Central Arkansas Southern Cruisers
Chapter-135 Riding Rules

[ Last Update: Dec 12, 2007 ]

SCRC Biker Signals Pictoral
...Link to Southern Cruisers Riding Club National Website
`Note: Some Chapter-135 Signals differ slightly and some are Not shown in the Pictoral.`

PURPOSE: The purpose of riding in an organized group is to provide the additional safety that a well-organized group inherently generates. This comes from within the group and from the outside. When a group rides in an orderly fashion, people don’t get in each other’s way, and the organization of the formation itself discourages cars from attempting to cut in.

FORMATION RIDING: Will be in a standard State Patrol (staggered) formation. In staggered formation, the bikes form two columns, with the leader at the head of the left column, so he will be able to view all bikes in the formation in his/her rearview mirrors, and be able to see around vehicles the group approaches. The second bike will head the right column, and will ride approximately 3 second behind the leader (and in the opposite side of the lane). This '3 second' interval between staggered bikes can be measured by being able to see the FACE of the Rider in the lane opposite and in front of you IN THEIR MIRROR.. and they can see you in the same mirror.

RIDE LEADER: The Ride Leader must be aware of the length of the columns, and must gauge the passing of merges, highway entrances and exits, etc., to allow for maximum safety and keeping the group together. He must make sure that he leaves enough time/space for the formation to get into the appropriate lanes before exits, etc. All directions (signals) come from the Ride Leader. The Ride Leader makes all decisions regarding lane changes, stopping for breaks, and fuel, closing of gaps, turning off at exits, any concerns of what lies ahead, accepting or rejecting radioed messages or signals, etc, from other individuals, and so on. No individual will assert himself independently without direction from the Ride Leader to do so.

EXCEPTION: Any Rider may/should POINT (indicate) perceived Hazards or to call Attention to Themselves. See "Road/Formation Hazards" and "Attention" under 'Signals' below.

TAIL GUNNER: The Tail Gunner serves as the eyes of the Ride Leader. He watches the formation, and informs the Ride Leader of any potential problems within the group. He watches other vehicles, and informs the Ride Leader of hazardous conditions approaching from the rear, such as vehicles trying to cut into the formation and trucks passing with potentially dangerous wind blasts. He will watch for merging lanes, and will move into a merging lane (or stay in a merging lane just vacated by the group) in order to "close the door" on other vehicles that may otherwise find themselves trying to merge into the formation. At the Ride Leader’s request, the Tail Gunner changes lanes before the formation, to secure the lane so the formation can move into it.

NEW RIDERS: The position of new (sic - 'Newbies': inexperienced with GROUP riding, not necessarily inexperienced with riding bikes) riders within the group is significant. New riders should be positioned as close to the front as possible. While this is generally done by our club, there are exceptions to this as we very often run 'twisties' (road with lots of curves) and for 'Newbies', riding in the front portion of the group could be more difficult for them thereby causing 'separation' in the formation. For such 'runs', we generally place 'Newbies' just in front of the Tail Gunner so that they can run at a pace a bit more comfortable for them. If sufficient riders are in the formation, we may run Two Formations, each with it's designated Ride Leader and Tail Gunner, as needs dictate.

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HAND SIGNALS: Each rider (and passenger) should duplicate all hand signals given by the rider in front of him, so that the signals get passed all the way to the back of the formation for two reasons: (1) so that all following Riders are made aware, (2) to ACKNOWLEDGE that YOU are AWARE -- an acknowledgement the Ride Leader and Tail Gunner will attempt to monitor visually; otherwise, the formation could be at hazard from your 'in-attention'.

