Riding Lead Vs Sweep
Riding as a group comes with certain responsibilities toward your other riders.
When you’re riding with a group on motorcycles there will always be someone in the lead and someone at the back, riding “sweep,” whether you think about it that way or not.
It’s a really good thing if the leader knows where he or she is going. Unless you’re using GPS, however, that is not always possible. For instance, when we were with Willie and Jungle’s group going to Banff this summer, there was one point where I was in the lead because the group had had to split up, with Jungle back in Cranbrook, BC, with a broken down bike.
We pulled into Radium Hot Springs, our destination for the day, and at an intersection neither Judy nor I noted that the highway we were following took the right turn. We went straight, as did all those behind us.
We quickly realized our error and turned around, motioning for the others to follow but for some reason they stayed put at the turnaround. Apparently they expected us to come back to tell them, yes, this is the correct way to go. Eventually everyone found their way to the motel but that’s the kind of problem you can have when the leader doesn’t know the route exactly.
Generally, however, everyone has GPS these days and as long as everyone knows the destination, they can get there. It’s just that sometimes you have to stop to pull out the phone and check the GPS.
Riding sweep is entirely different. Theoretically, each rider is responsible for making sure they do not lose sight of the rider behind them. If you do, you slow down until they show up and if they don’t show up you stop. If they still don’t show up, you go back. This ripples through the ranks up to the leader.
Unless the sweep is the one suffering problems, their general responsibility is to stop and assist anyone ahead who has problems. If the sweep has problems then the first rider in front of them should notice and come back.
That’s where it can get sticky. At least in the group I ride with, not everyone is paying all that much attention. They should, but the truth is, some do not. I like to ride sweep mainly because that way I don’t have anyone behind me crowding me or target fixating on my rear. We do have at least one person who will do that.
But I have been the one who has had problems, or the one who has stopped for another reason, and had the guys in front of me just keep on riding. When I finally have rejoined the group it’s generally, “Where were you?” to which I reply “Well, where in the heck were YOU?!”
It can be a fine line, though, between going your own speed and dropping way back and dropping back so far that the folks ahead of you start slowing down wondering about you. This is something about which Friggs has aggravated the rest of us at times. For instance, on this year’s OFMC trip, I was riding sweep but Friggs was going so slow for so long, with the others nowhere to be seen ahead, that I finally just blasted past him. He’s on his own! I have no feelings of guilt over passing him and leaving him behind.
Talking with the other guys later, they agreed that they had had the same annoyance with him at times and done the same thing. Dude, it’s fine to ride your own ride but you really need to at least maintain a minimum of contact with the group. If you’re not going to, say so in advance and we’ll see you when you get there.
Biker Quote for Today
Keep calm and take a back road.
