lol!
I must admit this one passed me by and to be honest if I had of been well enough to do it I wouldn’t of as in my opinion KIll Spills has been killed off by the Health and Safety brigade.
This event has ben sanitised - lets face it 600 or so bikers riding to a biking event on bikes protesting about a biking issue is not going to grab the interest of the public at large. It was always going to be a bit limp. I feel for the guys who put the work in to this event - but once they were forced to change the format it was never going to be the same event and would pass people by.
I’d be interested to see how many HGVs were stopped and checked for leaking, over filled or poorly closed tanks now that Police manpower wasn’t so concentrated on this protest compared to last year.
And I echo Mat’s point about highlighting this more next year. It’s clearly a thing you are passionate about and as a host you have a great oppurtunity to give it the profile it deserves.
This was posted by the organisers on 22 May
"Firstly, thank you for attending all of our rallies, your support has been much appreciated.
With regards to holding another KillSpills rally, in the same format as previous years, this simply would not have worked. I understand your views, but you must understand ours. If it would have been possible, we would have done another London rally, but it sadly, if we had continued to do as we have done before, we would not have had an event in 2007.
We have made a lot of progress with Government, and KillSpills now sits on several sub groups of the National Motorcycle Council which are tasked with delivering the Governments National Motorcycling Strategy. We have not been nobbled. KillSpills sit on these groups to represent ordinary riders rights, and to work to remove the dangers of diesel spills from our roads. Before Christmas, the DfT undertook a survey of bikers, at our request, they prepared a web based version of the questionnaire, which we promoted via various biking forums.
At the last meeting I attended at the DfT only a couple of weeks ago, the United Kingdom Petroleum Industry Association was invited to attend by the DfT at our request. At this meeting KillSpills tabled an anti diesel spill leaflet, which we would like to see displayed in all UK petrol stations. The UKPIA were very anti this, however the DfT backed us, saying to the UKPIA that they are ducking the issue. Again the DfT backed KillSpills when we asked the UKPIA to meet separately to discuss this issue. The DfT said that they will also attend this meeting, as they see this as a way of promoting this danger to the public.
When you are lobbying, there is a time to protest and a time to work. We are now in the work phase of the campaign, however, the DfT know, and I have told them this, that if necessary, we will bring 10,000 bikes to Parliament, but now is not the time.
We had planned to continue working on the campaign this year, without a further event. BikeFest UK offered KillSpills exclusive use of Donington Parks track for one hour, and we thought what could we do with this? Perhaps we should hold the rally at Donington and go for the world record of the most bikes riding around the world famous track. The 2007 event has grown from this. You will appreciate that the safety of our riders is of paramount importance, and to have an off road event is significantly safer than an event in Central London. Furthermore, we have pulled together the largest display area within the Bikefest UK event, with training and safety organisations, the emergency services and Highways Agency being present.
However, I believe, that it is still important to have a presence in London, hence the 617 ride. There are cost implications of delivering such an event. We have obtained a significant amount of funding for this, primarily from the BMF (our major sponsor) , however, we are asking each rider to pay for their fuel (which they always do), entry to BikeFest UK and make a contribution towards their breakfast and t shirt. The logistics of what we are undertaking, mean that we have to pre buy all the fuel and the breakfasts. Given the nature of the ride, all riders must have a KillSpills T shirt, and at the end of the event, we need to get you all into BikeFest UK. The fee, £27.50, has been discounted by £15.50, by our sponsors. Our main sponsor the BMF have also covered the cost of policing the event, which is not insignificant.
The aim of this years event, is not to lobby Government, they are listening, but to get the general media on board, so as to promote the dangers of diesel spills. Interestingly, whilst we have been campaigning, we have seen KSI statistics for diesel related motorcycle accidents reduce by almost 60%. During the same time, diesel related KSI accidents for other road users have INCREASED by almost 50%. Hence we want greater media involvement to publicise this danger. Hence also promoting the anti diesel spill leaflet.
A lot of work is continuing on the campaign, this year, yes, we have designed a fun filled day. Yes we have taken up the offer of BikeFest UK. I hope that you can understand where we are coming from. We have to do something different, we just can not continue to do what we have done before. The doors are now open to KillSpills, we want them to remain open. If you think that this means that we will become lap dogs to the DfT, you are wrong. We have the biking community behind us, the last three rallies have proven that. We are an independent group, who can and do ask the difficult questions. We are not doing this for pleasure, we want to make a difference.
