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Before attending a ride: Corner Marking - what, why, how, etc.
OK, this is the FAQ for Corner Marking. I don't claim to know every way of doing it, or claim to be the worlds best corner marker or whatever, but this is pretty much a motorcycling specific concept and is of great importance to any group ride functioning properly. If you're a new rider, you may be unfamiliar with the concept. That's fine. It's not rocket science, but it DOES rely on everybody doing their part for it to work.
So what is corner marking?
Corner marking is a method to ensure that a group of bikes on an organised ride are able to not get separated despite having to deal with traffic, intersections, accidents, etc. It enables people to follow the leader, but also enables the leader to back-track all the way to an incident if something happens, as he'll have a heap of corner markers behind him waiting at corners for bikes that never arrived.
The idea is that when the ride reaches a corner, a person will pull to the side of the road some way before the actual corner with their indicator on, to let following bikes know which way the ride turned. The rider will then wait there until some agreed upon event occurs (most of the time, the designated "tail end charlie" bike arrives and flashes the headlight or whatever to indicate they are the last bike - at which point they will wait for you to re-join the ride and proceed to the next corner marker). If you reach an intersection and there is no corner marker, the protocol is to continue straight (straight through is not marked). If you get to an intersection that is not straight through and there is no corner marker (e.g., T junction) then unfortunately the guy ahead of you is a douche bag and fucked up the corner marking.
There are a number of different variants of corner marking, and which one the organiser of the ride dictates is down to both personal preference, size of the ride, frequency of corners, and possibly experience level of the group. Some of the variants include (and I'm sure one of the old school crew will correct me on terminology if I fuck it up):
Rolling corner marking
If you are not the designated "tail end charlie" (hereafter known as the "TEC"), and you get a a corner and can not see a bike behind you indicating that they are going to also turn the corner, you pull over and wait. If you are the last bike to arrive at the meet point and you aren't the TEC using rolling corner marking, guess what? You're the person who split the group up. You are responsible for checking on the bike behind you. Advantage: if the group is not split, and everybody can see the bike behind them, this can stay flowing quite well.
Rotating corner marking
If you are the bike immediately behind the leader, and the leader indicates they are turning a corner, you indicate, pull over and wait to mark the corner.
Designated corner markers
Some pre-determined riders will be marking corners. follow these guys. Mostly specific to the LNR/WSR rides. If you're a corner marker you should know the deal. If you're not, you just follow the marker bikes.
"Keep up or crash trying"
No formal corner marking. In reality (sometimes?
), everybody will look out for the guys behind and adjust speed/wait to suit (bike in mirror gets smaller = roll off, bike in mirror gets bigger = roll on). Unless they think you're a douche.
How long do you wait?
You wait until one of 2 things happens:
This may be 10 seconds. it may be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, possibly more - if something bad has happened, like an accident, the group got pulled over, stuck at series of lights, etc.
One thing you DO NOT do, is assume "meh, no bikes coming, i'll carry on up ahead". The whole point is that they may be stuck somewhere out of visual range, and if you leave your corner, they will have no idea where the ride went. The code word is butterfingers.
Typically, the ride leader will go over the corner marking expectations before the ride commences. If you do not understand, now is the time to clarify what is expected of you with the ride leader. Not just wing it and hope you don't have to corner mark.
If you understand, but just can't be bothered, then do not attend.
Fucking up the corner marking just ruins everybody's ride. People get lost (which sucks for them). The leader is wondering WTF happened, maybe pulling over to answer calls from people who are lost, etc (which sucks for him, and slows down the ride). The leader might also get fucked off with the whole idea (why do I bother, etc.) and not organise any more rides (bad for you).
The guy/gal leading the ride is going out of their way to show you some good roads or whatever, the least you can do is help their ride run smoothly by marking corners as requested.
It's not rocket science, but unfortunately all it needs is one or two people to not corner mark properly, to fuck the ride up for everyone.
Don't be that guy. Do your best to mark corners as required
If corners are marked properly, there is no reason to run lights, no reason to push beyond your limits, etc. You will not be left behind if everybody does the right thing. If you are scared you will be left behind if you corner mark, don't be.
