Planning Group Rides-General Thoughts

Scheduling/creating interesting rides, points of interest, etc.
Just some thoughts of mine to help others when they are trying to wrack their brains for places to go!
Pre-rides are pretty important-THEY can keep you from having to be anal about the information below! But I usually can't take the time for a pre-ride, so I just end up anal as hell.
PLANNING, PLANNING, PLANNING: The planning is extremely important since I again usually don’t get to do/don’t have time to do a pre-ride.
Just a few things I do:
**I plan the route to be varied and interesting, with scenery and photo-ops. I mean, c’mon, I HAVE a blog to put them in!
**I plan what the weather will be at any particular area-sometimes the weather and temps can vary quite a bit so I want to make sure we hit the traditionally hot places in the morning and the traditionally cooler places in the afternoon.
**I plan what I’m going to wear at any given time, based on the weather. I have taken Barry’s idea and I now wear a short sleeved t-shirt under a long-sleeved t-shirt for extra warmth and if it’s hot, I can take off the L/S one.
**I plan the mileage and the gas stops/needs. We don’t want to stop in Podunkville and pay $3.89 for a gallon of gas, plus we want to be safe and not have anyone do the ‘reserve’ thing.
**I plan potential places to eat on the route; again, carnivores are on the prowl, and it gets kinda chancey when SOME of the muttz have to live off their own fat for any amount of time. You’d need to keep your hands and arms away from their mouths when that happens. I usually check to see when the last time anyone ate was, so I can figure out how long they can go. Motorcycle tanks and tummies can only go so far on so much fuel!
**I plan the timing of the route, i.e. the time we’ll hit a certain point. This allows me to get an overall view of the trip duration as a whole, thereby leaving room for modifications. IN OTHER WORDS, IF I WANNA SHOP, I’M GONNA STOP!

Where to get ride ideas-Where to go?
Online from other riding groups' calendars
Forum posts on previous rides
Mapquest BIG, then narrow down to an area that looks promising
City or county's points of interest, then see if there are any rides around there
Camping books (can have ideas for destinations)
Previous rides I've taken, but just vary the approach or take add'l side roads (Johney had a good idea-go on a route you've taken before, but take it BACKWARDS)

Things to consider for the ride
Weather-tracking it weekly then daily, then hourly and matching the hourly forecast with the time and place you'll be at.

Tme of year to schedule rides - colder weather? NO MOUNTAINS!
Wintertime? NO LONGER RIDES-would possibly end up riding after dark. If you combine a long ride in winter that's cold, that's a bit much, especially if it's also technical, such as Angeles Crest/Tehachapi in January or February. I remember one ride we went on about 1 1/2 years ago, November 2007, it was our 2nd ride with a group. I froze my ass off. I didn't have the proper gloves, the proper jacket, no chaps, no windscreen, it took me 2 hours when we stopped for lunch to unthaw. Did you ever try to do Angeles Crest curves while shivering, coldly holding onto the handlebars, while your next is so stiff from shivering that it hurts? Some would say that we were warned to wear layers, but since it was our 2nd ride with the group, we couldn't have been warned via our email address with the ride info. We just winged it. NEVER AGAIN. The first things I bought the next month were a windshield and chaps.
Summertime-more beaches, mountains would be good.
Spring-watch out for rain, water runoff, & leftover gravel from rains in the roadway which can make bikes slip, especially on curvy roads.
Fall-the GREATEST time to ride. Weather's usually still balmy but the seasonal colors are really neat. Lots of festivals going on.

Clothing to wear
Always plan for the unexpected and wear layers-you can always take them off.
Things to bring

I always bring my tank bag and a spider bungee cord because I never know what I'll buy or take off. My tank bags also converts to a backpack. I have a shoulder-sling purse that works really well also. The spider bungee, believe it or not, came in really handy when I brought a HUGE apple pie down from Oak Glen to The OC. It was in a baker's box, the bakery guy put some brown paper around it to keep it from moving around, then I spider bungee'd the box onto the back seat of my bike. My bike has barely a back seat, no sissy bar, no sissy bar pad, no saddlebags. THAT THING CAME THROUGH PERFECT.
First aid kit and PRACTICE how to use it! Know what's in it.
Flares-just to let people know there's a situation ahead
Extra camera batteries and phone batteries; extra SD cards
My business cards for friends I haven't gotten to know yet
Extra money-I won't tell you where it's hidden, but it will come in handy one day, I bet.
Food-where on the route, when you'd hit that particular place, what kind, prices, where it is, bike parking.
WATER-since the wind hitting any exposed skin will dehydrate your body, water at all times is necessary.
A small notebook to jot down ideas. I used it to jot down our mileage, gallons of gas, time we stopped and MPG for the bikes for our trip to Vegas. It gave me a running idea of how long it took to get up there and so to figure out appx. how long it'd take to get home, plus I'd jot down road conditions and how many CHP there were at any given time!

