Good first impressions.
This year was my first year attending a Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, the yearly event held worldwide by Movember Foundation and partners to fundraise for men’s health initiatives including prostate cancer and male suicide prevention.
The premise of the day is great: everybody dons a dapper outfit and fires up their (mostly) classic bikes, then heads on a big group ride.
Adelaide’s leg was organised and hosted by Midwest Trader, featuring several hundred in attendance with some amazing classic and modified motorcycles, and stylish outfits to boot.
The Day
The brief was to meet in Ebenezer Place, but there were so many attendees that bikes were parked up and down various adjoining laneways and the numbers even spilled out into part of Rundle Street. Many cafes had opened up and were doing a great job of getting everybody breakfasted and filled with coffee for the ride ahead.
The East End really came alive for the event, it was excellent to see.
I loved the microphone tail light. 
VERY vintage Indian.
Riders then made their way to the west side and rode up towards Semaphore before turning on Hart Street to stop at Hart’s Mill, where you could really appreciate the sheer number of people who turned up for the ride. The cacophony of noise was breathtaking, in the best of ways.
Excuse the mobile phone quality:
I bumped into my friend Nick who was sporting a cool Marlon Brando-esque look with an asymmetrical leather jacket over a white shirt, knit tie, wide leg chinos and boots, attending on his Honda CX500 cafe racer.
Straight out of The Wild One.
Nick’s CX was a seriously cool looking bit of kit. I tried folding myself up to sit on it and felt like I was going to split the seam of my trousers; it reminded me of a motorcycle I owned years ago that had a similar seating position, though the one I had didn’t look anywhere near as good as this one.
Fantastic styling and paint job.
After an hour of everyone socialising and admiring all of the bikes, the final leg went to the Maid and Magpie Hotel in the near northeast.
Once everybody had arrived, several awards were given out including best dressed, best facial hair and one for the bike everyone thought was least likely to make it.
There was some stiff competition for the title of best beard.
My Ride
I brought out my work in progress Yamaha XVS1100 for the ride. I wore a Boss suit and shirt that I didn’t care about too much, in case of any issues that might have ended up with me covered in grease and/or oil!
It’s one of the better Boss cuts I’ve seen, however it is still fused construction and the lapels are skinnier than I would prefer. The trouser length could be slightly longer for some break too.
I can’t complain too much – I paid $25 for it and haven’t altered it at all. It’s a good beater suit. Come to think about it, this whole outfit probably cost about $100 (minus the sunglasses).
‘You’re right, I did forget my collar stays.’ 
Paired with it was an old Dents flat cap and chocolate brown shoes. I would have preferred something with a brim as it would have looked better with the suit, but I don’t currently have one. Something for the purchase list…
I think it still scrubbed up decently overall.
Want to see more?
With DGR events happening all over the world, the Gentleman’s Ride website or facebook page is a good place to start.
On Instagram, people are using the hashtags #gentlemansride, #DGR2019 and #ridedapper.
For the Adelaide leg, I believe Midwest Trader are doing their best to find and share as much media from the event as they can on their Facebook page (tagged at the top of this article). They did a great job in putting on such a well organised event.
That’s all for today!
Thanks for reading. Did you go to your local DGR? Tell me about it! Remember to follow STS on Facebook and Instagram for additional content.
Special thanks to Nick Lawrence for taking the time to grab a couple of snaps of my outfit on the day.
SamTalksStyle 
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