Polar Bear Motorcycles: A Loooong Ride Strains Discipline

Connecticut Polar Bear Riders in Lewes, from left: CT Blogger, Captain, Jorge, Mac, Grumpy and Pogy down front.

Polar Bear Motorcycle Blog, Polar Bear Grand Tour, ride to Irish Eyes Pub, Lewes, Del., November 4, 2018

By: Chris Loynd, a.k.a. CT Blogger
Photos by: John Bowlan, a.k.a. Grumpy (and a couple by Chris)

Ten hours in a saddle can try anyone's nerves. It's especially hard to retain your composure when the ride back is longer than the ride down. It's even worse when these 10 hours are not spent on scenic backroads or cruising across the great plains of South Dakota. No, not us. We were pounding up and down the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway around New York City. Winter riding is a bit more demanding too. Instead of tooling along in a light jacket and jeans, you're layered up in enough full riding gear to stay warm.

Me, I cheated. I didn't have it as bad as my compatriots, freely admitted. I spent Saturday night with my folks, north of Wilmington, Del. That meant my Sunday morning ride was just two-and-a-half hours, compared to the Connecticut departees' four-and-a-half ride down to Lewes. To top things off, they got off late.

I rode to Lewes Sunday morning, then waited an hour to meet up with Grumpy, Captain, Mac, Pogy and a new Polar Bear Jorge. Jorge is a friend of the Fonz. As he did last week, Fonz left early with Trike Mike and Anonymous Ed. We met up with them, briefly when they signed-in and headed home. The rest of us ate a nice lunch at Irish Eyes Pub before heading back. There was some speculation Irish Eyes had raised prices over the summer. I paid $15 for a grilled cheese and cup of tomato soup.

Fortunately, the weather was good. Like last week there was a stormy Saturday and beautiful Sunday. It was cool enough for the winter gear but not so cold that you're fighting to stay warm. My electric clothes were turned off most of the day. As the day got later and darker, I did dial them up a bit. In fact, toward the end of our ride I bolloxed our symmetry by forgetting to connect my riding suit to the bike. As we departed from the stop at the top (Montvale Services on the Garden State) I dove out of formation at the last possible minute. Our sweep blew right by, clueless, but in his defense I did make a quick move when the other riders were focused on speeding up for the merge into traffic. Thanks to a long traffic jam of stop-and-go traffic leading up to the Tappan Zee, now Cuomo Bridge, I easily caught back up with the group. But we were frazzled by then anyway.

Delaware was good to us. There was not much traffic, even some scenery as we motored through the downstate flat expanses of drying brown soybeans and bright green winter wheat. It didn't last, though. All too soon we were over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and working through traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Still, we can do better; we have done better. Maybe it's early in the season and we're rusty at group riding. Maybe it was too many miles and our nerves were fraying. Grumpy was lead with Captain as his wingman. I was third in line. Behind me, sometimes right next to me, Jorge was on his first Polar Bear ride. Mac was behind Jorge and Pogy was sweep. Six bikes are a manageable number in most any traffic, if we ride it right.

Jorge was rubber banding a bit, and we'll work with him if he stays with us. Mac rubber bands quite a bit, always has, and seems unwilling or unable to keep tight. That's tough on the sweep who can be too far back to easily clear for lane changes. If the bikes are spaced too far apart, there's always a cager who will try to butt in. It can make communication between the lead and sweep difficult.

Grumpy got impatient. I know it's hard. I've led my share of rides. You signal the lane change then wait for the sweep. It can help if you anticipate when the sweep can cross over and secure the lane. But to keep cars out of the formation, you have to wait. Grumpy would signal, get too tight on the car or truck in front of him, and move over, whether or not Pogy had cleared the lane. Pogy would make a space in traffic, but then we had a car jammed up in our formation because Grumpy already moved.

We've seen this before. But over six hours it gets more and more frustrating. Then it go worse.

On the Garden State Parkway, in the infamous Oranges, there was an accident. Arrrg!

Captain got really impatient in the resulting stop and go. He kept running ahead of Grumpy, taking over the lead, as if there was someplace to go. At one point I thought maybe he was getting bored and playing a game to see how close he could get to the white van in front of him without actually touching it.

I just paddled along, feet up, feet down, clutch in, clutch out, walking more than riding, trying to keep my place in formation, sometimes behind Captain, sometimes behind Grumpy, sometimes Jorge way behind me, sometimes Jorge beside me, sometimes Jorge ahead of me.

Things settled after we cleared the accident. But with the hour growing ever later, we stopped for gas and a quick pit stop at the top of the Garden State. Nobody wanted to take time for a coffee. We were all just anxious to get home. Unfortunately, the big flashing sign over the Parkway predicted 56 minutes to the Cuomo Bridge.

Bad behavior continued in the pre-bridge traffic jam. Then two ambulances began working their way through traffic in the far left lane where we were riding. Pogy and Mac moved over right away. The rest of us got over quickly too, leaving cars between us. Getting our lane back behind the ambulances was impossible. Aggressive car drivers were diving over, trying to follow the ambulances to get ahead of everyone else. The upshot was we never saw Pogy and Mac again. I trust they made it home okay.

We probably could have waited for them to catch up by taking the second lane on the bridge or later on I-287. But patience was in very short supply. As soon as traffic opened, throttles did the same.

Grumpy and Jorge split off to take the Merritt home. Captain and I headed to I-95. We were lucky in that. Uncharacteristically, I-95 traffic was better than usual. Captain had the smell of the barn in his nostrils and ran for home. I did my best to keep up.

We can ride better. We have ridden better. It's up to each individual to decide. But maybe we should have a group discussion about group riding at our next group Polar Bear lunch.