Motorcycle Education

Riding a motorcycle can be a magical experience. It has a fantastic ability to melt away stress and make you forget the stress and troubles of everyday life. Sharing this experience with friends can make riding a motorcycle even more enjoyable. The best ways to meet people to ride motorcycles with is to visit your Local Motorcycle Dealership, seek out Motorcycle Groups Online, and create small talk when you bump into fellow riders while out and about on your rides. I want to share some of my own experiences with you. I hope that you'll be able to use this information to find local riding buddies and make your rides more enjoyable. Ride Your Own Ride When someone gets into the wonderful world of Motorcycles, one piece of advice is standard - Ride Your Own Ride. This advice means that you should always ride in a way that is comfortable for you. Do not exceed your skills in an attempt to keep up. Take your time, go at your own pace, and never feel pressured to do something that could wind up getting you hurt. Riding Your Own Ride is especially important when riding with strangers. Making friends and riding with new people can be a wonderful experience but if you see something that makes you uncomfortable (Speeding, Wheelies, Erratic Riding, etc.) know that it is alright to bail out of the ride. If you need to break off, be courteous and alert your fellow riders that you must bail out of the ride. This will eliminate confusion when the group discovers someone is missing from the group. WaltInPA Discord When the WaltInPA YouTube Channel began to gain a little traction, I thought it would be a good idea to launch the WaltInPA Discord Server to create a space for a core group of people to hang out virtually and communicate. I wasn't counting on semi-local riders joining the server and getting together for Group Rides. Since the inception of the Discord Server, we've gotten together for the Road Apple Ride, the Bucks County Covered Bridge Ride, and a handful of small spur-of-the-moment meetups. It has been a tremendous amount of fun, and I would encourage you to join regardless of where you live. We've got an excellent mix of riders from across the country. Motorcycle Facebook Groups Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, and one of the benefits of its popularity is the abundance of interest groups. A simple search for "Motorcycle" will generate hundreds, if not thousands, of results that are deemed relevant to you. You can filter those results to show only Facebook Groups. By doing this, you'll see organized Motorcycle Groups (both public and private) that are local to you. The number one result for my account is the Eastern PA Motorcycle Riders - a group with over 10,000 Followers. Members of this group are routinely looking for people to ride with all over Eastern Pennsylvania. If you cannot find a local group that interests you, I suggest looking at Support Bikers. Support Bikers is a nationwide Motorcycle Group with over 48,000 Followers and a mantra of Bikers Helping Bikers. There are secondary groups for individual states (Such as Support Bikers Pennsylvania), but not all states are represented. Motorcycle Meetup Groups Outside of Facebook, people seem to have a lot of luck with Meetup. This website is geared towards introducing like-minded people to one another through interests. In my case, a search for Motorcycle Groups within 25 Miles of my hometown turns up Montco Riders. A quick scan through the group shows me that it is active, with various group rides being proposed throughout the year. I'm not a member of this group (yet), but it appears to be an excellent place to meet local riding buddies. I would suggest searching Meetup for Motorcycle Groups in your area. You might get lucky and find an active group right in your backyard. Motorcycle Dealerships Visiting your local Motorcycle Dealership is probably the best place to meet riding buddies. Many dealerships will host events throughout the year to promote products or to give back to the community. These events are a great way to meet fellow enthusiasts who are often local. A great example is the Modern Classics Ride-In, Hosted by Martin Moto. The dealership is located in Boyertown, PA. This event draws hundreds of local riders to meet one another and show off cool bikes. I attended this event in 2021 and 2022 and thoroughly enjoyed myself. If your local dealership doesn't host events, a sales associate may be able to point you in the right direction. Sometimes dealerships have a following that hosts group rides, with the dealership being the common meeting place. Local HOG Chapters HOG is an acronym for Harley Owners Group - a nationwide group of Harley Davidson owners with over 1,400 Chapters Worldwide. Membership is simple and allows you to join fellow Harley Davidson enthusiasts to ride and support charitable causes. Riding events vary from group rides, safety courses, competitions, rallies, National H.O.G.® rides, and weekend riding trips. While riding is the main emphasis, many groups get together to raise funds for charitable causes, attend events, and more. We have endless opportunities, as YOU may bring forward the next new activity idea. Join a local H.O.G.® chapter to meet and ride with other Harley owners in your area. H.O.G Chapters | Harley-Davidson.com Local Motorcycle Hangouts Finding local motorcycle hangouts can be tricky - especially if you aren't already a part of the local motorcycle community. In my experience, you either learn about these hangout spots by word-of-mouth or discover them accidentally while out riding. One example of an excellent Motorcycle Hangout Spot is the Van Sant Airport in Bucks County. It is a small private airport that would never strike me as a place where motorcycles would congregate. My first time there, while on a group ride with friends, we stopped there for lunch. When we arrived, nearly 100 motorcycles were parked along the airfield, watching planes and gliders take off. It was a very memorable experience!