The Cornerman system explained…
The cornerman system is way of taking different riders of all riding skills from novice to racers over large distances with one aim to, get everyone to the destination with the minimum amount of fuss and the maximum amount of saftey as know one needs push themselves more than they need to get to the destination its a simple way of making sure that every rider enjoys the day and the rideout in question.
The cornerman system is about two riders Rider A the lead rider, and Rider Z the tail gunner who are made known on the day. Everyone else is a potential cornerman, once the ride is underway the Rider A will point to a point on the road a roundabout, junction, cross roads anywhere he feels necessary to leave someone to show the way to the following riders. Once Rider A leaves you on that point of the road its your job to stay there to show every other rider behind you the right way to go, its crucial to the rideout that you stay in place until you see Rider Z,
Once you see the tail gunner (Rider Z) and everyone in front of him has past you then and only then you can leave your spot and head off at your own pace knowing
the route is fully marked by cornermen. At the early stages of the ride cornermen may only sit a point for half a minute or so but as the ride progress’s you may sit there for fifteen or twenty minutes and not see anyone either way you must stay there because if you dont every rider behind you will just dissapear off in the wrong direction and every rider behind them will follow, if there are breaks in the groups of riders you can end up with several groups heading off in two or three different directions which in turn ruins the ride and day as it can take hours to find everyone and regroup which means lots of waiting round.
There is no race to be a cornerman and not everyone will be one, the slower riders will always stay in the middle or at the back
and the Lead rider (Rider A) should always maintain a steady pace to keep a regular supply of cornermen behind him. All rides are different built up areas can mean riders are stuck at traffic lights or busy junctions or some may just not feel confident to filter, out on open roads or twistys people will ride at different speeds and where they feel confident all this can affect your waiting time as a cornerman so just be patient.
At this point its also worth saying that if things go wrong behind because someone has left there post the lead man has no way of knowing so its its fair to say that the whole thing is down to trust and that all riders are looking after each other if you dont want to be a cornerman there is a simple solution, you dont ride behind Rider A, or you stay at home!
