Riding dapper for men’s health
PART OF A GLOBAL CHARITY PHENOMENON IS MANAGED OUT OF A KIWI FARM
We are no strangers to The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. In 2015 we at Driven donned our best (and only) fitting suit and tagged along at the Auckland Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR) event with the help of event sponsor Triumph Motorcycles, which had lent us a Thruxton 900 for the ride through some of Auckland’s best sights before finishing at Motat.
The aim of the ride is to fundraise for men’s health initiatives, particularly in the areas of prostate cancer awareness and mental health.
The final figure for 2015 was US$2.3 million raised globally.
The ride has continued to grow. The 2016 event teamed up with the Movember Foundation and fundraising efforts topped US$4.85m.
For 2018, the ride has a strong Kiwi connection, signing up the custom motorcycle website Bike EXIF — bikeexif.com — as the media partner.
Despite having around three million followers on social media and a wildly popular website, Bike EXIF is run out of a small farm on the outskirts of Matakana by expat Brit Chris Hunter.
This mother lode for modified motorcycles is right up the DGR’s alley, since custom and classic bikes are the rides of choice for all the DGR events around the
PER CAPITA, NEW ZEALAND PROBABLY HAS MORE OLDSCHOOL MOTORBIKES TUCKED AWAY IN GARAGES AND SHEDS THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. Chris Hunter
conversations that are taking place and the importance of being tested for prostate cancer hitting the limelight in our niche motorcycling community, says Hawwa. “To date we have had 30 men over the past six years informing us that they went and got checked as a result of DGR and were able to identify cancer early enough to get it removed. We want all our riders and all men globally getting checked if they are over 40. It’s where we get our biggest wins.”
This year the Distinguished Gentlefolk of the DGR have the goal of raising more than US$6 million in rides around the globe on Sunday, September 30 with funds going to a broad range of deserving charities.
New Zealand has eight organised rides from Auckland in the north, to Queenstown in the south with more than $15,000 raised towards the cause so far. amazing year of sartorial riding,” says DGR founder Mark Hawwa. “Along with the help of our friends at Bike Exif, Triumph Motorcycles and Zenith Watches, we currently have had 20,000 riders sign up in the first week, raising over half a million dollars for our charity partner Movember. These numbers are huge and its looking like a positive step in the right direction.”
The fundraising isn’t the only positive outcome reaped by the event, as the ride itself acts as a sounding board for riders – men in particular – to talk about health issues that often are ignored.
“It is great to see the world. It’s a match made in heaven.
“Per capita, New Zealand probably has more old-school motorbikes tucked away in garages and sheds than any other country in the world,” says Hunter. “Despite having a population smaller than London, we should be able to put on quite a show.”
The limitations on motorcycles eligible to take part in the annual rideis not stopping the event from growing year on year, with more than US$12.8 million raised in the six years since the inaugural ride.
“It is shaping up to be another