One of the Essex Branch Members Attended the Ring Of Red

While some of the other members attended the Remembrance service at RAF Duxford, the Honda Owners Club was represented by at least me that I know of this year and also represented by the biking community as a whole as we attempted to put a ‘ring of red’ around London which is oddly enough the shape of a poppy to mark the great respect and humility felt toward all those men and women who have laid down their lives to answer the call to arms of their individual nations and also the terrible loss lives within their own individual civilian populations. We tend to forget that ‘Remembrance Sunday’ is to commemorate the deaths of every nation that has suffered due to wars of any era and includes those who have laid down their lives in modern times. Any conflict is terrible but most people think of World War I and World War II of course.Cambridge Dictionary Definition is listed below:(also Remembrance Sunday)Remembrance Day
noun[ C usually singular ]
UK
In Britain, 11 November or the closestSunday to that date, when peoplehonour those who were killed in wars, especially the two World Wars.Anyway, back to Sunday!As always, I’d got the times wrong and arrived in a panic at 10:30 am thinking I was late to find out that the start time was in fact 13.00 pm following a briefing about the run rules then a service held to commemorate the day. It’s always an awe inspiring sight to see so many bikers of all walks and lives,shapes and sizes and so many different machines all united in one common cause. Most riders dressed in red and many machines (mine included), decked out with flags. While we were gathering a Dakota flew over dropping poppies… what a rush!It has to be said that the Wing, painted as it is in pearlescent white and with a huge flag flying proudly from it stood out. To my absolute pleasure and no little honour I was asked if I would wear the coveted pink tabard and ride ‘Tail End Charlie’. Forget the Yellow jacket of the ‘Tour De France’ or the Green one of the ‘Masters’ this old pink tabard is the penultimate doggies bollocks second only to the ‘Run leaders’ one. Add to that the honour belonged to a member of the ‘Honda Owners Club’ and …wow!It’s not a mad arsed ride the speed being kept to no more than 55. All bikes remained as instructed, no roaring off that I saw and certainly no wheelies to be seen, in the first two lanes so not to hold up the traffic too much. I did however, lose count of the amount of car drivers slowing alongside us to take photo’s and video’s of us! The number of ‘thumbs ups’ and sounding of car horns in support couldn’t help but make you feel part of something really special and sometimes the eyes to prick with emotion.For those who like facts and figures and bearing in mind I was the last to leave Thurrock services, I left at 13.23 pm and arrived at South Mimms at around 15.30 pm where I duly reported all riders in safe and sound. Riders peel off and rejoin all around the M25 and you couldn’t look anywhere without seeing a motorcycle and its rider decked out in red… what a rush!Highlights of yet another memorable day. First, was before I actually even arrived when I passed army vehicles in convoy (always a bit special on these days) and their amazement and sheer delight upon seeing me alongside them.. total and utter respect boys.Second was the face on the rider and his sheer look of surprise that I came across on the hard shoulder (yes, he’d run out of fuel, there always has to be one) and when the ‘tail end charlie’ promptly opened up a pannier to produce a can with 5 litres of precious fuel in it!The task allocated to me of ‘tail end charlie’ speaks for it self but perhaps the biggest thrill was in being a small part of something really big that showed huge numbers of the general public that we so called ‘biker hooligans’ really do care about the things that really matter.It’s one of my main reasons for never missing the ‘Ring of Red’ folks and I commend it to each and every one of you reading this post.Pete R (35260)