Oct. 26, 2025
Exploring Motorcycle Events: From Racing to Group Rides
In this episode of the Throttle and Roast podcast, host Niels Meersschaert discusses the vibrant world of motorcycle events. He emphasizes how these events transform riding from a solitary activity to a communal experience filled with stories and shared memories. Niels breaks down various types of events, including competitive and performance races like MotoGP and the Isle of Man TT, highlighting their excitement and challenges. He also explores off-road events such as Enduro and the Erzberg Rodeo, showcasing opportunities for riders of all skill levels to participate. Listeners are encouraged to engage in these thrilling activities, whether by spectating or racing themselves.
Finding motorcycle events
- US Based
- Europe based
- Distinguished Gentleman's Ride
Planning your own event
How to Organize a Successful Charity Motorcycle Poker Run or Event
Motorcycle Club Event Ideas: 10 Exciting Ways to Wow
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00:00 - Introduction
00:41 - Competitive and Performance events
09:06 - Group rides
15:45 - Gatherings
22:10 - Wrap up
WEBVTT
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People make events into stories, but stories give events meaning.
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Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. Many motorcyclists think of riding as a solitary activity, but there's a huge range of events that you can both spectate and participate in, ranging from competitive and performance events, to group rides, and to various gatherings. I'll cover a few examples of each of these along with some tips on how to find them and even organize them yourself.
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So let's start with competitive and performance events. And this includes some categories like road racing on paved circuits, off-road racing on dirt tracks or trails, and many of these will be spectator events. So if you're a new rider or an aspiring rider, this might be a way to get a sense of what does riding actually look like.
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You can get a feel for it and obviously these competitors who are doing it at the top most tier of their riding capability, rather than just going out for a fun ride, but it is something to then understand the dynamics of a motorcycle and could be a fun activity, whether you're a brand new rider or you've been riding for a long time. And of course you can participate in some of these as More often on the off-road side, but we'll get into each of these. So let's start with racing. And racing has so many different categories that you think of in terms of ways in which people are competing. perhaps the most Premier version of motorcycle racing would be MotoGP. And this is a form of road racing. most of us are going to be spectators to this type of group of racing.
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MotoGP is kind of the top tier.
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World Superbike would be another example of a very top tier type of competitive event. And the riders are in here are going massive amount of speed. Their lean angles are 50, nearly 60 degrees. So I mean, just seeing it optically, seeing what it visually looks like is just really And the great thing about this is most of them are televised. So even if you're not local to the track where it's being run, you can still get a view and see what this competition looks like. another form and I'm going to to highlight a specific example of this, is where the racing may not be on a typical racetrack.
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This would be a track that's dedicated specifically for racing, but where they'll do racing in normal streets. And a great example of this, this runs every year, is the Isle of Man TT. This is running public streets, and often fairly narrow public streets, at extra legal speeds. Obviously, they've closed off the course but people will be lining the sides of it, just watching it, and the competitors are coming within inches of retaining walls. So, it's, it's just such a dynamic and visually exciting form of racing, but of course there's a lot of danger that comes from it.
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You don't have the normal runoff that you would have in a typical real racetrack, but amazing to think that many of these competitors are going over this course and the course for the Isle of Man TT is just under 40 miles or about 60 kilometers.
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And the riders are averaging about 130 miles an hour on that track. So, it's just insane the speeds that they're doing in such a tight environment. So, that's a bit of the, the versions of racing that are out there, and there's obviously some more, but I'm just trying to give a very high-level overview of some of these. The other ones that I would look at is more on the off-road end of the equation. And here, you'll see something like Enduro, and an Enduro is a form of off-road racing or riding where it tends to be more towards endurance over a longer and varied course.
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And typically, this is the one that's the most open to all types of riders. So, you, if you have a dirt bike, there's more opportunity for you to find an event that you could actually personally compete in, whereas you're unlikely to be getting into World Superbike or into MotoGP. So, this becomes a little bit more approachable.
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Many of the events are actually put on by local clubs, Some of them will be more of a rally, where you have to kind of follow a road sheet. Others will be a specifically outlined course that you're doing multiple laps on. There's a lot of variety into these. But in general, an Enduro will be out in more of the world of nature. Sometimes you hear this called woods riding. It's what some people even do just for fun, rather than even just competitive.
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They're just going to go riding through some trails in the woods.
