Hmmm. Better watch for that Amish Patrol next time the Crashton drive goes north!
http://bit.ly/aXrJni

 

I read about that the other day. Pretty disturbing stuff & a cautionary tale for sure. First mistake was informing the OPP of the drive. Second was a too long line of MINI's.

For what it is worth I like to have my drives be self guided tours. Here's your route & I'll see you at the stops & lunch. Unfortunately the routes don't get used some reason or another. What happens is we end up with a pile of MINI's nose to tail. A couple of MINI's doesn't attract too much attention, but a whole gaggle of them does. IMHO this is asking for problems, from the local constabulary & from those who don't know of the term assured clear distance. I had a close encounter of the bumper kind & it scared the carp outa me. We have started using FRS radios & that has helped a lot. Even when out of sight we can stay in contact.

Anyone else have any ideas on how to make the drives better for all?

 

What we do in the mountain bike world is have multiple leaders and a designated sweeper. This way you have smaller groups that can meet up at rally points but everybody can go their own pace. The sweeper stays in touch with all the leaders and lets them know what is happening with the last car in the group.

 

Allen that is a good idea, but I also think it complicates matters too. For me I like to have a low key drive & will not assign jobs for others to do. If someone wanted to volunteer for that duty it would be great.

Last month we had a 5 MINI's that went to lunch at Roscoe Village. That worked well, any more than that running in a line & it is more like a train not MINI's. Having the FRS radios made keeping in touch with each other a breeze & I think it took the fear of getting lost or left behind away. I did not do routes this time & just kind of winged it for a very nice backroad drive.

I do not want to limit on how many can come along. We just need to find a good way to manage a large group of MINI's.

Riverrun has run for something like 15 years & has never needed to do anything like leaders & sweepers. Last year we had almost 100 cars of various types that were able to read & follow a route while having a wonderful time. No huge lines of cars, just folks running with a few friends on some nice roads.

Any other ideas?

 

We just need to keep our groups small like we do -- and leave 10 ft/10mph between cars. By the way, I was at the head of my driver's ed class back in -- a long time ago. BUT... I remember the rule.

 

Chuck we always self select for the mountain bike duties. It always works out that the "silverbacks" of the group take the lead as we know the trails and know how to fix common problems. The most important thing is for people to be comfortable with the pace. There is nothing worse than a person driving beyond their comfort level. The other thing with mountain biking is there are far fewer intersections so it is easier for the group leaders to stop at the intersections without slowing the whole process down. When we drive to rides in a group the rule is you do not turn off a road unless you see the car behind you.

 

I agree that it is no fun going faster than one wishes to. It is also no fun to drive slower than one feels comfortable doing. Somewhat of a conflict there I guess. Every person is the captain of their own ship, or MINI & decides what pace is right for them. If the pace is too fast pick up that FRS radio & say so. Or better yet just go at a pace that is good for them.

A couple of years ago I laid out a tour in SE OH for some Miata folks. Let me tell you they were really going faster than what I felt was safe & prudent. I pulled over & let them go. They had fun & so did I at a more relaxed pace. Bet I saw more scenery than they did.

Good point Carol. In these modern times I think they may teach to stay back 3 seconds. Which ever yard stick one uses leaving room between cars is very important.

Allen another good point on not taking off down the road until the last car has been seen doing the turn.