Distinguished Gentleman's Ride - We Were Distinguished

Yesterday we took part in the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride.  

What is the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride?  The website describes it as "Riding Dapper for a Cause", the cause being prostate cancer research and men's mental health.  Apparently, it started back in 2012, in Sydney of all places.  It is now a global event and since its inception has raised over over 31 million dollars US.  Not a bad effort for something started in Australia.

This was the first time there has been a ride in Bathurst, mainly organised by the the owner of a local barbers shop, a lady who also happens to be a motorcyclist.

There were just over 40 bikes registered and the Bathurst ride raised just over $15,000.00, which I think is rather impressive. 

We very  nearly didn't end up going, as Mick woke up with a cracking headache.  After taking some pain killers and going back to bed and having a couple of hours more sleep, he felt well enough to go along.  Of course we took Olga the Old girl to the outing.

So what to wear?  

We wore warm jackets.  Mick had his nice flannel number, while I finally had an opportunity to wear my Harris Tweed jacket that I found in an op shop a few years ago.  You can't really see it, but I was wearing my Manx tartan flower brooch that Lou gave me some years ago. Rather appropriate, I thought. 

The weather was grey, but not raining, frosty or foggy, just cool. Phew!  Having said that, I was wearing a woollen tshirt, light woollen jumper and the tweed jacket and could still feel the wind passing through it all at 60 kph.  It makes you appreciate how good our modern bike jackets are.  Apparently, it was raining in Sydney, which would have been very disappointing for the event down there.

There were some rather well dressed participants and some beautiful bikes in attendance, many of which we hadn't seen before.

 

The starting point was at the National Motor Racing Museum at Mt Panorama.

The numbers were good for a first event, being large enough to make an impact as we rode through town, but small enough to be manageable and friendly.

The organisers gave us our little welcome speech and advised us of the route we would take, being only a short run around town.  More of a parade lap that an actual ride.  

And we were off.

Once we did our few laps around town we finished the ride at the Rockabilly Cafe, a retro cafe in town, for coffee and more chatting.

We're so pleased we were able to join in on this ride.  It was nice and friendly and so good to see nearly all the participants taking the trouble to dress up a bit for the occasion.  Hopefully, it will be the first of many years of this event.