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Now, in Austria, the Erzberg Rodeo is another great example of this type of an event. It's a broad event with many different classes that run, but it's been running for 30 years now. It's typically built into a quarry, so there's a huge uphill section, and you'll see some of the bikes.
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As they're trying to do that climb at high speed, we'll get a little too much torque, and the bike will endo backwards So, really interesting view to sort of see these competitions that are out there. Now, another one that you could think of for off-road would be motocross.
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Motocross is also off-road, although the difference, I'd say, versus enduro, is motocross tends to be in more of a closed course. Oftentimes, these are maybe a little bit more professional-targeted, so the competitors will be sometimes even paid professionals as opposed to just going out and having fun. And these are often run in a tighter course where spectators, of course, can watch the whole event and see the entire course. So they're doing multiple lapses, really, where the difference comes in. Here in the US, many of these races are actually run in an arena, in an indoor arena, the same sort of place where you might see basketball or hockey games played, It can be a lot of fun to watch, and there's a lot of people who still participate and run these on their own, but there is, I'd say, more options for having professional riders in this, whereas enduro seems to me a much broader spectrum of just anybody can get in and have fun. Now, another form, and this usually requires a much more specialized type of motorcycle, is trials riding. This is an event where riders attempt to navigate through obstacles on their motorcycles without putting their feet down. you look at the bike visually, it looks very, very different than a traditional motorcycle. It's a really low-cut-out, seems like there's no seat in a sense, because you're really not ever meant to sit down. You're always standing on this, and then some people, what they'll do is they'll kind of hop from one thing onto another. So it's a lot of insane amounts of balance, but also being able to have enough of a blip of a throttle to kind of jump from one location to another. Tremendous amount of talent that's involved in the people who are participating in that. So that's a couple of the sort of competitive racing type of events. I want to talk a little bit about some of the, what I'll call more like performance events. So this is less of a competition these are kind of an interesting performance that someone is doing. But a great example of this would be stunt riding. And these are going to be part of a larger rally or event in a lot of cases. My local BMW dealer, for example, often hosts one of the BMW stunt riders performing, you know, various wheelies, stoppies, skids and more. And they'll this from ranging from like the little 390 bikes all the way up to like the K16 or even the R18 and watching someone try to do a wheelie on either of those two bikes is really impressive because they are very big and heavy bikes. But most of the stunts I'd say that you'd see in this are usually typically done, at least for the BMWs on like an S 1000 a double R. This will be one of the sport bikes and that's really where a lot of these type of events will be for that stunt type riding. Now another one that you'll see is sometimes called a motorcycle rodeo or a gymkhana and these sort of timed events really are about seeing the rider's skill in a controlled environment. A great example of this would be for motorcycle police officers, where they're doing very tight maneuvering in these sort of cones and they'll oftentimes having to be going full lock to lock. And they might be doing a full circle inside of a feet in terms of their turning circle.
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So very, very, very tight. I'd like to show you that this is really quite a bit of fun. It's really interesting to see that this is a lot of competition in terms of how fast you're able to complete the course. Did you do it correctly? And did you do any sort of foot down or hitting the cone, etcetera? So really interesting to see some of these performance events that are out there as well.
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first group of these sort racing or performance events I'd say leans more in general towards the almost spectator type of the event where a lot of the people who are there are watching the event rather than participating in the event. Now what you can do is you can organize a quick ride with your buddies, but there are some larger events that are put on by some clubs that are open both to their own members and to the general public to participate in.
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And these can be a fun activity, especially if maybe early in your riding career. You don't have a lot of riding buddies.
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This is a way to kind of meet some other people, maybe develop some friendships. A lot of friends that you develop over the years in riding are coming from these type of group rides.
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And there's a lot of sort of I'll say formats that these occur in. So I'll cover a few of the high levels on these, but a basic one might be something like a poker run. What happens is riders travel to different checkpoints and at each checkpoint, they may draw a playing card And then at the end of event, the rider with the best hand or the best poker hand specifically wins. So a little bit of competition, a little bit of luck, but kind of makes it fun where you had to go out and see all of these different events to collect your cards. a very small variant of this. I'll say, which is the dice run very similar, but you'd roll dice at each checkpoint. And the goal is to get the highest total score.
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So it just adds a little bit of gamification into it. It makes it a little bit more interesting.
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Another variation of this sort of gamification that you might have on a group ride is like a picture or distance rally. So most famous of these is the Iron Butt Rally.