LANE CHANGES: Lane changes in our club is accomplished in the following manner: Ride Leader will use his/her bike's direction-signals to indicate, their intent to do a lane change, and ALL Riders are to repeat this electronic signal (as with ALL SIGNALS from the Ride Leader).
Two things CAN OCCUR at this point and depend upon several factors; (1) upon seeing the signal relayed by all Bikers in the formation, the Tail Gunner will check and secure the lane the formation is about move into, (2) if the formation is small AND traffic is 'light', the Ride Leader MAY NOT wait for the Tail Gunner to secure the lane, but may proceed to give the Hand Signal to initiate the lane change.
Regardless, at the discretion of the Ride Leader, the lane change is initiated BY THE RIDER LEADER ONLY WHEN HE/SHE GIVES A "HAND SIGNAL" and begins the move to the new lane. The lane change is thereby accomplished by movement of the formation from Front-to-Back while keeping the formation rider intervals. This is generally the way our club changes lanes. Only when we have a 'large formation' and are traveling in traffic would it be necessary to change lanes from Back-to-Front (Rear Fill-in Method) when the Tail Gunner moves into the lane and the formation then moves into the 'held lane' from Back-To-Front. A somewhat more complicated maneuver but may be necessary for large formations in restricted traffic conditions.

EMERGENCIES: In the unlikely event of an emergency condition, the Ride Leader will make every attempt to move the formation to the shoulder in an orderly manner. If a bike breaks down, let the Rider move to the right and pull over when it is SAFE to do so.
Other Riders in the formation DO NOT STOP. The Tail Gunner will stop with the problem bike. The Ride Leader will lead the group to a SAFE stopping place to await the Tail Gunner and the troubled bike.

-- TO INDICATE AN EMERGENCY or the NECESSITY TO PULL OVER: A Rider wishing the FORMATION to pull over for some reason indicates this by (1)ATTENTION Signal (2)DIRECTION Signal and/or (3)POINT to side-of-road . If it is NOT AN EMERGENCY, DO NOT SLOW DOWN IN THE FORMATION, but continue with the formation - the Ride Leader will RAISE HIS/HER HAND to acknowledge your request to PULL OVER...then will find the nearest SAFE place for the formation to pull over.
If Pull Over is necessitated by an EMERGENCY, then execute ATTENTION & DIRECTION SIGNAL, SLOW DOWN and carefully move to the right side of the formation and pull off the road when it is safe to do so.

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SCRC-135 SIGNALS: [ Last Update: Dec 02, 2005 ]

RIGHT TURN: Left arm upright, bent at the elbow, with the fist close and the thumb out (pointing right).

LEFT TURN: Left arm lowered and out-thrust from the body with TWO OR MORE FINGERS POINTED OUTWARD. Note: one finger (of either hand) is used to point to road hazards (or to flip off the person making all these rules - LOL) as noted below.

SINGLE-UP FORMATION: When conditions warrant single file (narrow road, anticipated wind-blast from trucks, obstruction, pedestrians, etc.) the Ride Leader will raise his left hand straight up, holding up just his index finger. All other riders will repeat this, and the two columns will merge into one - all the while remaining at 3-second intervals.

STAGGERED FORMATION: Like the "Single-Up" signal that's given by raising the index finger, to resume the staggered formation, the Ride Leader will RAISE TWO-FINGERS in a "V" shape to indicate a change from Single Formation to Staggered Formation - maintaining the 3-second intervals.

LOOSEN-UP FORMATION: This signal may be given during 'Single-Up' or 'Staggered' formation - the Ride Leader will raise his left hand with thumb and pinky out, other fingers closed, rotating his wrist back and forth to indicate the formation need to put more 'spacing' between riders.

TIGHTEN FORMATION: When the Ride Leader feels that the formation should be tighter (bikes closer together), he raises his left hand with fingers spread wide and repeatedly closes them into a fist. All other riders repeat this and close up all unnecessary space in the formation.

SLOW-DOWN/PREPARE-TO-STOP: Right hand and palm thrust outward and down from the body with the right palm facing the riders behind.

SLOW-DOWN/EASE-OFF: Right hand thrust outward from the body and using an up-and-down movement of the arm & with the palm parallel to the pavement.

ATTENTION: Left (or Right) hand 'patting' the top of the rider's head (or helmet). If no other Hand Signal then this means (Bear Sign). Point at mouth means (Hungry). Point at gas tank means (Need Gas Stop). Point at 'self' means (Need to Stop).

