Amateur Radio Station G4UVB also runs a successful Motorcycling Ride-out Website for bikers in North West England ..... www.ride-out.com
Ride-out - Where
motorcycle enthusiasts meet to arrange their ride-outs. Designed in 2001 to
initially cater for the needs of North West England’s Bikers, the Website has
inevitably grown in all directions.
The purpose of the site, unlike most general biker sites, is to specifically
arrange ride-outs with like minded people. The Ride-outs are always fun and well
organised. There are
NO CHARGES
to take part and website membership is totally
FREE,
and what’s more, you’ll soon be making new friends.
Ride-out has over 600 members and its membership list continues to grow. Our
members are encouraged to take part as riders or organisers and belong to a
website that is very quickly becoming a motorcycling community and for some, a
way of life. Our ride-outs get bigger and braver each year. For example, a mere
scouting mission sent to the climbs of Southern Ireland has resulted in a yearly
ride to the Emerald Isle on the back of cheap ferry fares designed for the NW
200 Race Meet. Trips into Europe each year are becoming the norm, together with
weekends in Scotland and Wales. But let’s not get too carried away here. The
main business of Ride-out is to get mutually minded bikers out on their bikes.
Ride-outs predominantly start in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cheshire and
end up in Derbyshire, Wales, Cumbria, Yorkshire, Northumberland, Durham and
Scotland.
Our rides are thereabouts every Sunday during spring, summer and autumn and during the ‘season’ Saturday and mid-week too. Rides are arranged by the members for the members and generally led by Ride-out Leaders (our more experienced or trained riders, or those who have demonstrated their ability to lead in the past). There are also rides that are family friendly! Yes, we do Pillion Rides, were riders are encouraged to bring their spouse or child as pillion. Understandably we tame these rides in terms of distance and style of riding.
How Ride-out varies from many of the rufty-tufty biker Websites out there is that we try to keep the language down, avoid over use of adult rated material and welcome family members of all ages. We adopt the policy of “would you let your child look at that”? We do have children as members and they actively participate – perhaps they will be the bikers of the future! For the times when things go wrong and tempers fray, Ride-out has a dedicated team of Moderators who step in to diffuse any unnecessary ‘hot air’. Yes we all have arguments from time to time, but generally ‘group hug’ afterwards!
Unlike other biker
sites, Ride-out.com also does not condone the boy racer image of wheelie
popping, knee down and stoppie is a must on the public highway sort of riding!
We advocate sensible ‘there is a time and a place’ riding. We welcome all styles
of motorcycles and believe in riding our machines to the best of our ability. We
even have as a member an IAM Examiner / Police Class One Rider who can provide
advanced training at a modest fee. Your riding and life chances will improve
through training. For those times when the worse comes to the worst though, we
have an arrangement with the Lancashire Ambulance Service for the provision of
biker first aid training –
First Bike on Scene
Course.
Ride-out also has several additional features. You can get a free e-mail address
and your own personal private mailbox. This can be accessed via you Web Browser
or from Outlook. Private Messages can also be sent to other members. You get
your own member profile where you can add your own information. Other members
can then look at this to see who you are and what you’re about. The Site also
has a Photo Archive picturing almost every ride we have ever done, all viewable
in a user friendly format and can even be displayed as a slideshow whilst
online.
You might be wondering about how can all of this be free? Simple really, all initial setup costs and running costs are met by the webmaster and donations or sponsorship is received on an annual basis from those members who feel they have received value from the site, or are able to contribute financially to the running costs of the site. There is no onus on any member to make a contribution and any monies gratefully received are made at the discretion of individual members. At the time of writing, the website has spent out about £1,000 since its creation and received about £600 in income. It is anticipated that over the next year or so the Site will break even [the Webmaster lets out a sigh of relief]
Ride-out has evolved over the last five years into a great place to be and the best thing about ride-out has to be the ride-outs! To register for an account click on the Register link, then click on Topics or Today. I guarantee you’ll enjoy the experience ………….. and hope to see you soon on a Ride-out.