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And this is where riders aim to complete a thousand miles in 24 hours. If you just do some quick math in your head on that, you're going to see that's a huge amount of distance that you have to complete. You're mostly for these going to be riding on highways is typically what happens with them. And they'll do things like fuel receipts along with photos along the way so they can validate that you were actually at the spots and the distance that you've traveled actually makes sense.
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But a lot of people have been doing this. And if you really love long distance riding and you love riding on the highway, this is definitely something that a lot of people will participate in. Probably a little bit more manageable for most people if you don't have a literal iron butt would be some rallies, might have some competitions where they'll ask you to take pictures of your bike at various landmarks or scenic areas, and you get points for the number places that you've actually gone to and validated that your bike went there. they'll sum that all up and sort of see what your total is. And sometimes the points are if something's really far away, it'll be worth more points, but then of course you won't be able to hit as many places. So you you're going to try to balance what makes the most sense for you. There's usually a time limit. It'll start at some time in the morning and then in the afternoon. it can be a fun way to add in a little bit of competition into these. And of course not every group ride that's going to be organized has to have this competitive nature.
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Some of them are just a really good One of the clubs that's relatively local to me, they put on an annual fall ride and they basically, they call it the foliage ride and it's just taking you some beautiful roads in the local area and maybe 100, 150 miles for the day. and you can do where you're guided, someone will take you out and lead you. One of the club members will lead you in a group ride, or you can do it self-guided and they'll give you a GPS file. You can load that onto your local device and then be able to follow the route on your own and stop whenever you want, take any pictures, etc.
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But those kind of group rides can be fun. Of course, the full group ride where it's an escorted ride is variation, very popular with cruiser riders here in the US. any of these group rides can have a lot of interesting dynamics to them of whether it's self-run or where you're following along. Now another one of these type of group rides that you may encounter are charity rides. And these are oftentimes rides that are organized to raise money or collect items for a good cause.
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So a couple of good examples of those might be a memorial ride.
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This might be honoring a fallen rider, maybe left behind a family, and the family needs some support. So you're trying to provide some money to support them as they're now navigating the loss of their loved one.
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Other ones might be like a toy run. This happens quite often around the holidays. Collecting some toys for children and doing a ride to bring that together.
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There's also some ones that are more for a specific charity. One best ones to sort of think of that's available globally would be the Distinguished Gentleman's This is a worldwide charity that runs in May, typically, and it's there to support men's health.
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Originally started with prostate health, it's now also incorporating mental health and trying to just be there to support men as they are going through different challenges in their life. To be honest, a lot of motorcyclists, it does tend to be more male dominated. So it makes sense why there's a little bit of an overlap, but it does not mean that if you're a female rider that you could not participate. what's really neat about that specific event is aesthetic that they go So it was inspired in some ways by Don Draper and the Mad Men sort of TV series that was about, you know, advertising in the 60s.
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And that sort of aesthetic of people who are dressed up in a full suit. But the difference here is that the intention is for them to be riding on classicly styled motorcycles. So this might be an actual classic bike. So this might be an actual classic bike. I ran this for a number of years on my 1972 BMW R75. So it literally 50 some odd year old bike, or it may be more of a retro style. So some of the modern triumphs would fit into that vein. A lot of cruisers would fit into that vein. it's really meant to provide that aesthetic of here's a bunch of people who are riding around in a full suit. And you know, it could be a tweed suit, could be any sort of other suit. I've seen some people do it in a tuxedo. And just kind of a fun aesthetic to see these riders going around the local area of the course. And people are getting a view of motorcyclists aren't all these like evil, creating a little bit more of a respectable kind of view. And at the same time, raising money for charity.
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The next group that I want to talk about is- I'll kind of classify these as generically gatherings. and these would be things that might be like a motorcycle rally, for example, and this is a large gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts.
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Oftentimes, it can include camping or concerts or vendors and other sorts of activities.
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And this can be just- if you want to go to one location and have thousands of other motorcyclists go there, this could be a really interesting activity. And it's- unlike the ride, it tends to be more of you're going to a place and that becomes your base of operations.
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Many of them will have rides that leave from that location and do maybe a day ride or something like that, but it tends to be more of a gathering type of an event. And so a good example of this would be if you're in the US, you might see things like Daytona Bike Week, Sturgis motorcycle rally out AmeriCade up in the Northeast.
