Vol. 1 Issue 2 - May 2010, People To See

Low Expectations MC

By Ed Frulla   Sun, Apr 25, 2010

The Internet is a wonderful tool and I am so glad that Al Gore invented it.  I look at the things that I am able to do from my desk at home or at work and wonder how I ever survived without it in the past.  In fact, if it was not for the Internet I would not be able to publish this magazine and I would not have found the motorcycle club that I proudly call home.

I purchased my Fury in June 2009 and spent that summer riding alone.  Some riders like the lone wolf style of riding but personally I like to ride with a group.  I lead a somewhat busy life and I could not make a commitment to a brotherhood style club.  The club I was looking for had to meet some criteria that I was sure no club would be able to meet.  The first criteria would be that my commitment to the club had to be minimal.  Meetings, rides and events that required my attendance were out of the question.  I just do not have the time to make those commitments.  To meet the second criteria, the focus of the club has to be on club sponsored rides and there had to be a significant number of rides so that I could slide a few of them into my schedule.  The third criterion was the lack of political bull crap and the final criterion was club involvement in charity work.

So how do I find such a club?  I turn to my trusted search engine which is Google and one of the first clubs to pop up in my search was Low Expectations MC in Albany NY.  A trip to their web site at http://www.meetup.com/lowxmc/ and I was immediately intrigued.  While there I discovered that Low Expectations MC is a virtual club and met all of my criteria.  What I thought would be an endless search took all of 5 minutes from discovery to registration.

Low Expectations MC was formed in January of 2008 by a core group of riders including Peter who is the President and JB who is the Organizer.  JB created the web site at Meetup.com and the core group had their first meeting at Maxies on Wolf Road in Albany NY in January 2008.  At first the club did not have a name and a discussion was placed on the site to allow the membership to determine the clubs name.  At the same time, Peter, JB, Jeremy and Bethany Parks were on a ride.  Bethany was not yet a club member at this point in time but was riding with the group.  She stated up front that the group should not expect much of her during the ride.  During the ride, Bethany's gas gauge stuck on full, she missed a fuel stop and ran out of gas.  When chided by the group her response was something on the order of "I told you to have Low Expectations" and the club name was born.  I have not had the privilege of meeting Bethany but someday I hope to.  She lives her life as I wish I could live mine.  Not expecting much from others and simply asking that in return they do not expect much from her.  Yet she is a cancer survivor that still finds the time to go to Kenya for three weeks to help the people there and she gives freely of herself to the causes of leukemia, breast cancer and MS. 

Let's take my criteria and see how Low Expectations meets them. 

The first and second criteria were that the club has a significant number of club rides and my commitment to them was minimal.  Low Expectations meets these criteria because any member can suggest a ride on the web sites Meetup page.  When that happens, an e-mail message is automatically sent to each member with a link to the newly entered item on the Meetup page.  If the ride is of interest to you and you want to attend you simply RSVP "Yes" on the site and you are registered.  The site shows which members have committed, which members have not committed and which members have not yet responded.  If your plans do change, you have the ability to go back into the entry and set your RSVP to No.  It is considered extremely bad form to RSVP Yes and then not show up.  Some rides have a limit on the number of riders that are allowed to go because of lunch reservations etc.  If you RSVP Yes and the ride limit is reached and you are a no-show that means that a fellow club member who wanted to go was not able to because of your lack of ability to simply update your RSVP response.  Not much will get you booted from the club, but repeated no shows is right up there at the top of the list and no one in the club will feel sorry for you if you do get the boot.  The rule is simple; no one is requiring you to commit to a ride but if you do, you darn well better show up.  Because any member can suggest a ride there are numerous rides happening during any given month, so it is easy to find a club ride that fits your schedule. The core group would like each member to attend at least two events during the season.  At the end of each season the core group will trim the voyeurs from the membership roles based on that two event attendance.

The third criterion (no political bull-crap) is met because this club is a benevolent dictatorship.  Peter, JB and the core group run the show and personally I am fine with that.  They are individuals whose judgment I have come to trust and if they make a decision that the membership does not like, it is well reviewed in the message boards on the clubs web site.  Club members can also e-mail the core group expressing their opinions from within the web site.  Because there are no elections for officers there is no political bull crap, in-fighting or cliques.  They keep the peace and the rest of us get to ride.  It seems like a good deal to me.  As JB pointed out during the interview for this article, "We are not trying to build a brotherhood here, just a group of people who like to ride".

I firmly believe that when you get a group of individuals together to form an organization, you have a powerful tool for doing good and you should use that tool for that purpose as much and as often as possible.  Thus, my fourth criterion was the clubs involvement in charity work.  Low Expectations meets that criterion as well.  Each year in April they make a run to the Double-H Hole in the Woods Ranch in Lake Luzerne NY and help prepare the camp for the summer season.  The Double-H Hole in the Woods camp provides camping opportunities for chronically ill children.  Double-H Ranch was founded by local philanthropist Charles R. Wood and actor Paul Newman.  It was the second camp in the series of Paul Newman's "Hole in the Wall" camps.  This is truly a cause worthy of our support. 

JB and I have something in common, we are both Cancer survivors.  JB's doctor (Dr. Goodman) has started the Schenectady County Cancer Foundation.  The purpose of the foundation is to assist those cancer patients with need to be able to get to and from their therapy.  To support the foundation, Dr. Goodman has arranged for a screening of the movie "Long Way Down" at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady NY.  There will be a reception at 2:00 PM and the movie starts at 4:00 PM.  All proceeds go to the Foundation.  As I look at the meetup entries at the Low Ex web site I can see that there are 25 Low Expectation members committed to going to this fund raiser.  It is also expected that there will be a great many riders from other groups and clubs within the area.  If you are interested in more details about the movie and event, please refer to the companion article in this issue and we encourage you to attend this event. 

I love to ride.  I am on my bike every chance I get.  My wife states that my Fury has a major defect in that my rear always seems to stick to the seat.  Most of the rides that Low Expectations have are day trips either through the Adirondacks (my personal favorite), the Catskills or the Berkshires.  There is an overnight trip currently in place to go to Maine and other long distance/overnight trips are in the planning stages.  The club even has a Scavenger Hunt in place and members earn points for riding to different locations and sending in a photo of them at the location.  Different destinations carry different point values.  It is another well thought out tool to give you a target destination for a ride on your own.  The club rides are conducted professionally.  On any given ride you can have riders that have been riding for years and riders participating in their first group ride.  For that reason, the rides are well paced and usually no faster than 5 miles an hour over the speed limit.  I personally like that pace since it gives me a chance to enjoy the ride and the view. 

 For me Low Expectations MC fits my life style perfectly.  There is minimal commitment to attend unless I make the commitment myself.    There are a large number of reasons to join this motorcycle club but the best reason of all is this.  "This is the coolest bunch of people that you would ever want to ride with or be associated with". 

Give the "High Hopes" chapter of Low Expectations MC a try.  You will be glad that you did.

By Ed Frulla