Marshalling Organiser Barry and the two Police Motorcyclists
A mass motorcycle ride took place in the Lake District on Sunday 6th June in support of the Help for Heroes Charity.
Over 500 bikes of all types took part and the event went very smoothly indeed. All credit to the brave dozen or so Cumbrians who rode mopeds and some in fancy dress. Wingers were dressed in conventional biking gear except for Dave Sharp did his bit by dressing as a butcher.
One moped broke down and one moped rider went down at low speed on a roundabout and suffered a small graze but that was all – it was a very safe as well as successful Event.
The weather forecast which I looked at the day before was for a warm day with a risk of only light showers but there were gloomier forecasts too (for heavy rain) and this probably kept some away. Over 600 riders had registered and made a donation so it was very worthwhile.
There was the odd spot of light rain en route but nothing worth stopping to put wet weather gear on and overall the Ride went splendidly.
Marshal's bikes bore a large pink "M" on windscreens, to bring out their femine side
The rendezvous at Birthwaite Fold Car Park in Bowness, which the Council had kindly reserved for the exclusive use of the Event for the morning, worked very well as a meeting place. It is a large car park fairly close to the Lake just to the South of the Bowness waterfront and, crucially, it had toilets and a bacon buttie bar.
There were plenty of Marshals to help greet and park the bikes and a PA system to allow the celebrity guests to be introduced and have few words. Likewise there were lots of Marshals to assist with the Ride itself, all riding GoldWings. It was a really friendly occasion. The Ride took us on a scenic route of about 60 miles to Cockermouth where parking and parking marshals (and even more importantly food and drink) was laid on.
Barry Walton of Colin Appleyards Motorcycles and Appy Wanderers, his GoldWing Touring Club took the leading role in organising the marshalling for this Ride and he did a truly magnificent job by using his contacts in the GoldWing Community to gather over 50 Wingers to help out. Well done Barry (and Dave and others) it was a terrific effort. Cumbria Wings, Yorkshire Wings, Trent Wings and Lancs & Lakes were all out in force as were Members of Appy Wanderers and GoldWings North West. Well done Barry for creating this opportunity for Wingers of all clubs or no club to work together in friendship. It is a credit to you that the job was done on such a friendly and enjoyable basis.
Bikers trying to look the part at Cockermouth
Riders were invited to make a donation by visiting the Ride Website and may still do so.
On a personal note I would like to thank Lancs & Lakes for their friendliness and for inviting me to ride back to Bowness in company with them, which I really appreciated. The whole day was handled in a friendly way by all the Wingers who were there. It was a fine example of what Wingers can achieve when they join together to help a good cause.
Cumbria Police deserve a mention for their excellent cooperation and assistance too. Thanks to Barry’s careful planning and his use of his contacts to assemble such a large group of Wingers to provide plenty of Marshals, the Police managed to keep the Ride moving using only two Motorcycle Officers. I started off (as a spare Marshal) riding about two thirds of the way back in the Ride and – amazingly – I didn’t have to stop once until I chose to do so (to take post at a junction where a Police bike was stopping traffic) which I think was pretty good for a ride of 500 bikes, which is said to have been four miles long.
Red kit of Lancs & Lakes prominent in the Marshals Parking Area
Barry told me that when he stopped en route home where some other bikers had also stopped, one of them recognised him as the organiser of the marshalling and said how well he thought it had gone, as had many others when we got to Cockermouth. This grateful biker endeared himself to Barry by adding “I thought you lot who ride GoldWings were all tossers who trimmed their bikes with fairy lights and towed them everywhere but you showed me today that you can ride them as well.”
I think this illustrates the value to the GoldWing community of being seen by other bikers to be able to conduct expert marshalling for large rides like this one and to ride our GoldWings competently.
Let’s do it again next year! (The Organisers are looking into the first Sunday in July and are keen to have GoldWings doing the marshalling again, confirmation and details in due course)
Well, despite all the gloomy predictions from the Weathermen, the deluge of biblical proportions failed to materialise over Cumbria, although the odd and thankfully brief attempts at showers did make the odd appearance.
Having met up with Stuart, Dave and Karen at Lancaster Services, Lynette and I made our way to the assembly point at Bowness, to be greeted by the sight of over 1000 bikes, all ready for the off. It was good to see Ken , Dave and Toni already there, plus many old faces. There were also new people to meet, some of whom expressed an interest in joining Goldwings NW, so there may be even more new members arriving soon!
Coronation Street stars Simon Gregson (Steve MacDonald) and Peter Armitage (Bill Webster) headed the ride out with Catchphrase host, Roy Walker, and it was very pleasing to see that the event was fully supported by the local Police, two of their motorcycle officers outriding and providing road closures as required.
Whilst Ken, Dave and Toni acted as static marshals, Stuart, Dave and I were placed within the ride to act as Troubleshooters should any problems arise en-route. This provided many comic moments during the day, including the mass 1970’s moped brigade, with Honda SS50’s, Puch, Yamaha and many more makes represented. One tuned Fizzie rider was dressed as Fred Flintstone, and I now have the memory of Fred, chin on tank and bum in air, tiger skin flapping in the wind as he hurtled past me at a breakneck, oh, 50mph!
Talking to Barry Walton on arrival at the end of the ride, he told me that the column of riders stretched over four miles in length – impressive or what?
