Ya know, sometimes newbs just don't know when to shut up.

Over the yearsI have had to pry my foot outta my mouth a few times, but have gotten wiser with age.

I rode when it was not popular, I rode when the number of riders were small, I still ride cause I enjoy it.I only have one brother, and he lives a few miles from me. Yes, lots of friends that ride, but not brothers. When it comes right down to it, damn few will have your back when needed. Rding a bike does not make you a tough guy, although some tough guys ride bikes.

My dad was a Special Deputy for the Motorcylce Corp, and I worked a towing service for years, new most of the local and state cops for two counties around. Good and bad, like any other profession but still damn glad they are there for me, my wife, kids and grandkids.

 

I'm not standing up for shreds self control or choice of words on this topic, but I will say that I understand what he is saying about securing an intersection for a group ride.

First off, the intersection is secured after the group is in it by the rights of the green light. Cross traffic is held by riders on both sides until the group has cleared the intersection. As far as the issue of piling up bikes in hard braking, each rider should have control of his bike to avoid that. Shred mentioned something along the lines that his crew members know how each other ride, which kinda runs counter to his comment about piling up in an unexpected stop. All in all, the group ride is not a thing of urgency, but keeping the group together without having towork smaller groups through traffic to rejoin after a traffic light breakcan creat problems for other drivers in itself. At least in the intersection, only onegroup is moving. Tryin to catch up is dealing with two opposinggroups moving. I've done the co-road duties in years past and everything usually works out just fine. We go on our way, citizens go on their way and life is good. There is the occasional hard guy who just can't seem to wait another minute for the group to pass, but then hey, we all have the right to complain, right? Just don't hurt anyone in the process. So a group of bikers holds ya up at an intersection for a moment. Get over it. There's a whole lot more important things in life to expend your energy on. Beside, don't ya think most of them bikers are going to come back and deal with ya if ya run over their buddy who was holding the intersection.

His point about whippin up on someone who trys to run over the rider who is holding the intersection is quite clear. I would think that if someone, regardless of the situation decided he was going to run me over, he could expect a reaction for assault and battery on my self or whoever he was tryin to run over. Someone blocking an intersection doesn't give anyone the right to run them over with their car. Recent news stories about a crowd pulling a man from a car and either severly beating him or killing him for intentionally running into a crowd of people bears the typical public response to that kind of action.

 

Hey rock5986,

I hope this thread answered all of your questions..........[sm=smiley25.gif]

 

Well, uh,??? hmmm, ????uh, hmmm?????????er,. uh. Let me ask it again. Has anyone been fined or ticketed for blocking traffic or running thru a red light? OK, I'm gonna go get behind that rock over there and see what happens next...

 

Nope,,,,Nope,,,,tickets.......I will continue to be a road guard,,,I'll pay the fine and accept the liability......****$ happens,,,but not on my watch.....and ShredHD I got a T-shirt that says....yuck you I got enough friends.......What does it matter what u all do for a living,,,who cares,,,lets go for a ride we'll sort it out on the road......

 

im' in! i'll wear my tee shirt. we can have a nice parade. we can get all leo's everywhere to participate and show us old morons the right way. nice and legal , single file. no waving, be nice to everyone. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. sorry that was my medication talking.

 

Don't cause a accident, lawsuit city.

 

My group has blocked intersections before, I have never been ticketed for it, but we did actually have a police officer come to our Director and tell us to never block an intersection without police permission to do so. Then our biggest ride of the year, Realities for Children came around and the LEO's asked for assitance from our Road capatins at 2 intesections because they didnt have enough officers avaliable to cover the parade route. Everything went off without a hitch. I have also seen unsafe road blocking tho. One time a rider pulled out at the top of a rise to let the group pull out together, this almost caused a winebaggo 4 motorcycels and 2 cages to crash because they couldnt see the rider trying to stop the traffic.

I have also watched a perfectly good blocking get screwy, we were in a funeral procession and I had an intersection shut down while the 250 bikes countinued on, one rider in the middle of the pack thought he could pull out and block while I rejoined the pack. Not possible and dangerous to try to rejoin the middle of group that large movig at speed 3 feet to your right.

If you are going to block, do it safely and be prepared to get out of the way!! The front riders pull off and stopp while the pack moves through, then the blocker rejoin at the rear after the last bike makes it through. Always wave to the vehicles who gave your group the right of way. Its not required of them, simply a courtesy, as the intelligent cagers out there see the safety factors involved.

Here it is a 300 buck ticket if a LEO decided to nab you. They can also tack on lots fo charges together if they see fit.

 

From what I've witnessed if the charity (especially PGR) is worth it, people are willing to break the law to ensure a smooth show. PGR blockers do it because it helps the cause...ticket or not.

SM

 

Hey Murph
As one who has had occasion to interact with LEO's across this country, let me sya that I have never been treated with anything but respect. Yea, I broke the law, and even being cuffed and stuffed the arresting officer was firm but POLITE. As we say in the Navy "BZ" to you and yours.