Speaking of Arkansas...

[muskrat]

have I?  did SAMCRO tell you so? 
call you Dad too to let him know.

[Samsonite]

have I?  did SAMCRO tell you so? 
call you Dad too to let him know.

Im slow lately...   SAMCRO?

[muskrat]

Im slow lately...   SAMCRO?

Sons of Anarchy show.  It's their "group" that they refer to throughout.

[junior varsity]

Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original

[jdugger]

I've been called in twice by cruiser riders on the Mena trail, at least that's what the cop at the end that pulled me over told me    Let me throw some Gold Wings in with that cruiser crowd while I'm slinging stereotypes.

In both cases, I simply did pass.  Not aggressively, not on a corner, but just came up on them, and politely went around, even waved!  (as I always do when passing)  Mr Officer pulled me over and then started asking questions citing being called in by other riders on the trail.

Seriously!

I sure wish everyone would just keep to themselves -- that would be the perfect riding world.  Where slower riders let faster ones through, and everyone just rode their own ride.  Unfortunately, that's not the case.

More than a few times in Arkansas and Oklahoma, I've come up on HUGE groups of cruisers and they will try to deliberately block the road, even in passing zones.  80% of them are just fine -- I come up, they wave me by at a safe place, and I ride on (and wave!).  About 20% will actively try to enforce their idea of appropriate corner speed.  I'll be polite for a couple of corners, but if they keep that stuff up or do things like blocking the straights, I absolutely can, will and do stuff a rude jerk for acting like that.

It's really no different than someone in a farm truck blocking the whole road by driving down the center.  Being polite works both ways. 

[junior varsity]

Farm trucks have every right to block the whole damn road; we all like to eat and for efficiency the equipment must be enormous. That's just part of country life.

Perhaps you've come across some anomaly but I've never experienced a situation where somebody blocked me from passing. That would require weaving back and forth from shoulder to shoulder, and would garner them a night in the hoosegow. Just sayin, something seems amiss in your recount...

[jdugger]

What the cruiser guys do is spread out in a 2x2 abreast and block the whole lane, and then in the straights, I've actually had them spread out across the road if there's no on-coming.

I'm actually shocked you haven't seen this kind of thing.  It happens frequently enough in AR we often have a pre-ride discussion about how the leader will get around cruiser groups.

I don't doubt there's some enormously bad behavior going on with some sportbike groups and it rubs off for everyone with clips on.  I really, really try to be polite and pass with good, safe space around, not in a corner, etc.  But, I'm also not going to wait 10-12 miles for a passing zone to come up when there's plenty of clear to be able to do it safely.

As for the farmers, I was talking more about the ones that "straighten out the turns" and are always left of center as a function of lazy driving, not necessarily an inability to properly operate the vehicle.

[Samsonite]

If a long group or riders didn't let me by at the next straight or 2, I'd "split their train.  And if they thought they could catch up to me down the road.....Ha! let them.  I got 260 lbs of pissed off white boy they could talk to.  But something tells me if they were to find me at the end of the run, all they would want to do is my taxes or something like that.  

[junior varsity]

or schedule your next root canal.

[jdugger]

They won't catch you, and most likely can't.  I've followed enough friends on Wings and Cruisers to know they reach the mechanical limits of the machines at surprisingly low corner speeds.  Wide, low, comfortable pegs mean less cornering clearance, and a lot of cruisers will start soft-touching just above 20 degrees.  Soft, smooth suspensions mean cornering load takes away even more clearance.

On the street, we are probably "having a good time in the mountains" about 30-35 degrees of lean angle, so it really is a pretty marked difference.  Throw in the drastically shorter wheelbase (less lean angle for a given radius/speed), and you are really talking about a huge speed difference on a twisty road.

[jdugger]

or schedule your next root canal.

I would be shocked.

Almost all of us are packing now, and assault, in particular if he leaves his gloves on, is absolutely an appropriate use of a concealed handgun.

Cruisers may be slow, but they ain't stupid, and NO ONE wants a gun fight in the mountains.  I'd actually be shocked if his own pals didn't shoot him first before I had too.

If any of my buddies tried a stunt like that I'd do everything possible to make him stop.  I figure, if he doesn't, he's dead anyway, and perhaps all of are when the entirety of both rides draws high capacity Kimbers, H&Ks, and who knows what else and unloads.

[junior varsity]

uh, wat?

it was a joke about dentists, chief. and your stereotyping riders and their machines is going beyond absurd. Apparently you need a good reminding that goldwings are just steroid injected sport bikes:

deals gap on a goldwing/gl1800 by yellow wolf dragons tail

i see we have digressed to internet dick-measuring, citing gun fights in the "mountains of arkansas" (which, of course, do not exist. perhaps you mean "hills").

[jdugger]

That's a very special gold wing with some major suspension upgrades    He put race tech superbike valving and much stiffer springs in the forks, and did some work that I don't remember to the shock, too  Yellow Wolf is amazing.  If you listen to the video, he's also grinding that bike like mad.  Apparently, he even ground the trim off his tail bags!  

No digression... just saying, I don't think anyone is going to commit felony assault and punch someone's teeth out for splitting their group.  It's not smart, and wouldn't ultimately benefit anyone, and it's potentially VERY dangerous.  You started this big about getting punched

[junior varsity]

felony assault takes more than a punch to the teeth. furthermore, i said scheduling a root canal, read again, the joke is that they are CPA's, Dentists, Lawyers, and Doctors now, not surly bikers of the movies.

[jdugger]

gotcha -- my bad.