The 2023 motorcycling season has got off to a slow start with mixed weather conditions, but now the weather gods have decided to start smiling and in just in time for the season opener at the Devitt MCN Festival of Motorcycling over the weekend of May 13th & 14th 2023.
As has become an annual tradition for the PECAM group we were invited to provide ride marshals for the manufacturers test fleet demo rides. Part of the deal is that if we provide the test fleet marshals we get an excellent pitch for our promotional gazebo.
This year we turned up on Friday afternoon to a mixture of swamp land and lake. OK, a slight exaggeration but it was wet and obviously muddy.
We were positioned in the manufacturers area next to Wheels, who were representing Kawasaki and Suzuki at the show. Four of us had gone to the showground via Wheels to pick up 4 Zero EV bikes, which were going to be part of the test fleet. We met Bob Stewart at the ‘pitch’ and unloaded the new gazebo, looking great with white sides and a blue roof.
Over the weekend we had a steady stream of visitors to the stand, although interest was noticeably down on previous years. This is in part due to the show being somewhat smaller than previously with almost 21,000 guests over the two days. Last year it was in the mid-30 thousands.
Thanks to all who helped erect, man, and take down the stand. Your help is very much appreciated, and to Kevin Wishart for your overall management of the stand.
Also, special thanks to Bob Stewart for ‘borrowing’ the flooring for the test that saved the team from the worst of the quagmire, as well as for fetching and carrying the gazebo and sundry equipment.
Devitt MCN Festival of Motorcycling Ride Marshals
This year we were asked to ride marshal six manufacturers, who had brought fleets of different sizes for the attendees to try out.
The format followed what had worked so well in previous years with each manufacturer offering 3 rides per session, with 4 sessions over the weekend – Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon.
PECAM offers a ride lead for each ride for each session, and where the group is more than 6 bikes we also use a tail-ender (TEC). On really large groups, which we did not have this year, we also use a ride marshal in the centre of the group.
PECAM have designed 6 routes, of which we no longer use one of them. Two of the routes are for various versions of electric bike, and account for limited range available on the bikes. The routes have been put together and adapted over many years, and our local knowledge really helps give the test group really good rides on generally very quiet roads.
This year the six manufacturers were: Herald, Binelli, CCM, Zero, BSM and Super Soco.
Martin Jones took over management of the test ride team and worked out the very complex schedule to make the weekend work. We were helped to some extent by being allocated a room in the main arena building where the very busy ride marshal team could escape for a coffee, it was also the best place for the start-of-day briefing.
The weather played its part by staying dry, the ‘punter’s played their part by signing up and in all except one person being generally being well behaved and the PECAM team were amazing, showing real skill in leading the groups on strange bikes and unknown roads.
Thanks to all of you who gave up your weekend to play an important role.