Kind regards and tanks for your support over the years"
So they did not want a similar protest as previous years as they are already making progress in their view.
I really wanted to attend & support, but could not because of family commitments.
Thanks for going Ginger on my behalf as a motorcyclist and posting, real shame it turned into a them & us rant TNFOYO
I didn’t even know it was on!
i was working…
keeping the skys of london the safest in the world
roger wilco smiled
Slightly disappointing turn-out, but not too bad I thought. If there had been many more the stops at ITN and the BBC would have been very over-crowded.
As it was I found it a fun day, very good value - GBP25 for the T-shirt, brekker and fuel was a bargain IMHO, and that doesn’t even touch on the entry fee to Bikefest or a track fee. And it’s not every day you get a thumbs-up from the Police for riding a scooter at over 100 on the M1! 
It is of no import whether more people turned up from one club/organisation or another - if I choose to I could have said I was representing about 8 all at once…
One thing these rides do for the good is to reinforce the camaraderie between the Police bikers and the rest of us mere mortals. I hope that once the Police know they have a strong core of ‘stewards’ they can call upon for Police-led rides, the more feasible they will become in these cost-conscious days.
Here’s for a good turn-out for the Unity Ride and BCW!
we was in the garden!!!
and guess wat!!! we are still in the fooking garden!!!
plus we were and are sorting out ginas
bike so we can go outside the m25!!we may or may not of been there as we were in disguise as we might have had tlb tops on
GINGER!!! YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WAT YOU ARE!!
I think the publicity for this thing was ridiculously low…I always thought Kill Spills was towards the end of the year around and was planning to go this year as I’ve always seen the gang roll by my office (used to work weekends) and I vowed to make it when I could.
I agree with JB…Why can’t we be able to protest like everyone else in London? If a gang of cyclists wanted to do a demo, I’m sure they would be allowed, why can’t we?
I didn’t even know the thing was on until someone told me. It was too late because I’d already booked Bikefest.
Maybe Londonbikers have to sponsor an event like this now…
Money certainly wouldn’t be an obstacle for me if they did organise one and I’m sure that would be the general consensus amongst many other forum members.
Where else do you think it should have been publicised? It was on just about every UK bikers’ forum (on here at least twice!), in MCN, MCM, BMF’s and MAG’s bi-monthly magazines, etc etc. Any clues as to how to publicise better gratefully accepted.
I must have just missed it because I assumed it was later on 
Maybe try getting the info into bike shops like Hein Gericke or Infinity would be good…Don’t know if that’s being done already cos not seen the flyers.
Yeah sorry Jim - I’m pretty in touch with what’s going on and I managed to miss it altogether too…
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Yeah just seemed to pass people by…
Like many people will agree if you have an interest in it then you would have been there. Its not worth getting all up tight about it as its not like an event will fail because no one from here turned up .
Well done to all that turned up and had a fun time. Hope to see you there next time
It’s no big deal if folk missed it - I suspect they just see ‘KillSpills’ and they subconsciously think ‘done that’ and don’t pick up the flag that it’s a new one. wotmeworry etc…
I had a fun day, and the £25 fee was well worth it for a well organised run. Yes, OK maybe it was sanitised, but we still got loads of people looking and asking questions all throughout the day.
Would have loved to create havoc as well with thousands of bikers clogging up london, but as with many things in politics, sometimes you have to tow the line, and if havoc is caused year and after year on a regular basis without level-headed dialog with the authorities, it just becomes an expected annoyance, rather than a meaningful protest. At least if the organisers have done it the ‘proper’ way for a few years then cant have the arguement (which is very often levelled at such protests) ‘you didnt do this properly therefore we are not going to take notice’ which is often quoted to ensure that the people in power dont have to make uncomfortable decisions.
even the 300 odd bikes that were there did create a large footprint in london and up the M1. If they do the same format next year, I will sign up, no problem.
Can see your point…Slowly…slowly catchee monkey I guess.
Is there an upper limit to the number of attendees now?
Will try and make it next year…It’s a good cause.
So did we get on the news? BBC, ITN, even if only the local bulletins?
Yeah I spoke to someone that saw us on the news, not sure which channel.
Nothing on BBC website though…