Who's the Worst Rider you've seen?

[XTreme]

Well I've seen a few over the years....so I could probably fill this thread up with stories.

One that springs to mind was a buddy of @Renegade........who I had the misfortune to be behind on a run back in 2003/4.

Ren knew he was a total twat but didn't warn me! I won't name him on here but Ren knows who I'm talking about!

So I'm behind this guy on country roads and whenever he sees chevrons way up ahead for an oncoming bend......he just slams the anchors on. So then he has to accelerate again to reach the bend.....and slams the anchors on again.

Going into a bend (totally upright) he seems to drift from one side of the bend to the other for no reason. Then when you finally got through the bend you'd start to pick up speed again......and he slams the brakes on! For no fucking reason.

But the final thing (which I'll never forget).....we get to a long straight of about a mile.....totally clear. And he waves frantically for me to overtake him! 

Nothing odd about that you may think? Well it is when you consider he was on an XJR1300 and I was on a TTR250! 

[Sir Fallsalot]

One i remember i was riding behind a sports bike in a country lane, i'm on my XR400, every bend we go into he's getting his knee down i'm poodling along bolt upright, not going fast enough even to get any bad feelings from the full on knobbly tyres i'm running thinking WTF is he like 

[MooN]

we had a uy used to ride with us regularly ( not anymore but that's a whole 'nother story) 

Roda some huge 1800cc suzuki factory custom drag thing with a rear tyre stolen from a combine harvester and 0 ground clearence ( Intruder?) .  He was always the last to arrive at the top of a twisty section, even behind me and the tralp excepet that he always positioned himself 2nd in line on any ride so every body had to get past him, my problem getting past him was that he would slam the anchors on going into a bend on the inside line, run wide cos he couldn't get enough angle to hold his line and as soon as he saw the exit open the throttle and shut the door back onto the inside line, with no regard whatsoever for enyone else who might be going round him inside or outside ( or, for that matter, coming the other way...) once he opened the throttle there was no way i could keep up with the tralps poor little ponies giving their best. I came sooo close to being pushed into oncoming traffic trying to get round the outside of him or into the ditch up his inside that I developed I number of very specific un often unorthodox,  techniques to get past him. If there were a radpid series of opposite bends or asingle switch back long enough I could just out manouvre him either round the inside or outside, but i had to leave the braking retty late and get back on the gas a bit early. Obviouly once I got the tiger I could just slide by on the inside as he ran wide and be gone before he could react. He doesn't ride with our group any more, having flounced. 

[MooN]

32 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

One i remember i was riding behind a sports bike in a country lane, i'm on my XR400, every bend we go into he's getting his knee down i'm poodling along bolt upright, not going fast enough even to get any bad feelings from the full on knobbly tyres i'm running thinking WTF is he like 

used to thouroughly enjoy the summer sunday runs in the morvan parc here, full of parisiens who embody the " all the gear and no idea" brigade  who would look somewhat askance as I sailed by in a bend on my 25year old 600 transalp... ( to be fair I know that particular portion of road between Chateau Chinon and Planchez like the proverbial back of my hand, but even so, it was still fun 

[MooN]

I actually developed a game at this guy's expense; 

it's called in French " Poser, Déposer, Tourner autour"  literally  "Put down, Un put down, gone around"

in a series of bends the game consists of overtaking a rider round the outside  = "Poser",  letting him come back past you = "De poser" , and then overtaking him again  so you have gone all the way round him = "tourner autour"

the pefect score is acheived if the complete manouvre can be achieved in 3 consecutive bends...

Anyone still wondering why he won't ride with us anymore? 

[XTreme]

3 minutes ago, Lone Amigo said:

The worst rider I never saw was Julian Solos. 

Yeh but the MSF were trying to kill him Rog! 