So, all in all, a great day was had by all and it would be nice to hope that this could become an annual event (although Barry was led away, muttering something about ‘Never again!’).
Moral of the story…………never trust a smiling Weatherman!
Dear Fellow Wingers, I have received countless expressions of thanks and appreciation from Riders, the Police, and the Organisers of the Cumbrian HELP FOR HEROES ride.
The Police would like me to pass on their praise for the great job you Marshalls did. They have been impressed with the way the route notes, marshal’s guides, were produced and the implimentation of the marshalling right from the start of our dealings with them. Likewise on the day of the Ride how professionally all the marshals performed their tasks. The police riders also said that they had both worked with professional riding groups before, but had not seen such a high standard of marshalling in a very long time. The Marshals were not only a credit to themselves, but also to the GoldWing Community.
On a personal note I would like to thank all those who attended and gave up there day for such a worthy cause. I can tell you all now that Sunday morning was a complete blurr….. I think I ran on nerves the whole morning.
Special thanks must go to Dave Sharp, and Geoff Smith. Both took on this task with me, so it was a Wanderers team effort. And personal thanks to Andy Appleby and Ian Jones for coming on board in the later stages with some important input. Thank you guys.
Goldwing riders came from, Cumbria wings, Lancs & Lakes, Yorkshire and Trent wings. plus Goldwings North West, and the Federation – not forgetting the Appy Wanderers. It was great to see so many of you all getting along, and working together for a good cause
truly showing that the key to any club or group, is friendship towards other Wingers.
Well what more can I say, but a very big thank you to all of you Marshals for your help, support, and friendship. You’re the ones a lot of people thought of as totally professional yesterday and did a hell of a lot of work, so the other Riders could be safe and could enjoy the this great Charity Ride in aid of HELP FOR HEROES.
WELL DONE TEAM. UNTIL THE NEXT TIME, THANK YOU ALL.
Yours in Winging
Barry Walton,
Appy Wanderers,
.
Hi Stuart.
I have to agree the day went really well and it was nice to see all Wingers getting on well. I hope that this could go some way to heal the rift that has gone on for too long now after all all we want to do is ride our bikes and be friendly to one another.
Couldn’t agree more. If we all respect each other’s right to freedom of choice – for example about whether and what form of club we belong to and what activities and events we wish to organise or involve ourselves in – then there should be no reason to fall out at all.
I have to agree with Tony the day went very well and the site of all the Wingers really getting on so well was fantastic. We are all just out there to ride our bikes and have a good time, all these falling outs are just silly, as we all just want to enjoy ourselves out on our Wings with like minded friends.
It must be obvious by now to all sensible Wingers that the turbulence of the past two years has been very damaging and should never have been allowed to happen. But there’s no point in pretending that the issues weren’t important and to some Wingers they became crucially important – important enough to drive quite a few of them to quit GWOCGB entirely and form independent Clubs. But Wingers are Wingers and they share many common interests, even if they now have different ideas about who, or indeed whether it helps at all to have anyone telling them what to do at national level. The more opportunities there are for groups of Wingers to do things like this in partnership the better and thank goodness politics didn’t interfere with this one. As you say, riding the bikes for pleasure is ultimately what it’s all about. Let’s all look forward to enjoying more of that.
I am really pleased that Goldwingers are able to work together despite having different views on which way their clubs are run. At the end of the day we all want to ride and enjoy our riding.
I am sorry to say that I was unable to assist in this ride but hopefully to opportunity will arise again.
Dave T
Please allow me to gently prod some of you guys before you run away with yourselves!!
This is the black and white of it all. The event was sparked off last year by a small group of Cumbrian bikers with an idea to help the H4H organisation and raise money for our service personnel. Something that our government should be doing in the first place.SHAME on them!
Barry Walton and myself met by chance two of the organizers at a bikers tea stop on one of our Thursday “play-days” Over a mug of tea we agreed to give them a hand with our group riding expertise. It seemed the right thing to do as they were a bit at a loss with the marshalling thing. After the first meeting we realised the enormity of the proposed event so asked our own APPY WANDERERS folk how they felt about a great day out marshalling an honourable biking event and riding lots of miles in wonderful Cumbria into the bargain. Put like that to ‘APPY WANDERERS the answer was inevitable!
Numbers demanded more (lots more!)Wingers so Barry threw the invite in his persuasive way to Wingers from many Regions and the independant Clubs for help. You all did this for a good reason, the right reason. Its nothing to do with politics, building bridges or ripping others down even! If it helps the various factions to act like grown ups then its a bonus for sure!
It’s probably going to happen again next year so come along for the right reasons and help raise lots of money!
Fair comment Dave, it was fundamentally an ‘Appy Wanderers Event and it was in support of Help for Heroes. I’m sorry for not making your considerable personal contribution clearer in my write up too – not least your selflessness and bravery in dressing in a combination of pink and white to make yourself conspicuous as Back Marker.
But as with the Ride Safe Back Safe Event at Blackpool earlier this year, from the viewpoint of Wingers who have witnessed or been hurt by was has been almost civil war in the UK GoldWing Community during the past two years, the opportunity to work together as Wingers has been very welcome and I think we can be forgiven for highlighting how welcome that has been. I’m sure that no one is trying to take anything away from ‘Appy Wanders or Help for Heroes in doing so; we’re just hoping this really does mean the end of the belligerence and hostility we’ve experienced.