Ring of Red: hundreds of bikers draw a giant poppy around Manchester
On Sunday, November 8, 2026 — Remembrance Sunday in Britain — hundreds of motorcyclists turned Manchester’s ring road into a giant poppy. For nearly 36 miles (58 km), they rode in a line around the M60, red T-shirts over their riding gear, tracing the flower of remembrance with their bikes, as seen from above. It was the 13th edition of the Ring of Red, a ride that mixes tribute to service personnel with fundraising for veterans.
The ride set off from Birch Services on the M62 at about 1 p.m. From there, the procession joined the M60, the motorway ring around Manchester, and rode the full loop. Residents gathered on the footbridges over the motorway to watch the red line pass and wave; riders answered with waves, horns and flashing headlights, and passing motorists sounded their horns in support. Earlier that morning, thick fog had disrupted roads across Greater Manchester; it had cleared by the time the riders set off, just in time.
The ride raises money for the Heywood Veterans Association, which supports veterans in Heywood, Middleton and surrounding areas. Local station Roch Valley Radio, which covered the event, had chosen the association as its nominated charity for 2026, and according to its coverage, the money raised supports the association’s work. But the money is only half the story: the Ring of Red is also a public tribute to service personnel, past and present. The ride combines a public act of remembrance with fundraising, and it draws spectators as well as riders: its red-clad procession can be seen from the motorway bridges all along the M60 as the motorcyclists make the circuit. Jeanette Kiely handles much of the organisation, at the request of the event’s founder, Julia Stevenson. In 2022, Kiely called the ride “a hugely popular physical show of support for the armed forces, both past and present.”
The same day, Manchester marked Remembrance Sunday downtown: hundreds gathered at the Cenotaph in St Peter’s Square, and veterans, military personnel and cadets marched from John Dalton Street to the Cenotaph, led by the GMP Band. The poppy is the symbol of remembrance across the Commonwealth, and it has marked Remembrance Day for more than a century — the first Poppy Appeal in Britain, in 1921, sold out almost immediately. It is a symbol born of a Canadian poem, “In Flanders Fields,” written in 1915 by army doctor John McCrae. In Quebec as in Britain, people wear it on their lapels in November.
Here in Quebec, Remembrance Day falls on November 11, three days after the Manchester ride. Riding season is winding down, but the gesture stays the same: wear the poppy, keep two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. — the very hour the 1918 Armistice came into effect — and think of those who never came home. The Ring of Red is a reminder that a motorcycle can serve that purpose too — not only to ride far, but to remember together. And if the idea of a remembrance ride speaks to you, keep it in mind for next season: a procession of riders in red on a Quebec road would be a fine sight too.
Photos
Main photo: a giant poppy and a military vehicle in Weymouth, England, for Remembrance Day (November 1, 2018). It is not a photo of the Manchester ride: it illustrates the poppy as a symbol. Photo: Andrew Bone, CC BY licence, Wikimedia Commons.
