An Op-Ed On Group Riding

This morning I learned about an motorcycle accident in the Oregon that wiped out around 26 motorcycles on Friday. Maybe some of you have heard about it as well. A link to a news story is here. I have a couple opinions/thoughts/reactions I'd like to share: (1) Although I participated in some large group rides when I first got back into biking and enjoyed the social part of the outings, I never enjoyed the riding part because I consider them unsafe unless the riders were adequately and properly separated in a staggered formation -- something that seldom happened in practice. In fact, many groups ride side by side rather than staggered -- which in my opinion is a recipe for the kind of disaster that happened in Oregon. (2) In my experience, motorcycle riders tend to not "ride their own ride" when riding in large groups -- and let group dynamics (peer pressure) dominate decision making in all ride issues (speed, spacing, alcohol use). Of course I don't know the exact circumstances of this 26 bike accident -- but I can make some reasonable guesses, given the time of day and other judgment failures in spacing and speed. Reading this article reinforces my view that group riding is not for me and reminds me of a posting I made last year about some of the many differences among motorcyclists. The news article seems to indicate that these were "chopper" riders -- not sport or touring riders.