If you’re a motorcyclist living on the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland, then you may not have heard of the global movement started a decade ago by bearded Aussie Mark Hawwa to help raise funds and awareness for prostrate cancer research and men’s mental health.
This year, for the first time, I was proud to be riding as part of a team - team Boyds Brigade, and on Sunday the 23rd May we joined over 65,000 riders world wide taking part in the Gentleman’s Ride 2021.
Image by Hari Parmar
Last year, due to obvious reasons, the Gentleman’s Ride was set up as a solo ride - “Riding together, apart”. And things were still a little different this year, with the rides in the UK being organised as “route only”, so you could follow the same route as everyone else, but were encouraged not to gather in large groups.
We decided to opt out of our local ride in Cambridge, and during an evening round Dan’s lock up fiddling with the ignition on Tom’s Triumph we came up with a rough plan (actually Tom and Dan did all the fiddling, I just sat on a bar stool making helpful suggestions).
We were to meet up at Tom’s Vintage Suit Hire premises early doors, have a bit of brekkie and a coffee, and from there head off to Dan’s work.
Going back to work on your weekend off may not appeal to most of us…but then most of us don’t work at Millbrook Proving Ground - one of the largest and most well known vehicle test centres in Europe. You’ll probably have seen it’s famous Alpine Test Route, perhaps best know as the location of the crash scene from Casino Royale…and that was the very test route we were to ride.
Dan had laid on the charm with the bosses, and incredibly the team at MIllbrook had very kindly given our merry band permission to ride a few laps - the first privately owned motorcycles ever to be allowed to do so…and they even laid on their official photographer Hari Parmar, who amazingly gave up his Sunday to capture the action.
Having grown up reading Autocar, it was a bit of a dream come true to even be allowed through the gates, let alone ride around the bloody place!
After a safety briefing, which was taken very seriously by all, we set off into the drizzle behind our pick-up truck support crew. Now, the Alpine Test Course has a bit of a fearsome reputation - after all it’s 6.5km of hairpin bends, sweeping curves and ascents and descents varying from 6.5% to 25% are designed to replicate some of the most testing road conditions in Europe, and with the added challenge of a surface greasy from the showers, Tom was starting to wish he’d paid a little more attention during that safety briefing.
To everyone’s relief, we all made it round unscathed and even nailed the cheering group photo at the highest point. It was a such a fantastic experience and we were all buzzing. Massive thanks again to the whole team at Millbrook that made it possible and gave up their time on a Sunday to help!
And with that, it was off to the pub…
All MIllbrook images by Hari Parmar
Finally, a huge thanks to everyone that supported team Boyds Brigade with sponsorship - we raised over £1800 as a team which is amazing!
Cheers, Sam @twogunsalute