Thousands of Bikers Join ‘Dave Day’ Ride to Honor Dave Myers

 Thousands of Bikers Join ‘Dave Day’ Ride to Honor Dave Myers

Fundraiser includes motorcycle procession from London to Barrow-in-Furness in honor of late Hairy Bikers star

Clea Skopeliti

Sat 8 Jun 2024 12.14 BST

Thousands of people gathered on Saturday to celebrate “Dave Day” in honor of the late Hairy Bikers star, Dave Myers.

Myers, who was one half of the motorcycle-riding cooking duo along with Si King, passed away from cancer in February at the age of 66.

The celebration of Myers’s life, which is fundraising for the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and the children’s charity the NSPCC, includes a motorcycle procession from London to his hometown of Barrow-in-Furness, where a concert and a service of remembrance were held.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast from London, King said the day would be a “celebration of my best friend that we’ve lost.”

Surrounded by a crowd of bikers donning Hawaiian shirts, King remarked on the group’s attire: “Everybody’s got that lovely Dave sartorial elegance about them, i.e., dodgy shirt. Some of them have had them specially printed, it’s remarkable.” He joked: “I mean, you wouldn’t buy a secondhand car from them, would you?”

King estimated that 20,000 people would participate in Dave Day. “It’s a celebration of my best friend that we’ve lost. And, yeah, it is very emotional. You never know how these things are going to impact you. It is a celebration of Dave’s life. That’s why we’re here, because he was so irritatingly positive all of the time. And we love him, and that’s why we’re here.”

Participants waved as thousands of motorcyclists rode from London to Barrow ahead of Dave Day to celebrate the life of the Hairy Biker.

Myers announced in May 2022 that he was receiving treatment for cancer but did not specify the type, telling the Guardian that this was “because everybody then goes Googling, everybody becomes an amateur doctor … And I don’t want to be judged.”

Saturday’s celebration was expected to draw participants from abroad as well as from across the UK, Myers’s widow Lili told BBC Breakfast. “We have people coming from all over the country. We have people coming from Texas, from Malaysia, from all over Europe.”

She added that the event had helped her feel she was not alone. “Oh, it’s endearing. It just helps me go through my process of grief. Because it just makes me feel that I’m not on my own with all this,” she said.