Know More. Ride More.

What’s The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride? 🧐 

Since 2012, the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride has been uniting classic and vintage motorcycle enthusiasts worldwide to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men's mental health.

This brilliant idea was the brainchild of Mark Hawwa, who was inspired by the dapper Don Draper riding a classic bike in the TV series Mad Men. Mark thought, "Hey, why not bring together the fine folks of the motorcycling world and do some good while looking sharp?"

And the results have been truly impressive. To date, the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride has raised a whopping $37.5 million for men's health and brought together over 340,000 stylish riders from 121 countries around the globe.

Last year's ride was a record-breaker:

• 94,000 riders

• Raised $6 million

• 804 cities

• 101 countries

So, how can you join this dapper brigade? It's simple, really. Just register, fundraise or donate, and then ride out in your most elegant attire. Whether you're a seasoned motorcycle enthusiast or just getting started, this ride is a great way to connect with like-minded individuals while supporting a worthy cause.

This year, Aleksey of Nice Day Moto has partnered with the ride out of NYC on May 21st.

The brew itself is no slouch either, roasted every Tuesday by Fabrizio Verga, in a beautiful Pulley Collective facility by the water in the Red Hook, Brooklyn area. for DGR, stay for the brew, and say hi to Aleksey! Take some snaps of his gorgeous URAL setup too.

Electric bikes are going to be great

But not yet…

There are for sure situations that I think they can be of use but when you really think about it or especially try one in that situation, you’ll poke holes pretty quickly.

Take this scenario for example: You’re in a big city (let’s say Manhattan) and park in a garage where you can charge the bike. Great, right? Problem is that riding a silent bike in a city built on noise is just a recipe for disaster. People cross without looking and cars switch lanes without thinking (and also without looking). I rode a Livewire through the city for 2 weeks and I have never feared more for my life or the people around me. Splitting through traffic is nerve racking as it is but try doing that on a silent bike and you’ll realize new levels of stress.

How about group rides? I’ve really tried to make sense of it but unless your group rides are exclusively made up of electric bikes and you’re a small group (good luck finding charging stations supporting more than 5 riders at a time), it just doesn’t make much sense for group riders either.

So who’s it for then?

Cake has made some pretty amazing pieces of kit for dirt and an everyday commuter. Surron has a few proper dirt bikes too. Evoke is set to release a 400 mile electric tourer which I’m keeping a close eye on and let’s see if Damon can come to market with some bold promises of power, range, and features. Ducati is using the excuse of insufficient battery tech while at the same time being the sole supplier of electric racing motorcycles for the FIM MotoE electric motorcycle racing series.

Until then and into the foreseeable future, I’ll be sitting on a proper engine (not motor) but will start feathering in an electric as soon as I see something viable in the market.

There are 9 castles around NYC 🏰 

Honestly, I had not idea until just a few years ago. I knew about Bannerman Castle, Oheka, and Belvedere. I did some digging & rode out to 6 others in NYC, on Long Island, and up North around Peekskill & Ossining.

Check out this route:

It’s a long, complicated ride with many variables (such as NY borough traffic) to consider so we've tried to incorporate a few variations to make this as approachable as possible.

The whole ride is around 4.5 hours but really depends on traffic and whatever detours you take. We do our best to touch on some twisties (especially on Long Island and upstate) but the priority here was to see the castles in one day. There are tons of opportunities to take detours for curvier roads. Check out our suggestions in the guide.

Our rider group (Empire Ducati) visited Oheka Castle a month or so ago on our own take on the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride and had zero regrets. Great ride out, fantastic views and grounds, awesome lunch, and good vibes.

The entire guide with castle descriptions, food options, the full route with Google Maps link is available here as a downloadable PDF for $7.97.