may not be that of Desert Ducatisti entirely.  I do invite comments and conversation on the subject.

For some reason (maybe because I was addicted and rode almost every weekend) I did most of the ride invites last year.  I have no problem riding alone and do that a lot also.  I know some riders who won't ride out of town unless they're with a group.  I almost always post up an invite becasuse I love the camraderie, shared knowledge, and the conversation at rest/food stops.  You are correct that "group" rides can get very uncomfortable if the group is a mixed bag of rider abilities, interests, and law abiding-ness.  What I love about riding with Ducati riders is that for the most part the guys I've ended up riding with have very similar paces and riding styles.  Very quickly it was easy to get into a rythym with the group and we all kind of know insitinctively what the other riders are going to do.   One thing I've never seen Ducati riders do is tell slow people they need to catch up or ride faster, which is not something I can say for some other groups.  We seem to respect each others abilities, we talk a lot about riding styles and how to improve our riding from a safety and performance aspect.  We've definitely had faster paced rides and also had rides that are more of a cruise to get to a destination.  I've done a quick pep talk on rides with a bunch of new riders or even just a large group.  One thing I tell people is that if they're not comfortable to not feel bad about peeling off on their own.  That's what I would do and have done.  I consider myself fairly conservative, but I'm sure others would say I ride way to fast.  Other would say not fast enough.  We all try to stay safe & smart.

I would say that we don't very often ride side by side or staggered in perfect formation for 300 miles.  In my experience what we usually DO do is end up with about 4-8 riders, plan a loop for 250 - 400 miles and have a start point/time planned with a destination in mind for a place to eat and places to gas up.  The rides are usually "brisk" at times, respectful other times, we go to single file in the twisty stuff, everyone rides their own pace, but no one is ever far behind, and no one cares if they are.  We look out for each other.  Really big groups will have a ride leader and a "sweep" rider bringing up the back.  Most Ducatis are considered sport bikes, and I would say we do a lot of "sport" riding.  This is different from racing on the street.  Although many of us have been on the track, we aren't dragging knees on the highway.  We do love to feel the L-twin torque pull us out of croners...

Currently I'm not able to commit to much, and certainly not posting up rides with the frequency I once was.  If you're looking for rides at times when poor saps like me are working M-F, the largest local forum set up specifically for setting up rides that I know of is www.southwestrides.com.  There are rides posted up all days of the week, it is open to all riders, but I would say it is mostly sportbike riders.  Good group though.

Not sure if this is sounding like something you would be interested in?  I would love to hear anyones comments on the subject as maybe we could tailor some rides to different preferences.  And of course, post up your own ride invite version any time!   

[pennyrobber]

Here goes my 2 cents:

(Again comments here reflect my opinion only and not that of the club)

The group we usually ride with now is by far the best I have rode with. In the past I have rode with a pretty mixed bag of groups with varying ideals of what a group ride should or should not be. The current group that ride often are all safe and skilled riders. I am happy to say that in the many times riding with this particular group, everyone has always ridin within their ability and used their head to avoid bad situations. When any group of motorcyclists hits the road together, I think getting to the destination in one piece should be the first priority.

I understand the sentiment about ride leaders that feel the need to excesively speed. I have been on a rides before where the leader hit the highway and just took off at 100+ for much of the ride. I enjoy speed as much as anyone but a ride leader should use some reserve and keep the group in mind. On the highway it is relatively easy to keep a group together and on a strait road it makes sense to all go the same speed. Now I will say that big groups of 20+ cruisers in tight formation going 70 down the highway is just asking for trouble. The group is indeed "together" but should there be a problem up ahead, not everyone will be able to see it and have time to evade the problem. Everyone has seen the videos of a bike going down mid-pack and taking a few close following companions with them.

When it comes to twisties I have mixed feelings. Again tight formation in twisties or even sweepers is asking for trouble. In this case keeping the group together just puts everyone at risk. An ideal case when riding twisties is that the riders who feel like picking up the pace should shuffle to the front while those who just want to take it easy shuffle to the back. Our group is really good about this. Some days I feel in the zone and want to ride briskly while other days I am just in the mood to sight see. I place my self accordingly in the group. Ego's don't get in the way when we ride as I have experienced with other groups in the past. When we get to the end of the twisties, the group natuarly reforms and we never leave anyone behind.

That said, we are each individual riders that all have our own views and opinions making for an interesting group. As mentioned by Dietrich, rides are very casual and vary in character from a mellow ride to grab a bite to eat, to rides that are aimed at leaning the bike over a little. Longer rides are typically scheduled with morning starts due to the length of time needed for the ride. Afternoon rides are good as well when the destination isn't too far away. For example we often ride to Bartlett lake and the back to the Pavillios with the ride starting in the afternoon.

Finally I will restate that the ride leader is just whoever choses to organize the ride. There is no pecking order. The point is to have fun and that is what we do. I did forget one rule though, if it is your first time riding with us, you have to buy me lunch.