[XTreme]

49 minutes ago, MooN said:

we had a uy used to ride with us regularly ( not anymore but that's a whole 'nother story) 

Roda some huge 1800cc suzuki factory custom drag thing with a rear tyre stolen from a combine harvester and 0 ground clearence ( Intruder?) .  He was always the last to arrive at the top of a twisty section, even behind me and the tralp excepet that he always positioned himself 2nd in line on any ride so every body had to get past him, my problem getting past him was that he would slam the anchors on going into a bend on the inside line, run wide cos he couldn't get enough angle to hold his line and as soon as he saw the exit open the throttle and shut the door back onto the inside line, with no regard whatsoever for enyone else who might be going round him inside or outside ( or, for that matter, coming the other way...) once he opened the throttle there was no way i could keep up with the tralps poor little ponies giving their best. I came sooo close to being pushed into oncoming traffic trying to get round the outside of him or into the ditch up his inside that I developed I number of very specific un often unorthodox,  techniques to get past him. If there were a radpid series of opposite bends or asingle switch back long enough I could just out manouvre him either round the inside or outside, but i had to leave the braking retty late and get back on the gas a bit early. Obviouly once I got the tiger I could just slide by on the inside as he ran wide and be gone before he could react. He doesn't ride with our group any more, having flounced. 

Sounds like the idiot I talked about!

[Sir Fallsalot]

Another one one i remember was at the top end of the Elan Valley. I Stopped to look at the view above a couple of sharp bends in the road as it was a nice day and saw a large group of bikes coming towards me in the distance, so decided to hang about to see what was going on, as i was watching them start to ride up towards me two of them just fell off on the bend below they were travelling just over walking space and just keeled over like someone had switched them off. Chatting to one of the group that manged to get to me he said they were on a led ride out from a bike rally and half of them had never ridden a country road before and didn't know how to ride around a tight uphill bend, these were guys who were 50+ 

Street view of where i stopped to admire the view with said bend look how difficult it is not 

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3311763,-3.6070901,3a,75y,265.41h,93.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5G9_J2rVEanwnVjPshuLqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[XTreme]

There are some people who should never ride bikes......ever! It doesn't matter how long they ride, they just have so little ability that they're a menace to others.

I remember one guy in the early 70's......he was always an accident waiting to happen. He didn't belt about or do crazy things.....it's just that he was a disaster.

The number of times he left his sidestand down and came off was unbelievable. But he still did it. 

He'd wear big baggy flares which acted like parachutes......and on a few occasions the kickstarter would go up inside them after he'd kicked the bike over. And he'd find that out when he came to a stop and tried to put his foot down......and over he went.

Wearing a long scarf round his neck......getting it tangled up in the chain and nearly strangling himself......yeh he did that as well.

[Renegade]

24 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

 Street view of where i stopped to admire the view with said bend look how difficult it is not 

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3311763,-3.6070901,3a,75y,265.41h,93.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5G9_J2rVEanwnVjPshuLqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I know that road so well, wish I'd been with you that day.

[Tym]

I remember this kid in jr high that said he could ride, so someone lent him a two stroke 250 dirt bike and we stepped back to watch. Yes it was all worth it...

[Buckster]

I seen a few in the US, usually on Harley-Davidson. People who only get the bike out to be seen on group rides on memorial day and the like. In the US people can ride just about anything on a learners permit so it is always a recipe for disaster. Two examples I can think of out of many are my first ride with a group, there was a guy on a 1200 Sportster, he kept drifting towards other bikes, ran into the back of a couple of people, I just stayed way back out of his way. When we stopped I told him to stay away from me to prevent a premature ending to his life, he went home at that point. 
 

Another group ride in the Georgia mountains and a female rider on a newer version of my bike, riding on a learners permit was really struggling in the bends, at one point she was drifting towards the drop off so I rode up the right side between her bike and the side of the road, took my left hand off the bars and placed a single finger on the end of her handlebar, just enough pressure to get her through the corner. We stopped and had a talk about steering and she was fine after that. She admitted she had frozen up on the corner and would have ended up over the edge. She turned into a good rider over the following months. There were a lot of women riders on Harleys in GA and in general they were excellent riders, the worst riders were usually men who started riding later in life.

[Tym]

49 minutes ago, Buckster said:

the worst riders were usually men who started riding later in life.

Thats by design, the kids are either out of the house or in the basement by now, so the wife gets a big life insurance policy, and a motorcycle for the hubby....

