Over the years i have read .... and put a few theads asking fellow travelers to make a group up . going to my beloved Morocco ! .............. most of which have never happend ! .......... so this is my question .......

How many trips do people actually meet up and go too ?
I suspect many are just dreamers !
off course there are a few hard core people out there who just do it !

kk

If you mean do I buddy up with people from here to go on bike trips (to Morocco or anywhere else), then the answer is no, I never have. I don’t know anyone well enough and I learned long ago the issues that can cause. That’s not to say I always travel alone but the primary axis would have to be friendship rather than just a safety in numbers desire to go somewhere. I went to Morocco back in August with a friend who came over from the US for the trip and I’m off to France in a week or so (with my wife so that doesn’t count )

I also never travel in a group by arrangement, the only time is with people I have met along the way and happen to be heading in the same direction as at the same speed.
I did cross China in a convoy but was being driven in someone else's Land Cruiser rather than in control of my own vehicle.

I hate riding in groups. I've done a few parades, and I ride in a group with my moto-marshal team when we are going to an event, but riding together with a bunch of other bikers, especially random people collected over the internet, for an extended time? No thanks.

I did meet up with a reddit guy when I was in Vietnam, we did the Ha Giang loop together, and that was fun. But two bikes and three days was about as much as I wanted to do in a row.

Yes, I've done that many times - you meet someone on the road and they're going in the same direction so you travel together for a few days or whatever. But that's different from planning from the off to go with someone you don't know that well. Whenever I did that (as mentioned, many years back) differences inevitably surfaced as the trips progressed. It works ok for a day or two but for a month or two either someone compromises or arguments / splits develop to the point where you end up going your own way. Maybe it's because we all have hard charging, alpha male, dominant personalities or we wouldn't be riding off into the sunset on our own in the first place (that's a before anyone responds).

Heck no, I learned ages ago that me and my wife enjoy riding routes that are slower and more difficult than what most people enjoy, and people don't have patience for my health problems (even when they say they do).

So we go out and do day trips or well planned stuff for a few days and enjoy ourselves in our own way

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FreeBSD fan since before it was cool ...

I think that sums it up a treat !

Back in the olden times when I first discovered newsgroups and web forums, I sometimes tried to join journeys with other backpackers or overland riders. It never worked--basically, any advance efforts were wasted when one or another person's plans changed.

Once I promoted an evening out in Vancouver with other riders, and that eventually led to a couple of encounters in Central and South America plus one in Cuba, but nothing that lasted. Another time I connected with a fellow backpacker in West Africa, but that, too, had limited appeal in the end. And I've visited and been visited by folks I originally met on the road, although not for long periods--a good thing, generally speaking.

Interestingly, I made lots of connections over the internet--some enduring, some not--in other realms, like backcountry skiing. There is something about world travel which supports transient connections and individual choices, not commitment and negotiated compromises. Skiing--or at least the more rarified world of backcountry skiing--works differently.

I'm not averse to it in principle, but I know plenty of people have found it can cause problems on a long trip. My OH doesn't ride so there's no chance of her coming with me, hence it would be a stranger off the internet. What could possibly go wrong?

So I guess I wouldn't be opposed to starting off, but it would be on the understanding that if we want different things down the road, we go our separate ways. No hanging together and arguing. It's not a marriage

I detest riding in groups. I actually stood it for a day in July, but that was a group I know is lacking the Muppets, Prima Donnas and adrenaline junkies pretty much any group will normally include. I did Morocco at the turn of the century with a GS club ensemble: never again.

The organisation thing is something I also won't do. Post on MCN that you are organising a trip to Dakar. You will immediately get 250 fantacists who say they'll go. With a week to go you'll be down to 10 because of all the ones who , faced with actually going, don't like the idea of heat, foreign food, getting kidnapped by the Taliban etc. Of the ten, you are going to get at least one who thinks you are his travel agent and others who won't remember to bring their passports. Why would you want the hassle?

Andy

I used to leed a group of trail riders around north wales, and because i knew it so well . it got out of hand and one sunday i was expecting 5/6 people that i knew ..a total of 18 turned up !
Can you imagine trying to get them to even start , let alone ,oh i need petrol oh i have a puncture oh i took the wrong turning etc
well after 2 hours i just went off with 2 mates and left them to it .... and never did it again !

keith

When I used to trail ride at weekends in the UK, I'd do so with a couple of good mates. You often need to help each other on technical terrain and it's more fun too. I was the slow and steady one, but knew the trails and could use a GPS well too. They were faster, more competent riders but couldn't navigate for toffee. So we all bought something to the party, including a similar sense of humour.

On forums like the HUBB when planning longer trips, I learned a long time that it's futile for me to try to involve others in my planning or even worse, set off with a stranger on a longer (beyond one day) trip, because (in no particular order):

*It's my way or the highway

*Newbies ask too many daft questions and think I'm their tour guide

*Imho, setting off on a longer bike trip with a partner/ sibling/ best mate does have potential. But I'm divorced, have no siblings and none of my really good friends even ride motorcycles/ or if they did, they've hung up their crash helmets.

I'm very happy to, by chance on the road or via social media, to meet like minded bike travellers for a or ride the same road together, if they were going that way anyway: You soon find out if you have similar/ the same routines/ riding speeds/ interests to justify more than a day in eachother's company.

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We used to do this back in the 70's when Andy's experience above hadn't quite yet sunk in. We'd alternate years of bike trips and van trips. No social media back then so it was a case of 'putting the word out' to find people, and with the van trips in particular you'd get loads of people wanting to go in October, half that number in March and virtually nobody when you had to ask for money. And then when we did get a financial quorum it would be "A Passport? What's that?" as we were queuing up for the ferry in Dover.

I think you can put up with this stuff for a while when you're full of the energy and enthusiasm and wonder of youth (up to about age 25!) but as the shadows lengthened and you came to know yourself better a gun often seemed like the better option.

The halfway house I have done a number of times on bike trips was that we'd all travel separately but arrange to meet at a specific location in the evening (used to be a campsite but now more often it's a hotel). If people are confident enough to travel through foreign parts on their own then it can work very well, but even now I know bikers well past retirement age who'd like to ride 'abroad' but have never done it and wouldn't go on their own. I don't want to hand hold them through 1000 miles of 'foreign land' so that's the way it stays.

We've never travelled with others in the sense of staying at the same places and travelling between them together. We have from time to time found ourselves meeting the same people at campgrounds or on the road and travelled with them for a day or camped with them overnight but have never actually travelled together as such. The likelihood of finding others who share exactly the same interest in stopping for the same period at the same lakeside or of exploring the same side track is more or less zero; adjusting our interests to adapt to those of others is feasible but not really what we want to do.

Exception - when we've had to travel in convoy with military escort - although this is not really the intent of the original question.

This year, for the first time, I have ridden with other people. Just a couple of mates and we try to go out once a month for half a day. One of us plans a rough route through what we know is scenic and fun routes. None of us are spring chickens and our desired speed is similar - gentle and fun, not a great urge for a white knuckle ride. Would I go away with them? Yes, probably to a weekend bike event - perhaps a training weekend or similar, but I can’t think that they would put up with me for much longer than that. So, no, I wouldn’t expect that I wouldn’t jump at the chance of going on a long trip with anyone but myself. Fair play to those that do, just I can’t see myself being good company for others, nor others for me. There - a nice cheerful thought!

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