Kent Event Marshalls and a Giant Ride Out of Kawasaki Vulcans
A Kawasaki Vulcan
It’s 2024, and Kent Event Marshals’ calendar has become as full again as it was before Covid. But with it new types of events have arrived - a couple of mass runs/walks in support of hospices, and helping British Masters’ Racing Club as safety marshals on cycle races in Kent, Surrey, Essex and even Derbyshire. But this event was completely new to us - marshalling a mass ride out of Kawasaki Vulcan riders gathered from all over Europe at the University of Kent at Canterbury.
There were going to be a lot of them!
At 7a.m. on the day, 12 KEM members arrived near the meeting place at the university sports center. And just for the photo opportunity rode in fully kitted a s a group.
It was a bike event and, clearly, nothing happens before food and we were invited to breakfast with the riders, to a full English in the main tennis hall…
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Shortly after testing our communications (radios which Bluetooth to Sena/Cardo) the Vulcans started to arrive. We helped marshal them into ride groups. There were to be four groups, all colour coded and wrist banded and we were amazed at the variety of nationalities. Between us we could manage French, German and Italian, but after that it was Google translate! Finnish, Croatian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish were beyond us, but many spoke English.
The assembled bikes made an awesome sight!
There was a final briefing for KEM from our team leader, Mark Sutton, then a joint briefing with the VRA marshals, who would act as tail end charlies. It was essential to know who the last riders for us were, so they were the only other riders in Hi-Vis. Each of our four teams then distributed cards among the riders with the postcode of their destination, and essential timings.
At 9 a.m. the first group set off, followed five minutes later by the next, and 20 minutes later the third, and then fourth. Successive groups used alternate routes (i.e. there were two routes,) so as not cause too much disturbance to traffic and residents:
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Return journeys used the opposite route for each group.
The journeys were pretty uneventful - maybe because Top Gear rules applied - you drop out, you get left behind. (Well not entirely true. The purpose of KEM’s presence is to provide a safety role and in the event of a crash or injury a KEM member would stay with the incident to manage it).
Marshalling differed from our usual cycle events in that the convoy speed was higher, but the big bikes seemed to prefer to cruise at 40-45 mph, so even that wasn’t a problem. Marshalling was by warning and guiding, and the radios were essential for advising ahead when traffic was clear at junctions and roundabouts. When the peloton split, we reverted to dropping off to mark junctions.
It was interesting to hear a German biker say he would never complain about German roads again after this event! (We can believe that! – Editor). Also interesting to hear that the convoy “rule of 15” applies to motos as well as cycles in Germany (the convoy is regarded as one long vehicle for the purpose of traffic lights and junctions) and that in several countries the rule at busy roundabouts is to ‘zip merge’ rather than give way.
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So where do the European elite heavy bike riders go for their fun? Well apart from riding 800km to get here, and having a party every night at their base in the university halls of residence, they wanted a ride on this: |
Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railways welcomed the visitors, and two chartered trains took them to Hythe for Fish and Chips and paddling, before returning them at 3 p.m. to pick up their bikes. KEM looked after the bikes which filled the otherwise closed car park.
Fortunately, there was a cafe handy, and the sun shone!
We returned to the University at 5 p.m. picking up a few lost Vulcans at petrol stations on the way.
Two of our committee members put in a lot of work designing the routes - and by good groundwork discovered that it was New Romney’s Rural Fair day, with widespread road closures. They were able to route us round those, showing how important planning can be.
All in all, it was a fun and satisfying day, and from the many remarks we received, our work was much appreciated. If you would like to join in the fun with Kent Event Marshals, please contact Roger Pinnock on 07747 015200 or by