I feel your pain, Bikes. I have one good friend, FLTRX, who I ride pretty regular with. Neither of us smoke, drink, run around ooggling wimmen, hang out in bars, etc. There aren't a lot of us. We haven't done any long trips ( more than 300 miles) yet but fouund that planning one can take months or even years. If you have close friend(s) that you ride with it is worth it, IMO to plan as far ahead as possible. It is difficult to juggle family, kids, work and riding w/ others...

 

I have the same situation. My Hog Chapter is a drinking group that rides, instead of a riding group that drinks. It's sad, but that's what I have.

 

Thats how these guys are...

I just dont comprehend...If I were offered a free place to stay knowing that its not a cheap place to go id be all over it and drop everything but my gear..

guess thats just me

 

++1 This would be your best option!

Oops..........posted to quick, didn't see the response to The Old Man.

 

I would try the meet-up groups. I belong to a few in my area and have found some good friends and had some great rides in the past year. Most of them don't cost anything and you meet people with the same interests. I believe there are some groups in your area.

 

I cant believe i am going to say this but trailer the bike take the wife and kid and have fun.

 

Man I feel your pain....The older we get it should be EZer but it seems to get tougher!! I have found that if i get together with the guys and have them put in there impute on a trip things seem to work out better than just saying here is the trip.... Go or No.... Good Luck!!!!

 

If you don't think they have given you a legitimate excuse for not going, maybe something is going on. I know from experience, it's hard to juggle schedules sometime for riding together. I'm older now and retired. I love to ride during the week with less traffic. It's hard to find riders to ride with.
Plus like the other poster said, it's hard to find people you are compatible with. Take the money you would have spent on them, go and have a good time. theres always next year

 

its rough, life is busy. I have one good riding buddy same style riding; likes and dislikes. He's a few years older then me and maybe 5 more years left on 2 wheels some health problems croping up. Don't know what I'm going to do then, rode with a few others, there idea of a ride is a 100 mile loop with stops every 20 min to a biker bar, and a race to see how fast you can get there, made half a loop then with them then parted ways. I work shift work with one weekend off every 6 weeks, but that week I get a 7 day weekend. So I got content riding byself but sucks on trips, which is most of my riding. My schedule doesn't allow me to join the local hog chapter can make 2 meetings this year and no ride without taking vacation. I work alone most of the time, just can't find time to make friends, you can only turn them down so many times before they stop calling and asking. MORAL OF THE STORY be understanding a few good friends is better then none, and sometimes good friends are hard to come by.

 

We have a group that started out from a thread I posted in this forum. It started strong and grew to about 15-17 bikes at one point. Naturally over time folks start dropping out for a variety of reasons (all mentioned here I'm sure). It was tough at first not to take it personally, but that's just the nature of people. Our typical ride is usually an all day thing riding some scenic roads to a luch spot - a bbq joint in the woods, a burger place etc. Some riders prefer to stop and drink and ride from bar to bar and that's fine. Some stopped riding because of personality conflicts. Others just aren't that serious about riding. IMO they just own one for the sake of saying they own a bike (and it's usually a Harley). Then there are the riders that can't stand discomfort...WHAAA! Ya know the guy that always says "Man it's hot!" or "Why are we going this way?"

Now we have a "core" of riders that really make an effort to make the ride for the friendships we've made.