Motorcycle Diaries: Teamwork Lessons

When I first bought my Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 in Feb 2003, it was a newly introduced model and arguably one of the first "cruisers" in the Indian market. I was absolutely thrilled at my acquisition of it and needless to say I was on a long distance ride from Patiala to Dehradun soon after. Took exactly 4 hours to hit my home in Dehradun. That was my first long distance bike ride. Nearly 40, 000 kms of solo riding followed over the next 12 years before I got my Harley Davidson Iron 883 in 2015. Life changed.

Life changed because I was formally introduced to the Armed Forces Harley Owners Group and I embarked on my first Bike ride with them in 2016, a relatively short ride of about 200 kms in NCR. That was also my introduction to riding in a group. Watching senior riders, both in age and experience, and learning from each small, little thing they did became second nature on our weekend rides. To say I learnt a lot would be an understatement. Riding with the AFHOGs truly changed my perception of motorcycling altogether. Here I share some of the lessons I learnt:

If you cant see the rider behind in your rear-view, you need to slow down.

There will be team members who find it difficult to catch up with the pace of the rest of the team, not necessarily out of incompetence. They might still be building on their confidence. Look out for them and ensure you take them with you. Soon they will be confident enough to help others. I was helped by other riders till I finally became the designated "Sweep", the guy who rides at the tail of the group ensuring everyone reaches the next stop.

If you are ahead, you see risks earlier than those following you. Caution them. 

While riding in a group, most of your concentration will be on the rider in front of you. When you see a pothole or a bad patch, its a standard practice to indicate the same to the rider behind you by pointing out to it. Similarly when you are slowing down, you invariably indicate to the rider behind to slow down too. There's a whole (visual) list of hand signals for various indications to fellow riders.

Align to the team's goal and stretch if you have to. The team will take you along and you will come out stronger from the experience.

On one of our longish rides when I was relatively new, I felt the team is going too fast and I kept falling behind because of lack of confidence. The group was keen on maintaining a certain speed to get to the destination in time. At the next pit stop, I requested to be placed right behind the pacer (second from the front). The fear of delaying everybody made me concentrate more on what I need to do to keep up. At the next pit stop, almost everyone acknowledged the effort and eventually we made it in time. Sometimes fear is good to have. Next ride onwards, I was a lot more confident.

To be continued....