Triumph Motorcycles is proud to announce it will continue as the main partner and supporter of The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride (DGR), one of the world's largest and most stylish charity motorcycle fundraising event, for another historic five years.
The renewal of this important partnership represents a natural continuation of what has been a great success story, both from the perspective of raising funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men's mental health, but also in the incredible participation and the riding community it has generated for hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists worldwide.
As the DGR's major sponsor since 2014, Triumph Motorcycles is proud to have played a key role in partnership with Australia's own Mark Hawwa and his team in helping develop the DGR into the world-spanning event that it is today. Contributing support and resources across the years that have raised awareness, amplified the DGR's voice and rewarded its participants has been at the heart of Triumph's role. This in turn has led to legions of Triumph riders, Triumph dealers, staff, family, and friends enjoying their motorcycles, dressing dapper and sharing a common bond in support of their community.
The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride was founded to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men's mental health, by uniting classic and vintage-style motorcycle riders, old and new, all around the world. Triumph Motorcycles embraced this cause and, in early 2014, committed to support the DGR through its global marketing team and channels, and to provide The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride with Modern Classic motorcycles to be won as prizes to reward and promote fundraising.
Over eight incredible years, Triumph Motorcycles and the DGR have worked together with the common goal of increasing the profile of The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride around the world, to grow this amazing community of riders and ultimately increase the number of people participating and the level of funds raised to support the cause.
On September 28, 2014, the first Triumph-sponsored DGR took place in 58 countries, 257 cities and was attended by 20,000 dapper-dressed classic and vintage riders, raising a total of $US1.5m. Growing to 79 countries, 410 cities, 37,000 riders and $US2.3m raised in 2015, and 90 countries, 57,000 riders and $US3.6m in 2016, these numbers have continued to climb – up to the DGR's record-breaking year in 2019, where 116,000 riders raised $US6m by riding dapper together in an amazing 104 countries across the world.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenging landscape for The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride and riders alike. Despite such difficult times and dynamics, the DGR worked hard to develop a new format that made it possible for riders to show their support and passion safely, with the Ride Solo Together event. This enabled the global DGR community to achieve its most global event ever, with 171 countries and 2531 locations riding solo together, all connected through social media.
As challenges persisted during 2021, The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride adapted its format again to reflect the different level of restrictions worldwide where, depending on the restrictions in place in each area, DGR fans enjoy a normal group ride event, route only or solo ride.
As a result of this evolved approach, we saw a considerable increase in participants and funds raised compared to the previous year with 65,300 riders – almost 10,000 more compared to 2020 – raising $US4.1m or $1.4m more than 2020.
In 2021, the event moved from September to May, and every indication gives hope and confidence for an amazing ride in 2022 ride, which everyone involved is committed to making the most successful year ever.
Mark Hawwa, Founder/Director of The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride:
"In 2014, when we first partnered with Triumph Motorcycles, I was incredibly excited. They are the only motorcycle manufacturer that I felt perfectly fit with The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride. We've done some wonderful things since then. Together we've been able to reward some of our top- and most-dedicated fundraisers with brand new bikes from the Modern Classic range and built the custom one-of-one 2021 Triumph Thruxton RS. Today, eight years later, as we announce the five-year continuation of this partnership, I'm even more excited than I was in 2014 because, with the next five years, I know that we can do even more together with the goal of raising funds and awareness of men's health."
Paul Stroud, Triumph Chief Commercial Officer:
"From the very beginning we could see the DGR was something truly special that the team at Triumph were incredibly keen to be involved with, both for the cause it represented but also the great day of riding and fun of dressing dapper it delivered. We are proud to have been the main partner for the past eight years and honoured to have been able to play a part in helping grow such a positive and impactful force for good. Across our world, from our dealers to our staff, to Triumph fans and DGR riders globally it's very easy to see how much passion and engagement there is for this significant event and riding cause. The renewal of our partnership with The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride was a natural decision to take, based not only on the success and growth of participation that has raised Triumph's profile, but also because we share that passion and are committed to supporting Mark, his team and the DGR community worldwide in their mission, to reach ever higher."
