Ride of Respect 2011

On 7 January 2010, an 18 year old girl called Lizzie Stevens put out a call on Facebook for anyone who was interested in going for a bike ride to Wootton Bassett. A Julia Stevenson, who has since become the chief organiser of the event, replied immediately with an offer of assistance. Within days there were thousands who wanted to participate.

A resolutely non-political mark of respect both for fallen British soldiers that have been repatriated home, and the people of Wootton Bassett who regularly turn out en masse to honour them on their final journey, the 2010 event started at Hullavington airfield – as it will again this year. Here, 15,000 members of the biking community came together as one for a two-wheeled motorcade through Wootton Bassett. Take a look….

Afghan Heroes fundraising ride 2010

Last years’ event raised nearly £111,000 for the Afghan Heroes forces charity.

There are a couple of things that are interesting about this kind of mass mobilisation. Firstly, that it all started from a fairly innocuous message on Facebook and within three months an event involving 15,000 people was put together from scratch by a group largely made up of very motivated volunteers. As with the petrol tax and tuition fees protests, what a remarkable example of the power of social networking as a way of bringing an issue to the nation’s attention.

Secondly, unless it is something that affects the biking world specifically – e.g. bike parking tax, diesel spills etc – the main biking representative organisations take a fairly narrow and introspective view of things and usually fail dismally in gaining public awareness of anything. Certainly, it is extremely rare for bikers to muster up a collective effort on such a large scale. So are the likes of Facebook and Twitter more effective than say, the Motorcycle Action Group?

And yet, some of the reactions to last years’ run suggest that the very fact that the biking world came together for this in such a visual, spontaneous and respectful way could potentially help change people’s perceptions on bikes and the biking fraternity generally. We’ll see - but it's good to see bikers get some positive publicity for a change....

However, despite its success, because there will be no more repatriations to nearby RAF Lyneham after November 2011, this years’ run will be the second, and the last. It takes place on Sunday 3 April and I will be amongst the 10,000 registered riders taking part. Do come along if you are able to.

Will we see anything like it again I wonder?