Triumph Motorcycles and the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride renew their partnership for five more years
Triumph Motorcycles are proud to announce that they will continue as main partner and supporter of The Distinguished Gentleman 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 are proud to have played a key role in partnership with 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’s 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 their 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 8 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 28th September 2014 the first Triumph-sponsored DGR took place in 58 counties, 257 cities and it was attended by 20,000 dapper-dressed classic and vintage riders, raising a total of $1.5m. Growing to 79 countries, 410 cities, 37,000 riders and $2.3m raised in 2015, and 90 countries, 57,000 riders and $3.6m in 2016, these numbers have just kept growing and growing – up to the DGR’s record breaking year in 2019, where 116,00 riders raised $6m 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 2,531 locations riding solo together, all connected together 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 $4.1m, $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 have 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, 8 years later as we announce the 5-year continuation of this partnership, I am even more excited than I was in 2014 because, with the next 5 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 last 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”