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Notes to Editors
ABOUT TRIUMPH
- First established in 1902, Triumph Motorcycles celebrated 118 years of motorcycle manufacture in 2020. For more than three decades, Triumph Motorcycles has been based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, and has produced iconic bikes that perfectly blend authentic design, character, charisma and performance.
- With more than 75,000 motorcycles delivered in financial year 2021, and close to 700 dealers across the world, Triumph is the largest British motorcycle manufacturer.
- This focus, innovation and engineering passion has today created a broad range of bikes suited to all motorcycle riders, including the stunning new Speed Triple 1200 RS and Trident 660, epic Tiger 900, world leading Rocket 3 R and GT, high performance Street Triple 765 RS, iconic Scrambler 1200, transcontinental Tiger 1200, and the legendary Triumph Bonneville family updated for 2021, including the Bonneville Bobber, Thruxton RS, Street Twin, Street Scrambler, and the iconic Bonneville T120 and T100, plus an exciting and accessible A2 range of Triumph motorcycles.
- Triumph currently employs around 2000 personnel worldwide and has subsidiary operations in the UK, North America, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Sweden (Scandinavia), Benelux, Brazil, India, China and Thailand as well as a network of independent distributors. Triumph has manufacturing facilities in Hinckley, Leicestershire, and Thailand plus CKD facilities in Brazil and India.
- The Triumph Bonneville, famously named to celebrate Triumph's 1956 land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, was the original British superbike and a race-winner straight out of the crate, chosen by famous motorcyclists of the past for its legendary handling, style, and character. Updated for 2021 with even more performance, capability and style, it's that handling, character and iconic looks, married to modern rider-focused technology that makes the new Bonneville family THE authentic modern classic choice today.
- Triumph has a glorious racing history, competing in and winning races in almost every class and field of motorcycle sporting achievement. From winning the second ever Isle of Man TT in 1908, through to 1960s road and track domination in Europe and America, right up to contemporary racing achievements with the 675cc Triumph triple powered 2014 Daytona 200 win, the 2014 Isle of Man Supersports TT win, the 2014 and 2015 British Supersports titles and World SuperSport racing, and in 2019, with another victory at the Isle of Man Supersports TT, by Peter Hickman.
- Triumph's racing legend continues as the exclusive engine supplier to the FIM Moto2™ World Championship since the start of the 2019 season. Triumph Motorcycles provides all of the teams with race-tuned 765cc triples, each of which is based on the class-leading Street Triple RS powerplant. Redefining the class and breaking record after record in the inaugural year, including the first ever +300km/h Moto2™ top speed, the 2020 season got even faster with another 11 all-time lap records and seven different winners from 15 races.
- Triumph's racing activities are further bolstered by a return to the British Superbike paddock in 2021 with a factory-supported race team, Dynavolt Triumph, in the British Supersport Championship.
- In 2021 Triumph have announced their forthcoming entry into the Motocross and Enduro worlds as well as a new factory racing effort, with a commitment to top tier championship racing in both Motocross and Enduro series.
ABOUT THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN'S RIDE
- The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride (DGR) unites hundreds of thousands of classic and vintage-style motorcycle riders all over the world to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men's mental health.
- The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride was founded in Sydney, Australia, in 2012 by Mark Hawwa. After inspiration from a photograph featuring classic suits and vintage motorcycles, Mark decided a themed ride would be a great way to combat the often-negative stereotype of motorcyclists and connect the global motorcycling community, and to raise funds for a cause important to every rider.
- DGR raises funds for its charity partner, Movember, and is dedicated to raising funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men's mental health programs. Together, we have funded key research and community programs to help men make better connections with mates and lead happier and healthier lives.
- Since its first year in 2012, our global community has raised almost $US30m for men's health. The event operates in over 700 cities and 114 countries around the world.
- For more information and to join your local ride, visit www.gentlemansride.com