<shrug> It happens. 'specially with Ducs. I do what I can to avoid that scene, but sometimes, it's just that way.
re not inviting you on a ride, there's the 'other' perspective. I might not tell some new guy where I was gonna ride if I don't know him. There are some rides that are open to the public and others that are not. That said, it *seems* like their group ride was part of the meet-up and therefore open to whoever wants to join. My concern is that I don't want to have to take care of someone (or contact their loved ones) who tried to keep up, rode over his head and ate shit. I'd be especially concerned if someone asked to join a ride and was dressed as you described yourself. Hmmm . . . I guess that counts as snobbery. I must be one of them.
We either make it clear not to show up in tennis shoes, or we give them tons of shit about it if they do. That's not ostracizing them. It's setting a norm. I'm gonna be the one waiting for the ambulance, posting up details about their ankle surgery and cleaning the blood off the street. So I get to say something. Besides, if they can afford gas, they can afford a pair of hiking boots or Timberlands.
P.S. Don't ever ride with Vin. He's a f'n low-rent f'n scumbag.
Well Spide, I was invited by one of the members to come and check out the group and maybe go on a ride with them. The fact that they would have taken the $35 membership fee and given me a T-shirt no matter what was kind of interesting. Now I've been doing this stuff for about 37 years. 32 on the street. In fact, I just have to watch someone ride for about 5 minutes and it gives me a real good idea if they can ride or not. I'm sure you guys can do the same thing. Just watch someone for 5 minutes and you already have an idea about their abilities. I have never ridden with a group, any group, that i couldn't hold my own with. No one has to take care of me. And from the looks of things, some of their group needed watching over. And I'm not going to ride over my head trying to keep up. And the fact that I wasn't wearing leathers? Well, I had a leather jacket. I don't even OWN a pair of leather pants. This is how I ride. Jeans, a leather jacket, some heavy duty work boots that probably cost more than most of their fancy Alpinestar boots, a good helmet and motocross gloves. As for people wearing tennis shoes, they ride their bike, I ride mine.
I guess that is why I generally ride with only a couple of guys from work, and from where I used to work (true, hard core maniacs), and my brother. What was I thinking? I guess I thought they would be like regular guys, but apparently, I was wrong.
