Behind the scenes with a motorcycle demo ride leader

Waiting to demo some Buells

Ah, to be riding a variety of motorcycles and getting paid for doing it! That would be the life, right?

Right. Well, sort of. Maybe if your name was Matt Mladin, or Valentino Rossi. But what about those folks who check you in at demo days and take you out for rides on bikes you may or may not have any interest in owning? They still get to ride and get paid for it. What a life that's got to be.

I got a bit of the inside skinny on leading demo rides from a demo leader I'll call Nixon. (Why Nixon? Just because I thought it would be a fun thing to do; no other reason. Nixon prefers not to be identified.)

It's all about the stories

If you've ever done a demo ride you know those folks are sizing you up. Does this guy really have the riding experience he says he has? Does this woman understand that she's 5-foot, 1-inch and the bike she wants to ride has a saddle height of 32 inches and weighs 600 pounds?

Nixon tells of one woman rider who said she had been riding for 15 years and then stalled the bike repeatedly, nearly dropped it, and got very flustered. The key in this case and cases like it is to handle the matter tactfully and not turn the rider against the brand. This is all about the brand, after all, and demo rides are a sales tool.

"I told her to come back at 5 and I would do a solo ride with her. That defused it, and got her out of the public eye. She came back at 5 and I took her on a couple laps around the parking lot."

In another instance, a demo rider presumably lied his way through the sign-up process and chose to ride on the smallest bike available.

"He was really slow, he was holding up the group, not staying in lane, and half-way through the ride the ride leader, a woman, pulled over and asked him how he was doing. 'I'm fine, just nervous,' he replied. 'Well today's your lucky day,' she told him, 'you're gonna get to ride with me.' He got on behind her and they took off but after awhile his hands slid up over her breasts. She pushed them down and a little later had to push them down again. The following year at the same event she recognized him and spread the word to eveyone not to let him ride."

Demo rides are pretty tightly controlled because the manufacturers are concerned about safety but some riders ignore the rules laid out beforehand.

"We're authorized to pull their keys and let them walk back if necessary, although I've not had to do that," says Nixon. "A couple of times I've had people ride like they were scrubbing the tires, and my solution is to stop the group, go back and ask them if there's a problem. If not, I say to them 'listen, the bikes have been going all day and the tires are pretty warmed up aleady, but thanks for worrying about it. Do me a favor? Stop doing it because the lesser riders in the group may just find it confusing, or think you are having a probem.'"

And then there are the accidents. Despite every effort to keep the riders safe, accidents do occur.

"Last season we had a rider who missed the curve, and went straight off road into the forest. The bike bounced off a number of trees and was totaled. The rider was OK but I had to consider the safety of rest of the group. Plus, the riders on next ride had no idea what happened and we had to keep the program moving smoothly. Crashes are difficult. We try to minimize them but they do happen. It's a dangerous sport."

Define glamour

"We do get to go to cool places and ride motorcycles," says Nixon, so this is not a woe-is-me situation. The thing is, it's also "a hell of a lot of work. We get there a couple hours before the first ride goes out, check the bikes, warm them up, set everything up, and then we haul ass all day long."

Of course, before the show even begins the demo people have to unpack the tractor-trailer, set up the awning, and generally get the location set up.

"That's the bitch part. The set-up is different every time, and there's no diagram. It's a little bit of organized chaos."

While it's all going on, "There's no time for anything, not even potty breaks. We barely have time to eat, and we can't eat in front of public. We have to step behind the awning and grab two bites out of a sandwich . . . if someone thought to provide food. Once I told them to find someone else for next ride, and I went to a store and brought back a couple cases of bottled water. We don't eat much and we don't get much sleep when we're working an event.

"And then at the end, packing is a real drag. They don't want to pay for an extra day so we have to pack up after full day of demo rides, then hope they don't fly you home on the red eye," says Nixon. "I'm pretty wiped out after an event."

But the people coming to demo the bikes don't see any of this. "People think it's pretty glamorous, and it is. I'm doing a dream job riding motorcycles. It's cool to be paid doing something you like to do. There's just a lot the riders don't know."

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