So what is corner marking?
Corner marking is a method to ensure that a group of bikes on an organised ride are able to not get separated despite having to deal with traffic, intersections, accidents, etc. It enables people to follow the leader, but also enables the leader to back-track all the way to an incident if something happens, as he'll have a heap of corner markers behind him waiting at corners for bikes that never arrived.
The idea is that when the ride reaches a corner, a person will pull to the side of the road some way before the actual corner with their indicator on, to let following bikes know which way the ride turned. The rider will then wait there until some agreed upon event occurs (most of the time, the designated "tail end charlie" bike arrives and flashes the headlight or whatever to indicate they are the last bike - at which point they will wait for you to re-join the ride and proceed to the next corner marker). If you reach an intersection and there is no corner marker, the protocol is to continue straight (straight through is not marked). If you get to an intersection that is not straight through and there is no corner marker (e.g., T junction) then unfortunately the guy ahead of you is a douche bag and fucked up the corner marking.
There are a number of different variants of corner marking, and which one the organiser of the ride dictates is down to both personal preference, size of the ride, frequency of corners, and possibly experience level of the group. Some of the variants include (and I'm sure one of the old school crew will correct me on terminology if I fuck it up):
Rolling corner marking
If you are not the designated "tail end charlie" (hereafter known as the "TEC"), and you get a a corner and can not see a bike behind you indicating that they are going to also turn the corner, you pull over and wait. If you are the last bike to arrive at the meet point and you aren't the TEC using rolling corner marking, guess what? You're the person who split the group up. You are responsible for checking on the bike behind you. Advantage: if the group is not split, and everybody can see the bike behind them, this can stay flowing quite well.
Rotating corner marking
If you are the bike immediately behind the leader, and the leader indicates they are turning a corner, you indicate, pull over and wait to mark the corner.
Designated corner markers
Some pre-determined riders will be marking corners. follow these guys. Mostly specific to the LNR/WSR rides. If you're a corner marker you should know the deal. If you're not, you just follow the marker bikes.
"Keep up or crash trying"
No formal corner marking. In reality (sometimes?
), everybody will look out for the guys behind and adjust speed/wait to suit (bike in mirror gets smaller = roll off, bike in mirror gets bigger = roll on). Unless they think you're a douche.How long do you wait?
You wait until one of 2 things happens:
- all of the following bikes catch up and go through the corner, and you see the TEC arrive and flash his lights/toot/whatever to indicate that he's the last bike and all is good
- the leader/guys up ahead realise that the group has thinned out and no one is following them. they will back-track to each corner marker to find out what is going on. It may take a few minutes for the leader to realise the group is thinning out (more on larger rides) and then some time to travel back and pick up each rider on the way back.
This may be 10 seconds. it may be 10 minutes, 20 minutes, possibly more - if something bad has happened, like an accident, the group got pulled over, stuck at series of lights, etc.
One thing you DO NOT do, is assume "meh, no bikes coming, i'll carry on up ahead". The whole point is that they may be stuck somewhere out of visual range, and if you leave your corner, they will have no idea where the ride went. The code word is butterfingers.
Typically, the ride leader will go over the corner marking expectations before the ride commences. If you do not understand, now is the time to clarify what is expected of you with the ride leader. Not just wing it and hope you don't have to corner mark.
If you understand, but just can't be bothered, then do not attend.
Fucking up the corner marking just ruins everybody's ride. People get lost (which sucks for them). The leader is wondering WTF happened, maybe pulling over to answer calls from people who are lost, etc (which sucks for him, and slows down the ride). The leader might also get fucked off with the whole idea (why do I bother, etc.) and not organise any more rides (bad for you).
The guy/gal leading the ride is going out of their way to show you some good roads or whatever, the least you can do is help their ride run smoothly by marking corners as requested.
It's not rocket science, but unfortunately all it needs is one or two people to not corner mark properly, to fuck the ride up for everyone.
Don't be that guy. Do your best to mark corners as required
If corners are marked properly, there is no reason to run lights, no reason to push beyond your limits, etc. You will not be left behind if everybody does the right thing. If you are scared you will be left behind if you corner mark, don't be.
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