Road conditions - is where I'm going under construction? THAT equals less-than-optimal roads.

Riding capabilities of participants -this one's tricky because as a road leader/planner, you are responsible for those behind you. As I teach in aerobics class, I start out 'moderate'-not fast, not slow, just moderate, to see how everyone reacts and does (if I don't know some of the riders). If someone is slow, then I know that there's a possibility some of the hyper guys might want to jump ahead and GO, which is perfectly fine. This is where the communication thing comes in handy, letting everyone know where we're going, because the zoomers can zoom ahead then wait for the slower, more casual riders. I feel it's my responsibility to go as fast as the slowest rider.
Speaking of riding capabilities, I do notice two things:
1. People feel really confident with certain leaders more than others. If they KNOW you're not going to zoom it ahead and wait for everybody to catch up, if they KNOW you're going to do the conservative thing, then they'll be more comfy. A more comfy rider is a better rider. A better rider is ONE I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT.
2. The optimal group number for ME is around 6, because I have learned to look for that last rider. 8 is ok, but I prefer 6.
Lemme explain.
When I go down a road, change lanes, go around a curve, I WILL CHECK TO MAKE SURE THAT THE LAST RIDER COMES AROUND THAT CURVE.
Case in point:
We were on a group ride one time, in a group of about 8-10 and one of the riders went down. He was about 4th in the lineup. (I was 3rd, directly behind the leader and to the left of the wingman) The sweepers or tailgunners were on top of it within a heartbeat. I saw the rider go down, I scooted around, saw that he was being taken care of by the tailgunners, so I scooted down the road about 200 yards to warn oncoming traffic that there was a situation. Guess what? We waited, and waited, and waited for about 30 minutes. FINALLY the leader and his wing came back to see what happened to everyone. TURNS OUT THEY DIDN'T LOOK IN THEIR REAR VIEW MIRRORS FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES AFTER IT HAPPENED. Actually, the wingman looked in his mirror, saw no one behind him, tore after the leader who was zooming down the road, finally caught him, and they then came roaring back. Count 10 minutes to yourself. Go ahead, do it. It's a long time, isn't it?! If you're doing 35-45 MPH on a windy road on a motorcycle, that's 5-7 miles down the road before you notice anything is amiss. I also heard (anonymously) that those two lead riders had their earphones and MP3's going as well. Maybe that's why they didn't hear my THREE HONKS.
Communication-everybody knows where we're going, what's what, and if you get lost. THREE HONKS on the horn means something's going on, that the rider is tapping out. Don't assume that the leader can see you tap out! One time Barry 'tapped out' and I couldn't see him tap out, and the next time I look, he's not behind me. Can you say terrified adrenaline rush?

SOMEBODY has to be in charge, but that somebody can listen to others and accommodate requests.
I plan the timing of ride with when we leave, when we stop for gas, total time and weather in relation to time of stop
I try to think of what could POSSIBLY go wrong and then plan for that eventuality.
Coming home-I usually try to schedule a 'homecoming' time either an hour before sunset or just after sunset, so that the sun isn't in our eyes.
I consider gas Stops, so I do a mileage mapquest, see all the points we could stop then adding them into the mapquest grid
I look at TripAdvisor, Chambers of Commerce, AAA guidebooks for points of interest/photo ops. This can also be used for seasonal festivals, such as in June and July (I believe), Big Bear has Miner's Days with a Chili Cookoff. Lake Gregory has fests, all sorts of places have things going on. Lompoc has the flower festival.

NOTES
I schedule the ride down to the quarter or half hour, and my math figures for timing as
Mileage/60 MPH=times. 60 MPH just to be safe.
I always go onto the website of the destination, and any blogs or forums I can find, i.e. TripAdvisor.
On the destination website, I find out costs, recommended points of interest, what they're know for, food, see if I can get a GOOD map of the area and plot the way to it, another backup way to it, parking, etc. Another good place is that town's/city's Chamber of Commerce.

If another motorcycle group has done a ride that I'm interested in, I email the recap writer and ask him questions:
How did you come up with the ride?
How was it overall, re: destination, food, road, riders, etc?
What problems did you run into on the way? At the destination? Coming back?

At the end of my rides, I usually do a recap, which is where this blog comes in handy-it's a recap and a photo album all in one.