South Bay Riders

South Bay Riders (SBR) is an organization of motorcyclists that share a common interest in motorcycle-related activities centered on the South San Francisco Bay Area (Silicon Valley). The group's core communication medium is a non-profit public forum that announces group rides and events and helps fellow riders and the motorcycling public at large. SBR spans a global reach of riders that "post up" activities and adventures related to riding in often distant parts of the world. The nature of the group is to connect motorcycle riders, young and old, local and far.
History
South Bay Riders (SBR) was founded in January 2002 with the creation of a motorcycle Internet forum which brought together a motorcyclist enthusiast group. As with most internet-connected groups, its membership is global in nature. Prior to 2002, there were few online motorcycle forums and they were mostly national. Subsequently, local forums catering to smaller regions like the San Francisco Bay Area took shape. South Bay Riders and Bay Area Riders Forum (BARF) were started around the same time.
Created primarily to allow local riders to meet and communicate with each other online and in person during group rides, the SBR forum has grown into an online community of ~6700 members. In addition to motorcycle-related news and information, general news and current events are posted and discussed. Epic ride stories throughout the world and locally are shared. Many enduring friendships and marriages have also been formed.
Online motorcycle forums and groups educate riders, new and veteran, on various aspects of riding skills and techniques, as well as the more mundane yet equally important things like motorcycle riding gear and maintenance and repair. All this nearly instantaneously available information, honed through actual experience, contributes to making motorcycle riding safer and more enjoyable for all riders.
A distinguishing characteristic of SBR is that its founder and many members are photography aficionados who enjoy capturing high quality digital pictures and videos of their rides and events and sharing them with the world.
Major features of the SBR web site include
* regional motorcycle dealer listings with member commentary and recommendation system.
* forums where buyers and sellers connect and local motorcycle dealers can advertise free of cost.
* Google Maps and SBR database mashups showing locations throughout California of places to ride including notable roads, OHV areas and race tracks.
* catalog of local weather reports and webcams for predicting riding conditions.
* regional traffic, member photo albums, track day listings, etc.
Organization
Membership is attracted through the common bond of motorcycling. Although similar in ways to the Harley Owners Group, Adventure Rider (ADV Rider), and BMW Motorcycle Owners of America, SBR is independent of any single motorcycle brand. This brings about a highly diverse membership. Membership in SBR is free, but the internet forum is partially supported by donations.
The membership extends not only to the San Francisco Bay Area, but worldwide. Members abroad post events, rides, adventures from all over the globe.
SBR members host unofficial events throughout the year that range from a few attendees to a hundred or more; for example,
* Semi-weekly group rides in the Santa Cruz Mountains of the Bay Area
* Annual SBR Newbie Ride on the streets of the Santa Cruz Mountains
* Annual SBR Newbie Dirt Day in the Hollister Hills OHV SVRA in Hollister, CA
* Multi-day street rides to Lake Tahoe and northern California
* Multi-day dirt rides to distant riding areas in California, Nevada and Utah
* Race track events in northern California and Nevada
* Dirt riding events at motocross tracks such as in San Jose, CA
* Other holiday and celebration events in members' homes
SBR "newbie" ride events take dozens of new street or dirt motorcycle riders out to different locations to safely learn skills with veteran riders. Riders are broken into groups with experienced "leads" and "sweeps" assigned to each group to assist the new riders along the charted routes so that no member is left behind.
The SBR community also reaches out to the public with the goal of improving relations between motorcyclists and the public while preserving motorcyclists' rights. SBR assists the news and press to report on events in the motorcycle community as they occur. For example, members often write into the Mr. Roadshow column in the San Jose Mercury News, and SBR provided input for an article in the Half Moon Bay Review newspaper about aggression against motorcycles.
Social and political issues
The online forum aspect of South Bay Riders is a catalyst for local motorcyclist activism regarding motorcyclist rights, case law, pending legislation, and public access rights for the off highway vehicle. Many members are very active and report back to the growing membership about each cause.
An example of this regards the public lands of the Clear Creek Management Area in central California. The Bureau of Land Management initiated a full emergency closure of the CCMA in May, 2008, prompting SBR to create a forum dedicated to the issue. The BLM EIS is discussed there, and SBR was cited in the EIS. SBR members were able to exchange information and rally to bring newsworthiness to the event held in Santa Clara, CA. With help from SBR's membership, news agencies were able to report accurately the closure and accompanying debate.
During this event, SBR members organized and rallied in the hundreds, packing the Santa Clara Convention Center in protest of the BLM's move. In May, 2010, SBR members helped to petition successfully the San Benito County Board of Supervisors to re-open the county roads running through the CCMA.
Statements from SBR founder Andy Bajka regarding the CCMA have appeared in The Pinnacle, a newspaper in Hollister, California.
Members of SBR participate in the BLM CCMA Resource Advisory Committee.

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