Polar Bear Motorcycles: Princess Treatment and Newbie Perspective

Howell, NJ Bears, from left: Princess, Captain, Mac, Paul, Pogy, Token2, posing in front of Paul's Yamaha SR400.

Motorcycle Polar Bear Blog, ride to The Cabin, Howell (or Freehold), NJ, December 13, 2015.

Editor's note by Chris Loynd: The Maritime Aquarium holiday festivities kept me from a warm and maybe too "hot," ride on Sunday. (We had the 60-piece Westport Community Band playing inside the Aquarium this day. What was I thinking?) In this unique blog post we have an accounting by Token-squared and also hear from new rider Paul Bruneau. I must say I am a bit ashamed. I encouraged my motorcycle student to ride with us, but he chose a ride when I couldn't be there to mollify our crew. Apparently Captain was leading and riding by the pirate code: "Them that falls behind is left behind." Thankfully Paul survived. Hopefully on his next ride we can have someone up front willing to hold the horses just a bit. And don't worry about time to kick over that thumper, because you can start any motorcycle in the time it takes me to put on my gloves and arrange my kit. I thoroughly enjoyed the view of our crew in Paul's lens. It all makes for interesting reading. Enjoy!

The Princess Treatment

By: Token2

At 8.30am my call went out to The Captain. I had decided to abandon the old CTPB etiquette in favor of the more recent Princess Rules of Engagement. The call took the form of a complaint.

“Why hadn’t you called to confirm the time of my pick up?” I asked.

“Be there at 9.35, the Princess will be at the bus-stop as well,” came the retort.

“Would you like me to lead?”

“No, I will”

“Sweep?”

“No, Pogy has bagged that spot.”

"OK, see you at the bus-stop.” I didn’t.

A relaxing day in the cradle was upended by the three lane closure of I-684 South due to an accident, forcing me on a lengthy detour. My arrival at the bus-stop at 9.38am turned out to be a lonely affair, for the first time in 8 years I had missed the rolling pick-up. As we all know, the CT Bears wait for no man (or women, even a Princess)…I had now experienced the full Princess treatment. It sucks.

I could not have missed them by much …but it took until exit 11 on the NJ Turnpike to catch up. Captain was applying some mustard on the ride south. As I hooked up at the rear I was surprised to find a new guy at tail gunner, with Pogy one bike up. Hmmm….. Immediately upon catching them Captain signaled he was pulling off at the services just before the GSP exit. I thought he wanted to find out the reason for my tardiness. I was wrong, he needed a pee.

So it was that the group was introduced to Paul, the new guy, at the Thomas Edison Services. A recent convert to motorcycling, Paul passed the CT MSF course in September having been trained by a certain Mr. Christopher Loynd assisted by one Pogy Pogany. Obviously, Paul had a natural talent for two wheels as we all agreed (with the exception of Pogy) that his MSF instructors were really not that good. Paul rides a 2015 Yamaha SR400, which is a very smart choice of bike for entering the sport. However, a 400cc thumper gets a little breathless on take-off and inclines compared to the other bikes in the group and Pogy and Paul had agreed that he would ride at the rear on this occasion. This would allow Paul to get a sense of the pace of things, observe the dynamics of group riding and to “ride his ride” if necessary in order to be comfortable. For sure his headlight faded into the distance a few times, but he always caught up. It seemed to work well for all and Paul rode with a good head for a newbie with only about a 1,000 miles under his belt. Nice to have you along young man (Paul lowered the average age of the male riders by about 10 years) and we hope to see you again.

The southward journey continued at a good and very uniform clip. The day which had started in the low 50’s embraced the mid 60’s ahead of our arrival at The Cabin. Frankly it was too darned hot and we were all over dressed. It would hit the low 70’s on the way home, thank goodness the sun did not come out much!

Huge turnout, the place was packed. Jill, our delightfully mild mannered waitress, had to put up with the customary questions about ‘same day service’ when the food was a bit slow arriving. No names of the guilty will be mentioned. Jill was advised that there was such a thing as justifiable homicide and several of us would have backed her story. Of course all good natured banter, wasn’t it Captain and Pogy? Darn it, I mentioned names…oops.

Mac consumed his usual gold plated hot dog for $15 without complaint, well, perhaps just a little grunt. Captain and Pogy are on an identical anti-fat bastard diet and chose salads. The rest of us went for hi-cal sandwiches. The food was Cabin good.

The return north was uneventful and included a stop at the top. Joanna had brought some goodies from ‘Kiss my Cake’. Evidently, as the picture discloses, “Kiss my Cake” cookies don’t travel well, or a Harley gives a very bumpy ride or Joanne licked the filling out before putting them back in the box. In any event they were delicious and enjoyed by all.

Pogy asked Paul what RPM his machine runs at when doing 70mph. Paul’s response “I have no idea because I never did under *0!” (There was an eight somewhere in his reply). Great answer! If the ride south had mustard then the ride north was Habanero hot.

A fun day out which at times felt like we were in the southern not the northern hemisphere given it is December.