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And in Europe, you have the European Bike Wheels and Waves, the Elephant Tentriffen event in Germany. So there's a huge number of these rally events and this is just- that's just a couple of the big ones that are available around the world. Now, of course, if you're not going to go to a rally, maybe you want to go and see a bike show. You want to see what are all the new manufacturers coming out with.
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Well, here in the US, we've had fewer of these events than we once had in the past. There actually used to be a motorcycle show that ran in the Javits Center in New York City for many, many years. I used to go to it each year, it's no longer there.
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pretty much the one that's the major one today would be the AIM Expo, which is typically tends to be a little bit more in the west, but it is another major event. Of course, in Europe, actually in maybe about a month's time would be EICMA, which is the big European motorcycle show. This is probably the largest event I'd say that you can see globally for it. But oftentimes there'll be some local events that may be right by you. Maybe there's demo event at your local dealership.
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Maybe there is a show that's combined with a rally. Maybe like something that's focused on classic bikes as an example. So these sort of different events will be available to you to kind of see some bikes. Maybe there's some people doing a show of here's my old bike or here's something that I've customized.
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And of course, some really good examples of those would be, but I call more of like an informal ride in. Sometimes these are casual, spontaneous meetups for like-minded riders, often without any of the registration fees Or formal agendas that you might see in something like an EICMA or AIM Expo. So a good local example for me is something called Bikes and Breakfast. This is targeted towards classic bikes. So we'll have a gathering. Usually most of the bikes are very often in the 60s, 70s kind of era is the most common for them. But there are some older bikes. We have sometimes have some old Vincent's Black Shadows, some of the older Harleys and Indians, of course. And it's just a fun event to kind of go and admire a bunch of the classic bikes. you know, talk with some of fellow riders and maybe you develop some new friends. So it's a fun sort of event. So, we've touched on a huge number of types of events that are out there. And you might be wondering yourself is like, well, this is cool, I heard about all these, but where do I find them? Well, the great thing is that there are several websites that are out there that will have various broad lists of these type of events that are open to Facebook is actually a really good resource too. This will be a little bit more catered towards the smaller, local events that might be very local to where you live. and individual clubs will of course list some of the events that they are hosting on their own websites, but I'll share some of the major resources that are kind good bets to sort of find large events that are within your geography, as well as some of the smaller events, they will still submit their events into these larger publications. So you can get an awareness of them without having to find here's Joe's motorcycle club. So a good example in the US would be the AMA or the American motorcyclist association. They actually have an events page and you can see a huge number of events. Now the AMA of course sponsors a lot of race events. So a lot of those enduro type events may be AMA sanctioned events. So you'll have a lot of race events, but there's a lot of other types of events that are out there that you can see from AMA events.
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Another good resource here in the U S is cycle will list a huge number of whether they're rallies or rides, all sorts of different events that you can find around the entire country.
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And you can even narrow it down.
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So you can look for within your own state and find the events that are local to you. Now in Europe, I'd say a couple of good resources. I'd look at Bennett's.
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They have a motorcycle events calendar, which is really good for showing events that are out throughout all of Europe. And then even the biker guide, which is maybe a little bit more UK focused, but another great resource just to find all sorts of events that are out there that you can discover. Now you might be looking at these and saying like, well, but what if I don't like any of those other events? Well, of course you could create your own event ultimately the scope of that event and whether you just make it open to your friends, to your local club or to the public at large, will pretty much determine the amount of work necessary. Now covering all of that of how do you actually organizing an event would be enough for an episode or two or three, even on its own. But what I might suggest is looking at one of the earlier episodes that we did where we talked about how you'd plan a group ride. This is a good baseline, especially if it's a specific group ride that you were looking to organize.
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And there's a lot of tips that can help you as you're navigating what you want to do.
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I'll throw a link to that into the show notes, but also share a few links of other sites where they have some tips for how you may choose to organize an event.
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This will typically be good for like a club level type of event and what you may need to consider as you're thinking about making that happen, whether it's a combination of getting local permits or getting police escorts, whatever it ends up being, vendors, the whole thing. but I'll have a couple of links to those in the show notes.
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You can also even start to think about how you might organize your own events in a couple of websites that are out there. also even start to think about how you might organize your own events if you're so inclined. And I'll share some links in the show notes for those as well. So my question for you this week is what type of motorcycle events do you participate in or share your thoughts through the text, the show link in the show notes, or leave a voicemail at throttleandroast.com/voicemail.
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Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week.
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