I know what an MC is but what is an RC?

Riding Club

I belong to a MC here in Baltimore. The reason I joined is that before I was riding with a club, I was riding with random idiots. I am 40 and married with kids. A lot of the guys I used to ride with weren't even licensed to drive a motorcycle and their idea of riding was dipping in and out of traffic and doing 150 on the highway. I researched the local clubs and ended up joining up with my club. We are a club that rides. There is no real prospecting in my club. You are on a 90 day probation. During that time you have to make those three monthly meetings. After that period you are patched in and to remain a member you just have to pay your dues and make at least one ride a month. Our rides are usually every Saturday during ridin season. We also are active in our community. We do a Christmas in July at a children's hospital, back to school drive,and several other activities around Baltimore. We hang out when it's not riding season also. We celebrate each other's birthdays, go bowling, go carting , all kinds of stuff. When my club president got married we were all there. So we are sort of like an extended family. We've been hanging out this whole winter. Saturday May 3rd we're having a bike maintenance day to get everybody's bikes ready for the riding season. Just a bunch of men and women that love to ride and hang out and have fun.

Balt what is the name of your MC!

I'll give you a taste of a club. I'm not going to mention the club, but you've probably heard of them. And no, not the HA's. I was hanging around with some guy who was dating a neighbor down the street. Maybe a year out of high school, yeah, I have a japanese bike, my buddy has a BSA. He says he's going to a biker meeting where a club is starting up. I'm trying to remember about 12 or 20 guys show up?

We are in this backyard, an above ground pool, there are girls in the pool and this one guy comes out naked from the pool. I'll never forget that. We circled around him, he starts talking right then and there. It's hot, he's holding a big plastic cup of beer. He's sounding off of who can join and who can't, (think racist pig) and even worse than that, was when he said, 'no jap bikes.' So you wanna join 'come back with a harley or brit bike.'

He now takes a big hogger from his lungs and spits in the beer, hands it the next guy and he coughs up a hanger. This cup is going around and everyone is gobbing up something to spit in the beer. It comes back to the leader of the show, he takes a drink and then passes around until we all drank from it.

Moral of the story? In that era, I had a 2-stroke that was beating the harley and brit bikes. Why would I want to slow down, let alone afford one. I also noticed there was not going to be that much wrenching in a club type atmosphere so I became a bike mechanic and became a one man clubeerhubeer on my own.

Wanna sip of my beer?

Baltimorebully +1. My club is just like yours except our prospect period is a year. However we have a xmas toy drive every year.. we feed the homeless. Open our clubhouse up to the neighborhood and even have a block party of the neighborhood. When i got married my members were there as when other members get married. We ride too. Last year my club rode from philly to san diego. My club has done philly to texas. Etc. We ride. No bullshit is aloud. Period. We are a big family. When a members house burnt down we as a club had numerous fund raisers to help his family out. We had 2 members in 15 years die on motorcycle. Every year we have a fund raise to raise money to help there families. We dont do 1% anything. Again we are a close tight family of guys who ride because we love to ride.

Now those two MC's are for grown ups and I can dig that, thats the way it's supposed to be and that's why you join a club.

The name of my club is Shiftn Steel. Here's our club web site http://www.shiftnsteelsportriderz.com/ . We do an annual ride to Niagra Falls. And this year we are planning our first ever ride to Las Vegas. There are a few different chapters if you look on the website. I belong to the Baltimore chapter of course. @Nitti, I have been to a Philly Extreme event before in Philadelphia. Nothing but nice things to say about your guys. My club usually tries to come out and support other clubs events. Our ride schedule is posted on the website and all are welcome to join our rides. We ride in formation and nobody gets left behind. Top speed never passes 80mph. Now aggressive rides are usually a smaller crew through the twisties and the speeds can be a different story, lol. It's all about having fun and riding with a good group of guys and girls.

Baltimorebully I have heard of your club and I appreciate what you said about my club. Would like to meet up sometime and ride.

Cool Bully. Good to see s sportbike club that big and organized

Some of the characters I ride with are a bit hard to tolerate at times

But you get that many guys together, conflicting personalities are going to surface.

Its a lessen in self control and maturity at times with a few of these guys.

Anyone ride with s "control freak" that thinks he runs the show?

"Anyone ride with s "control freak" that thinks he runs the show?"...yep...twice actually....never again.He thought lofting the frontend was too crazy....oh well....live and learn.As the song says..."I drink alone"...."I ride alone"...unless there's a Busa guy wants to roll....no other 14's around here.Funny thing is...that Busa guy...pulled his helmet off at a break in the action...bro was at least in his 60's....had to smile...he said...'yer having too much fun'...in a good way that is...big thumbs up to him....never saw him again...but he stayed right with me;)Had to wait for his wife to catch up...she was totally into it as well...a Triumph or something.Just couldn't hang all the way...but loving her ride nontheless;)

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 4/11/2014 @ 11:22 AM *

i would never want to be a part of a club, i love the independent bike scene here where i live. I ride to be free not have more rules i have to follow. Another cool thing about here is during bike night several sport bike clubs show up and everyone is cool with each other. we all ride together. it dont matter as long as u are on 2 wheels come ride, cruiser or sport!! but if i ever did join a bike group it would be the sport bike group not a harley group. Im not into the whole wearing leather chaps lol and sitting at a parking lot and never riding. if u ride one 2's and arent an idiot we got your back

i take that back, i like what BaltimoreBully said about his club. Something like that i could join, its almost like what we have here, as long as u are not an idiot or drinking ill ride with anyone

I've always had it in the back of my mind to hook up with a bunch of POLICE sportbike enthusiasts. If there would be some club rules to follow, I'd be happy to comply knowing that I was safe to break the speed laws.

....by at least 100 mph!

Tried to get one to run with me....nope...he wasn't havin it;)