Killspills London Rally

[Fordy]

Should have given this the heads up for any KB'ers in London, but my bike was drained of oil and petrol, cleaned for MAF and ready to be crated and I hadn't given the campaign any thought until a mate came round last night and reminded me. So at 7am this morning I was putting it back together again and headed down to London.

We descended at 9 am on the Ace Cafe, an iconic symols of biking locked into the rock'n'roll era but all the better for the nastalgic atmosphere. Those cafe racers look the nuts. By 11am there were 1,000 or more bikes in the car park, lined up along the road and parked across the pedestrial bridge - sprotsbikes, crusiers, trikes, trailies...even what looked like the Bergman scooters owners club, an awesome sight. This was the 2nd Killspills London Rally, organised to raise awareness to the hazard of diesel spills and to deliver to 10 Downing Street a message that something must be done to reduce the amount of diesels spilled on our roads. Asda, for example, give tool box talks to thier drivers on the hazards of 'necking' the tank and ensuring the cap it fitted correctly. Road users benefit, and Asda benefits too in reduced wastage.

Although I was not expected, a non-shower meant I got to be a marshall for the second time The rally set off at 1am. An escort of metropolitan police riders guided the rally the 36 km into central London. Junctions were closed to allow the 1,000 stong rally of bikes unimpeded access, we were waved through red lights and the coppers did a relay zooming up the outside with blues and twos on to keep a rolling blockade on the junctions. The marshalls were there to keep the outside lane clear to allow the police to do their job. Mostly it worked, but there were the odd few taxi drivers and deathwish pedestrians that decided their life was too important to wait the 15 minutes for the rally to pass

I believe we got into town with no incidents and parked up opposite the Houses of Parliament. The Killspills team were admitted to Downing Street, did their bit, and we did it all again back to the Ace where the party is still swinging but I had to head home.

A cool day out, and it even made the BBC. Pity the photo is from their library, it really doesn't do justice to all the people that turned out

[Bob]

Well done for going along and taking part. The KillSpills rally really does highlight the problems caused by diesel and overloading of tanks.

For more information, take a look at the KillSpills site at:

http://darrenbourne.co.uk/killspills/

I'd also like to give some praise to one of our Supermarkets over here, ASDA.

Asda won the The KillSpills/BMF Diesel Spills Reduction Award for 2005 for their work in briefing their drivers on the danger that diesel spillages present to motorcyclists.

Asda employ over 4,000 drivers on its vehicle fleet, covering over 130 million miles each year. As part of their programme, Asda have also exhibited KillSpills posters and ensured that all new drivers who join the Company also receive a briefing on preventing diesel spills.

Good to see a big company with a large fleet taking the problem seriously.

[Fordy]

Cheers Bob. A word from the Killspills team leader, Steve Edwards:

Thanks to everyone for attending todays KillSpills rally, and the marshals for doing a first class job.

The Metropolitan Police have asked me to pas on their thanks to the Marshals “who performed their duties perfectly” to quote them. They continued to say that they could not have got us to Westminster and back with out the professionalism shown by our marshals.

The White marshals kept the rally in line an dthe yellos did a fantastic job of closing the roads.

The Police count is 2,500 bikes, and given last year might be a little consetvative.

2,500 bikes....imagine

[Ixion]

What a BLOODY good idea.

Why can't we do something like that ?

We couldn't get 2500 bikes out, sure, but even a couple of hundred is impressive.

And, being a responsible cause etc, we should (maybe) be able to get the cops, St John and the oil companies into the loop also.

I see so many people here complaining about "diesel on the road" - well, why don't we do something about it instead of bitching?

I'm a starter . We need a where and when , and lots of names signed up - good social occasion too. Then bring in the official organisation and the press. (I'd say forget BRONZ and AA cos they're wankers, but I may be prejudiced)

[scumdog]

With the price of diesel being what it is I would think NOBODY would be able to afford to let it spill!!