Tag: motorcycle

Q: I recently ran into a horde of motorcyclists, and by horde I’m talking 50-60. At cross streets, one motorcycle would block the intersection and the rest would drive through. Red lights were ignored. What’s the police ruling on this?

A: I wonder, do groups of motorcyclists like being referred to as a horde? (The one sure exception being a motorcycle club called “The Horde.”) In one sense, it’s the right word – the dictionary definition includes a large group, a nomadic group, and a moving pack of animals (assuming we include humans as animals.) However, “horde” has a sense of chaos attached to it, as in a horde of stampeding bulls or a horde of attacking zombies. Group motorcycles rides, when done properly, work hard to avoid chaos.

In case you’ve just emerged from a month-long meditation retreat in a mine shaft or returned from research at the south pole, let me be the first to tell you, the weather everyone moves here for has arrived. And what goes hand-in-hand with good weather in Whatcom County? Motorcycles. My personal motorcycle riding experience is (extremely) limited, but in a few short rides it was abundantly clear that riding a motorcycle transcends the usual transportation goal of getting to your destination and is an experience unto itself. But riding a motorcycle also carries a comparatively high risk and, unfortunately, this has been a difficult beginning to summer for the motorcycling community in our county.