I've always had a little bit of a love/hate relationship with the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride, dating back all the way to 2013,




when the founder Mark Hawwa disinvited the Ducati group I was riding with at the same time, reportedly saying, "...Ducati doesn't make a classic motorcycle."

Mony on his Chromo...

 But the charity event has grown by leaps and bounds, and while Ducati motorcycles are now welcome, the organization has raised quite a bit of money for men's health, and even if it is the hipster dress-up "it" event of year for motorcycle scenesters, it's a for a really good cause (and is quite a lot of fun as well)...
 This year, I pledged to the team the "Pasta Fazool's" a group supported by Ducati New York, North America's flagship dealer.
 We started off at the Ducati New York dealer, and rode over to South Street Seaport to congregate before the actual "official" ride.

There were a number of other custom ducs, but the real bizarre bikes were of other makes, and especially other vintages.
We started off at South Street Seaport, with several thousand bikes.
Everyone was prim and properly dressed, with a dapper, flapper, 1920's feel.
I had on red pants, my red silk-lined blue gingham summer jacket and a tie, as you can see as I raced Lyndon on his 899 down the FDR past the United Nations building.
We started off to Brooklyn along the BQE, before crossing over into the Queens on 278 (I think),
heading over the 59th Street Bridge, and then stopping on Central Park South for a photo op.
The police escort we had was absolutely incredible...
Cops on Harley's chaperoned us, blocking off every street,
I got low on gas for a bit somewhere in Harlem, and had to (illegally) pull off the wrong way on a one-way street.
But even after filling up, not even half of the entourage had passed, and I was able to catch back up with a few friends I had ridden with earlier as we came down the West Side Highway.
Arun Sharma (previously of MotoCorsa)...
My buddy Henry does DGR every year, and when I caught up with him, he had a little pro tip.
The police were having us come back down the West Side Highway, and turn off at the South Street exit, one exit earlier than we needed to (for the purposes of crowd control).
Henry, though- said we should ask the cops if we could go around their barricade, onto the wide open section of the FDR that parallels the Seaport.
We (sort of) asked the cops, as we didn't really wait for a yes, and tore off and a hundred miles an hour with no traffic on that little stretch between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge section of the FDR.
When we turned off, we had skipped ahead of several thousand bikes that were still cueing to get into the parking lot.
Before the riff-raff arrived, we found a cute french bar and grabbed a few beers and went to the bathroom,
before all the bikes rolled up and the real party started.
There were numerous sponsors like Revvit, Movember and many others,
all contributing to the cause.
My previous hesitation to join DRG turned out to be totally unfounded, it's a pretty awesome community,
and a once in lifetime type of ride to do in New York City.





© 2019 Tigh Loughhead