A First-Time Ride with the Polar Bears of Connecticut (and Long Island)

By: Paul Bruneau

I believe to grow any skill you have to alternate periods of practicing what you know with occasions to push yourself to the next level. My first group ride today, a record-setting warm December 13th with the Connecticut riders of the Polar Bear Grand Tour, was definitely a chance to push myself.

I knew I was in for a challenge when Pogy, who met me at the Darien I-95 service center, gave me the quick course in group riding with the CT Polar Bears. After explaining the hand signals and some introductory group dynamics he said, "Just leave a couple of bike lengths ahead of you so that you have time to react to anything." My first thought was, "I don't think I can count 'one-motorcycle-one, one-motorcycle-two' in a couple bike lengths." Having been only recently indoctrinated by Connecticut's MSF program (with Pogy himself as one of my excellent instructors -- the other being Chris who couldn't ride today due to work), I knew I would suffer from a conflict or two in this group ride! But he also gave me the excellent advice (also provided in the MSF course) to "ride my own ride" if I felt uncomfortable at any point.

Moments later I had the chance to ride my own ride as Pogy gave me the "roll 'em out" signal and I proceeded to attempt to kick-start (it has no electric starter) my Yamaha SR400 several times with the key in the "off" position. FINE-C flies right out the window when the pressure is on. Pogy correctly rolled out himself rather than getting left behind by the sub-group consisting of The Captain, Mac and Joanna.

The Captain, being the caring and understanding leader that he is, must have given us (me) some pity because I was able to catch up to the group within a mile or so. Pogy signaled for me to take the spot ahead of him so he could be the sweeper or "tail gunner" as he told me the position is called. But between my 400cc single-cylinder engine, and my own reluctance to use the "1/8 second rule" to determine following distance, I wasn't able to keep a sufficiently tight formation to prevent car drivers from wanting to merge into our group. Pogy, bless him, rode up and signaled me to fill in the gap, but I just wasn't able to. He ended up moving up himself to let me figure things out in the new position of "backup sweeper" which was not a bad solution -- it allowed me to observe how the group worked and also slinky along at the rear to suit my engine and my own riding distance.

Pogy also let me know at the service center that the group rides at 70 to 72 MPH which I found to be a bit of an understatement, at least as far as my speedometer was concerned. There was a time when the speed got a lot more comfortable for me, and that's about when I noticed a police car riding alongside us, but I'm sure that was a coincidence.

On we rode as I picked up little ways to improve, even from the back of the pack. It was very clear that I have to work on closing that gap! As we headed south through New Jersey toward the destination of The Cabin in Howell, NJ, I saw another biker in my mirror. As a studious reader of the Polar Bear Blog, I thought the new rider might be Token2 and indeed it was, joining us just seconds before we exited the expressway.

Soon we turned into The Cabin, parked, and then Pogy introduced me to the riders of our group, who each warmly welcomed me. We made our way in with gifts for the children's hospital in our hands. Either Pogy or the Captain (I'll let them battle that one out) got us a nice 6-seat table and then they both started to torture our poor waitress who was dealing with probably more tables than any human could manage. She had her revenge, though, as five of us received our meals while Pogy could only look on, plateless, in stunned disbelief (which lasted for about 10 minutes). Token2 took pity on him by handing over his pickle, which I gather is some kind of Polar Bear inside joke.

Lunch gave me a chance to ask the group questions like, "when did you star riding?" which is a great icebreaker in a group of bikers, I think. Mac told me he got a Honda in 1960. I didn't have the heart to tell him that was the year I was born! The Captain shared that he started riding in 1997 and Token2 added, "And he actually learned to ride about 4 years ago!" Tough crowd!

I talked about picking up my gently used 2015 bike in Ohio and trailering it back to Connecticut. Pogy said he was really glad that Yamaha reintroduced this small bike to the U.S. market after having last sold it here some 30 years ago, and that it made a great first bike. In his next breath though, he said, "and as you have learned today, you have to get rid of it as soon as you can." I think he owns stock in Honda.

I didn't make the group have to wait for me as we left the restaurant, but a moment later at the fuel stop, the attendant fouled up my card swipe forcing everyone to wonder where the heck I was. Joanna later begged me to ride with the group again next week, because with me there, she was no longer the one who was causing delays, which shielded her from the Captain's stern eye. He runs a tight ship!

And on the way back north there was no mercy left as the Captain led a hasty retreat (and I do mean hasty)! A few minutes after they disappeared over the horizon, I spotted good ol' Token2 sitting at the off ramp leading to the traditional Dunkin' Donuts stop, waving me in. And I'm glad he did because he bought everyone hot chocolate and Joanna shared delicious, if slightly mushed, macaroons.

Again departing, the group decided to take the Merritt Parkway after the Tappan Zee, and I thought I would be able to enjoy a casual ride over the hills, through the curves and under the bridges of the Merritt. And indeed, after the gang disappeared in front of me, I was able to! But in all seriousness, it was a great day for a nice ride with new friends.