Joining a Patch (Riding) Club

This year I joined the Twin Cities Motorcycle Club. I had ridden almost exclusively by myself since learning to ride 5 years ago, and was looking to try something different. I was worried about several things -

Would me and '95 Virago fit in?

Were they mostly sportbikes? Cruisers? Touring bikes?

Would the rides be too easy or too difficult?

Would it be as much fun riding in a group as it is on my own?

Would the non-ride activities be fun?



It turned out to be a great deal for me. The rides were AWESOME. They were planned & led by Don the RC, who is a professional road captain. This guy is a meticulous organizer - he plans the routes considering everything - mixture of scenery and challenge, inexpensive quirky places to eat, and even routes & times his rides to keep the sun out of your eyes. There are different "themes" and ability levels to the rides, too.

On ride day, there's the road captain, the officers, and the tailrider. The tailrider, George, is a 72 year old rider who has seen it all and done it all. The officers do things like block intersections, mark corners if the group gets split up, and generally make sure everyone is taken care of. No one is left behind. The rest of the group rides in a double line.

It took a little while to get used to having people all around me while I was riding, and I had to pay attention to keeping the right spacing. But after a while, that became second nature, and I could enjoy cornering and see the sights, and not worry about when to turn or where to stop. All taken care of.

It even made me better at taking corners. I would position myself behind a faster rider and take the corners on the same line he did, and got used to cornering faster.

Keith is the club president, and he does a great job of setting the tone for the group. It's not what you ride, it's that you ride. It's a big, diverse group, and since joining it I'm enjoying riding more than I have since I started.

So I don't know if a riding club is for everybody, or if every club is as fun as the TCMC, but it worked for me.