[Tym]

PS. more proof no plan survives first contact...hubby gets self imulated, women moves to the villiages in floriduh on a fat payday..finds out the ratio is 10 women her age for every one guy left alive her age...now even bald guys are hot and 9 otherladies and three guys stood on her face to get him...

[boboneleg]

Most of the bad riders I've come across are road warriors (no offence to anyone) who want to do trail riding.  Their first mistake is that turn up on some 1000/1200cc adventure bike (on road tyres)  and insist that they'll be able to get down any lane that I can on my 250/400 trail bike.

After you've picked them up for about the fifth time in the first 800yds some of them might get the message that smaller/lighter is much better

[XTreme]

23 minutes ago, boboneleg said:

Most of the bad riders I've come across are road warriors (no offence to anyone) who want to do trail riding.  Their first mistake is that turn up on some 1000/1200cc adventure bike (on road tyres)  and insist that they'll be able to get down any lane that I can on my 250/400 trail bike.

That's the image that the manufacturers have sold them Bob!

And what they don't seem to want to accept is that a completely different set of riding skills are needed.

[Pedro]

I never ride with anyone else, and don't think I'm that above average to judge anyway.

 

There have been a few encounters with motorcycle club patch wearing dudes, but that has been after lunch and probably alcohol induced ... not much of an excuse for them

[Gnomad]

Coming back from downtown Sturgis, we followed a woman on a Sportster who absolutely would not lean her bike. She was so determined not to lean it was hilarious and frightening at the same time. One could almost argue that it took considerable skill to ride that bolt upright but the wobble told us otherwise!

[Catteeclan]

On 04/06/2020 at 22:54, Sir Fallsalot said:

Another one one i remember was at the top end of the Elan Valley. I Stopped to look at the view above a couple of sharp bends in the road as it was a nice day and saw a large group of bikes coming towards me in the distance, so decided to hang about to see what was going on, as i was watching them start to ride up towards me two of them just fell off on the bend below they were travelling just over walking space and just keeled over like someone had switched them off. Chatting to one of the group that manged to get to me he said they were on a led ride out from a bike rally and half of them had never ridden a country road before and didn't know how to ride around a tight uphill bend, these were guys who were 50+ 

Street view of where i stopped to admire the view with said bend look how difficult it is not 

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3311763,-3.6070901,3a,75y,265.41h,93.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5G9_J2rVEanwnVjPshuLqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

What a view.

[Sir Fallsalot]

34 minutes ago, Catteeclan said:

What a view.

Me and a mate were lucky enough to get snowed on riding up there in 2010, I don't think i will ever get a chance to ride that valley in fresh snow ever again our bike tracks were the only ones there  

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

On 04/06/2020 at 22:54, Sir Fallsalot said:

Another one one i remember was at the top end of the Elan Valley. I Stopped to look at the view above a couple of sharp bends in the road as it was a nice day and saw a large group of bikes coming towards me in the distance, so decided to hang about to see what was going on, as i was watching them start to ride up towards me two of them just fell off on the bend below they were travelling just over walking space and just keeled over like someone had switched them off. Chatting to one of the group that manged to get to me he said they were on a led ride out from a bike rally and half of them had never ridden a country road before and didn't know how to ride around a tight uphill bend, these were guys who were 50+ 

Street view of where i stopped to admire the view with said bend look how difficult it is not 

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3311763,-3.6070901,3a,75y,265.41h,93.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5G9_J2rVEanwnVjPshuLqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Just found this my mate on the bend they fell off on

https://youtu.be/Tu_4g1fxsBw

 

[Buckster]

I did let a fellow ride my KTM once at a BMF rally, he sat on the back seat while doing so for some reason and it smelled like shit afterwards, no idea who it was, any idea @yen_powell?

[yen_powell]

On 06/06/2020 at 13:14, Buckster said:

I did let a fellow ride my KTM once at a BMF rally, he sat on the back seat while doing so for some reason and it smelled like shit afterwards, no idea who it was, any idea @yen_powell?

My feet didn't reach the floor and I'm a tad under 6 feet tall. I was probably riding back towards and shouting out for you to catch me when I came to a stop.