Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride New York 2023

The annual charity motorcycle ride takes place in locations across the world: this year, Brummell went Stateside for the event

Motoring 14 Jun 2023

Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride New York 2023

Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride New York 2023

In Serpico, the 1973 film starring Al Pacino as a New York police department detective who blows the whistle on police corruption (a true story, by the way), the hero rides his Honda CB77 motorbike around New York, and call me a cliché, but that image made me want to do the same.

Well, last weekend I got to. And not only did I ride around New York City, I did so in the company of some 600 other bikers, on roads that were kept open for us by a police escort. And, unlike Pacino’s 305cc vertical twin, I was on a Triumph Bonneville T120, but more on that later.

This was The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride New York-style. Big, bold and unapologetic. We met at Grand Central Station in the morning, where the organisers had cordoned off the Park Avenue Viaduct, the bridge route around the building, as a meeting point for the participants. As we have come to expect from the DGRs that take place each year around the world, it was as if a whole community of dressed-up riders on all manner of machines, many with a custom/vintage vibe, had answered some sort of biker clarion call. Which, in a sense, they had.

Several hundred dressed-up bikers took to New York's streets on all manner of machines
Several hundred dressed-up bikers took to New York’s streets on all manner of machines

As this was the US, I expected it to be a Harley-Davidson-fest, and indeed there were a lot of “hogs” on show, as well as a bunch of machines by fellow legendary American bike marque, Indian. But I was pleasantly surprised to also see a lot of non-US bikes too – Ducatis, BMWs, Royal Enfields and, a real surprise this, a lot of British Triumphs.

Triumph sponsors this charity ride all over the world, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the company from the East Midlands will be well represented. But here in the States, Triumphs have become more and more popular, and when I went to pick mine up from the dealership in Westchester on the rainy Saturday before Sunday’s ride, the showroom was busy.

The bike I was lent to fulfil my Serpico fantasy was a Bonneville T120, a lovely 1200cc machine with a parallel twin engine. In London I ride a Triumph Thruxton 900 all the time, so I am familiar with how these modern machines feel, and have long been a fan of their effortless balance and punchy-enough performance. These Triumph classics are great for those of us who want riding to be a comfortable, modern experience, but to also have the old-school appeal of the time when motorcycling came of age. My Thruxton at home looks like it might have been made in the Sixties, but it is only a few years old. The benefit is that it starts every time and doesn’t break down. Or leak oil all over my front drive.

The T120 is a similar beast, though the engineering has been much improved even since I bought my Triumph. It really is an astonishingly smooth ride, and on the streets of Manhattan, putting out enough of a throaty roar to satisfy, without being so loud as to be antisocial, it is the perfect vehicle: light enough to be manoeuvrable, large enough to command the road, powerful enough to step up on the highways. And, of course, good looking enough to turn heads. The day after the ride, I was parked up in SoHo and was asked by a guy, ‘How old is it?’ I told him it was, in fact, a new bike, expecting to surprise and, perhaps, to disappoint. He answered simply: ‘It’s beautiful.’

As the name suggests, The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride involves a certain degree of peacockery
As the name suggests, The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride involves a certain degree of peacockery

So, back to Sunday. The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, as the name suggests, requires a bit of peacockery and I did make an effort. But not nearly as much as some of the others. One rider was in a gold and black suit, another in a crash helmet that had been customised to resemble a grey version of Animal from The Muppets. There were, of course, many stylish dudes in stylish tailoring. But there were also many stylish women riding too – one that stood out was in a striking pink suit with a cherry-red crash helmet, matching red lipstick and platform boots that looked like they’d been splattered with many colours of paint.

The style choices of the event's participants were as varied as their vehicles, but in one way or another, everyone made a statement
The style choices of the event’s participants were as varied as their vehicles, but in one way or another, everyone made a statement

We rode until lunchtime – to the West Side Highway and to the top of the island, past the George Washington Bridge; then across and back down the other side along Harlem River Drive and FDR Drive; then over the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn before circling back over the Brooklyn Bridge; then it was through China Town and up the West Side Highway again to the finish in the Meatpacking District. The police escort ensured we moved at a clip. I’ve done the DGR in London a couple of times, where you feel like you are on a leisurely motorised stroll through the city. This was faster – even in Manhattan itself, riding around the grid, we were up to speeds that you’d find hard to manage on a normal day because of the traffic. But our NYPD escort made sure we were unencumbered by the many, many traffic lights, and cheered on by the spectators that lined the route, we fairly roared through the Sunday peace and quiet like some extraordinarily elegant biker gang.

The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride has been an annual event since 2012 and taken place in locations around the world, each with their own personality
The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride has been an annual event since 2012 and taken place in locations around the world, each with their own personality

As well as the London DGR, I once did the Milan version. There, things were predictably sprezzatura, the whole affair like some motorised passeggiata. In NYC it was all a little more sporty, a little more gutsy. A little more American. I felt the ghost of McQueen and Brando riding alongside me. And of course imagined myself as Pacino playing Frank Serpico, with his long hair and moustache. With the added twist of being on a beautiful big British bike.

The 2023 DGR raised $7.02m, with 104,504 riders taking part in 893 rides across 107 countries to support the Movember foundation.

Triumph Bonneville T120, from £11,795; triumphmotorcycles.co.uk