The biking community welcomed them with open arms. A few weeks after Myers’ death, his widow Liliana Orzac, together with Woodcock and King, decided to organise the commemorative ride, expecting only a few hundred to join. 

Within weeks, 27,000 had signed up to the event’s Meta (formerly Facebook) page, with £30,000 raised for the charities NSPCC Childline and The Institute of Cancer Research, by the time the race began.

On Saturday morning, thousands turned out at the starting point – the Ace Café, a legendary biker’s hangout, first popular in the 1950s. Many had travelled a great distance – one had driven down from Barrow. As many as 20,000 were expected to join en route, from pit stops including Oxford and the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull.