Long Strange Trip 

Eleven years of cruisin', and ten years as club

l to r: Penny, Dave, me, Jim, Russ, Troy
 

Just when we thought that this cold, wet winter was about over, another storm came in just in time to mess up the weekend, and make a miserable day out of our ten/eleven year anniversary ride. We had a break, yesterday, but it's Tuesday morning and we're sitting here waiting for another storm. Enough!

I got one day of work on the stone. As soon as there is some progress to show, I'll show it.

As I wrote last week, eleven years ago Mary and I set out to see if we could establish a monthly bike ride along the lines of the Cyclone Coaster group in Long Beach. A year later we founded RatRod Riders Bicycle Club of Southern California. Here's where I get all clever and say, "What a long strange trip it's been."

We started our first ride with a handful of people, most of whom we'd never see again. Attendance at the cruises grew, and our ride became a part of the "Outlaw Bicycle" scene. We founded the club just before the first Gathering of Outlaw Bicycle Clubs in Las Vegas in 2013, and returned to the event for the next six years.. The Gathering became the O.B.C., or One Big Club blanket organization. Over the last decade, the bike club scene has grown, and, of course,  changed.

 The clubs, and the group rides are still going strong, but the focus has shifted heavily into the one-off custom bike crowd. The builders come up with some incredible machines. 

photo, Renata Engles

 

The bicycle shows are getting as elaborate as the custom car or motorcycle exhibits. But the gatherings themselves are focused more and more on the showing, and gathering, and less and less on the actual riding. Too, most of the rides are short, a lot of people run "sound bikes" with loud music, and the cruises often feature long bar stops. 

Now, every one in the club does have a custom, a classic, or a stretch cruiser, but no one in the group likes bar drinking. As far as "sound bikes" go,  Look. it's not as though they're always awful, all the time. I'll admit to enjoying the heck out of hearing just the right tune at just the right time on a ride. But that doesn't happen very often. 

Our focus is riding, and truth to tell, the stretch bikes get old in fewer miles than the standard cruisers. We bring them out for the big rides every now and again, but mostly we've fallen back on doin' our own thing, as the hippies used to say. Our gig is pretty simple. Meet up, maybe catch a  buzz, or a beer, and put fifteen to twenty five on the fat tires, with a stop for lunch. 

We don't do bars, or sound bikes. We ride.  

Compared to the bike party scene we don't have much to offer other than some good bud, and long slow miles on the cruisers. As a consequence, attendance has fallen off. And we're fine with that. 

  What started as as a bike club has become something more akin to family. The Spanish word "Compadres" comes pretty darn close.

The Feral remnant. LtoR: Jim, Troy, (?), Dave, Russ Me, and Penny.