Riders' Rights

30th July 1988

I can't remember which piece of 'perceived to be anti-motorcycling' legislation sparked the event, but several hundred, (thousand?), motorcyclists converged on Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park.

A group of friends and I went from the Woking, Surrey, area, including the very good friend that lent me his spare, nearly legal, BMW K100, as my R80RT had recently been the filler in a car sandwich, and was awaiting replacement.

There were certainly a lot of people there as, even with bikes parked two deep of both sides of the road, there was still quite a walk to the stage. I'm sure any ice cream or hot dog stall would have made a tidy fortune that day, but these were strangely absent.

Whatever the point was, there were several speakers, who went on earnestly for a couple of hours. I don't think anyone believed this would make any difference to the law-makers, but we felt better about things, except the ones that got booked for various construction-and-use offences, wearing kiddies police hats, or "looking at me in a funny way".

It took quite a while for all of us to get out of the place, as might be imagined, even with the assistance of the boys in blue. So, mostly, we just sat around watching the fun & games for a while, before tagging along at the end.

Phil Drackley - Phil the Spill