Jim Baker

I'm Riding for Men's Health in The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride

I first learned of this event in 2016, on the day it happened, too late to join. I had just moved to Colorado, had no friends or network out here, and had a big ugly dirt bike as well.  So that winter I bought a Triumph Bonneville, specifically so I could attend the next year's event.

That bike led to a club, which led to another club, which led to another ... DGR has given back to me in a very real sense that my entire social life out here is anchored in the fact that I saw a friend's Facebook post about the event. I've done every event since 2017, and adopted it as my pet cause.

If I'm honest, though, I didn't really think that hard about the cause itself; it was the event that really attracted me - a profoundly silly activity performed by alleged grownups; selfish reasons that incidentally benefitted a great cause.  But in 2020, the cause became a bigger deal for me. The photo here is Sid Lane, a friend and co-worker to me and my wife for two decades, who we lost to suicide that year.

Sid was smart, funny, charming, and a brilliant engineer.  He left behind two teenaged children and a girlfriend, and …. no one knows why.  There are literally hundreds of people who would have done anything to help Sid if they’d known, but they didn’t.  This is what DGR and Movember Foundation are combatting; trying to get people who can’t or won’t ask for the help they need.  I think of Sid now every time I do this ride, and hope that what we do helps someone like him, and the people who love him.