This is something else which is “emerging” naturally at the moment – I’ve been in contact with a few R125 owners for various things (helping them with mapping mostly) and as it turns out there’s a decent number of us in the london/northampton/leicester sort of area so the idea of group rides has been cropped up.

Whilst I normally ride solo, I recently started riding with someone when I can (the metallic purple bike seen in various pics) and we’ve been doing a few nice little runs around the area and from northampton up towards melton etc.

Even with just the two of us it’s already very different from riding alone It’s not about who’s fastest or showing off.. it’s about being *in* and *part of* a thing/sound.

We’re both quite new to riding with other people so it’s been a learning experience. Weirdly we’ve been surprised by that we both enjoyed “following” a lot more than we expected. Normally I’m very much happy in a “leading”-type role so kinda thought I’d be bored following but weirdly it wasn’t even a factor.

Also I guess knowing that the person in front of you has jut gone round the same corner you’re about to go round can build confidence in your riding (rather than forever “charging into the unknown”). Having someone to follow also means you can switch your brain off and just be in the moment and enjoy it.

There’s also something just *nice* about being in (and being part of) that “sound”. Like when there’s several bikes together it’s almost like it becomes a living entity. More than the sum of its parts.

For me it’s about the moment when you crest a hill and the landscape sorta unfolds into the distance.. with the sun shining on it and the sheep, cows etc… that does something which releases some fantastic brain chemicals, and surprised as I am to admit it, that part of riding has become as important to me as pushing my limits and going fast.

We can only travel at the speed of the slowest bike, and whilst you might think of that as a limitation..we’ve not actually found that to be the case in practice.

That’s not to say we have to stay in convoy all the time – when there’s some good corners and you want to go for it then go nuts… but it’s nice to have that “default” to return to.

I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve experienced of riding with people so far and definitely would like to do more. If that’s something you’d be into joining us on, either drop me an email or put your email address into the form below and you’ll get notified when we’re next planning a ride-out, or join our discord server since that’s where we’ll be planning it anyway.

AS YOU WOULD EXPECT WE WILL BE MAINTAINING SOCIAL DISTANCING MEASURES THROUGHOUT ANY RIDES