MOVE INTO LANE - aka: Lane Change: When merging onto Interstates or ANY MUTLI-LANE road, the Ride Leader will indicate the Lane the formation is to move into by POINTING at the Lane. Be aware that it is sometimes necessary to move into the first available lane AND THEN move into the NEXT LANE; so TWO SIGNALS will occur one-after-the-other (1) Point to 1st lane, and when the formation is assembled, immediately give (2) LEFT-TURN (see above) signal to indicate a LANE CHANGE.

SPEED UP:Formation is to increase speed - for various reasons, such as 'PREPARE TO PASS', or 'MOVE INTO LANE', or for any other reason determined by the Ride Leader as necessary. The Ride Leader will indicate this by raising his/her left arm move their index finger in a CIRCULAR MOTION.

PASS SIGNAL:Left arm upright, bent at elbow, and INDEX-FINGER used to make CIRCLE MOTION to INDICATE formation is to SPEED UP -- then Hand & Finger is POINTED AHEAD to indicate formation is to Pass. This combination of signals is most often preceded by the Ride Leader turning on his signal (such as done on a Lane Change) to indicate to the formation to PREPARE FOR A LANE CHANGE - SIC PASSING.

ROAD HAZARD: This signal can be initiated by ANYONE. Anyone seeing a hazardous condition on the road surface (roadkill, oil, gravel, significant pot hole, etc.) will POINT at it using the INDEX FINGER. -- AND if this in not practical, use a FOOT removed from the bike's peg or floorboard to point at the hazard. Those behind you can use EITHER the finger or foot to pass on the hazard signal. It's VERY IMPORTANT that this signal be passed BY ALL RIDERS in the formation... or you'll likely be hearing from the TailGunner who hits that dead skunk !!

FORMATION HAZARD: ALSO can be initiated by ANYONE - by a Rider POINTING at a perceived hazard - such as: intersecting vehicle (a vehicle coming in from a side road that MAY pose a danger or hazard to the ride formation). SUCH SIGNALS are more often initiated by the Ride Leader as he/she will more often take advance notice of such possible hazards to the formation.
IT'S PURPOSE IS TO MAKE THE FORMATION "AWARE" of possible hazards... and ANYONE can so indicate or POINT to such a perceived possible hazard. It may be a kid on a 4-wheeler running along side the road who doesn't seem to notice the approaching formation of Riders; it may be a dog running out from a farm house to bark at the bikes passing; it may be children playing too close to the road.

It can not be stressed enought how IMPORTANT it is for all Riders in a formation to PASS THE SIGNALS ON to the Rider beside and behind You. Passing the Signal not only makes other Riders AWARE -- it also ACKNOWLEDGES that YOU ARE AWARE.

SCRC-135 SPECIAL SIGNALS:

LIMITED PASS SIGNAL (aka 'THE WEAVE'): Under special limited circumstances, it may be determined to be necessary that instead of the entire formation passing at one time, for only a few Riders are to PASS at one time. This is often due to some two-lane roads being curvy and offering very limited passing distance.
Under such circumstances, the Rider Leader will indicate 'THE WEAVE' is to be executed by: Left Arm Upright, bent at elbow, and 4 FINGERS SPREAD (like a comb), THEN, at the Ride Leaders discretion, he/she will then execute the PASS SIGNAL but only the first 3-4 bikes in the formation should attempt to pass.
-- NEXT 3-4 Biker are to Pass: will be indicated by the Rider Leader by he/she moving into the passing lane to indicate it is SAFE for the next group to pass. The Ride Leader will STAY IN THE PASS LANE as long as it is SAFE for groups of 3-4 Bikes in the formation to pass. When the Ride Leader moves BACK into the travel lane, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PASS. The Ride Leader often can see and assess conditions and traffic ahead of the trailing formation - so be safe and pass ONLY when he/she so indicates it is safe to do so.
(This Signal is Rarely used - and almost exclusively used only when very experienced Riders make up the formation)

Be Aware - Take Notice - Pass the Signals - and NEVER attempt anything out of your comfort zone!.

...Never Ride Faster Than Your Angel Can Fly...