They are meant to counter the vulnerability single riders normally experience by gathering a group of cyclists that is large enough to temporarily take over roads.
The 33-year-old man who was driving the Range Rover was staying out of sight on Tuesday, even as his confrontation with the motorcyclists became national news and had authorities raising concerns about motorcycle groups that try to take over roads for impromptu races and stunts.
"Boko Haram has spent the last 15 months tightening the belt around Maiduguri by taking over roads, smuggling, trafficking and supply routes, as well as many smaller border towns and villages," says Dr Yan St-Pierre, CEO and counter-terrorism specialist at the Modern Security Consulting Group.
Others humiliate corporations on TV, take over roads, jam ads, gather wherever there is an international summit (Auckland, Vancouver, Manila, Birmingham, London, Geneva, Kuala Lumpur, Cologne, Washington DC, Seattle, Prague), wreck a McDonald's before it has even been built (the Peasant Confederation in Millau, France).
But intense fighting, IEDs and Taliban control over roads made movement of trucks carrying produce difficult.
Getting there, over roads buckled and warped by Friday's huge quake, is an ordeal.
On land it can travel over roads at 45 miles (70 km) per hour.
The snowmelt, combined with heavy rains, swept a raging river over roads.
