In the Wind Memorial Ride hitting the road in Balzac on July 22

BALZAC - The Busted Gearz Riding Club will be hosting its second annual “In the Wind Memorial Ride” motorcycle tour starting in Balzac on July 22.

The event is meant to help honour those in the local biker community who have passed away in the last year, and is open to anyone who wants to ride to remember anyone for any reason.

“There are a lot of memorial rides that are done for this person or that person, but this ride covers everybody,” explained Kaitlyn “Patch” Cochrane, founder and president of The Busted Gearz Riding Club. “It allows us to open up to the biker community the opportunity for them to ride for their reasons … We have an open ride so you can ride for whatever your purpose is – for that person you lost, you love.”

Registration is open at 9:30 a.m. at the New Horizon Mall in Balzac on Saturday, and the memorial ride gets underway starting at around 10:30 a.m. The ride will travel from Balzac to Beiseker Fire Hall, and then on to Carstairs Co-op, before returning back toward Water Valley Saloon, Cochrane GMC, and ending at the RockPointe Church in Bearspaw.

At each stop, riders will hear speakers talking about one of the Five Stages of Grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

Snacks and water bottles will be provided, but participants are asked to buy their own lunch at the Water Valley Saloon when the memorial ride stops there.

Participants are welcome to ride all day or come for how many legs of the journey they would like, according Cochrane, who emphasized all participants must ride sober.

“They are not obligated to come for all of it, if they don’t want to,” she confirmed. “They can come for a leg or the whole thing. Or they can meet us somewhere and just say, ‘hi.’”

Cochrane hoped many would come out to the event to take part in this emotional act of remembrance for the loved ones they have lost from the motorcycle community.

“We’re bikers,” she stated. “We’re all family. If you’ve got family that used to ride and loved to ride, come out and join us and ride with them in the wind.”