My friends Dave and Ronnie

I first met Dave and Ronnie (Veronica) Hebblethwaite in the late 1980's when they joined the Suzuki Owners Club (SOC) shortly after myself. Dave, with his background of local political organisations, quickly became involved with his local SOC Centre - Yorkshire. He took on the roll of Centre Secretary and with Ronnie's help developed the Yorkshire Centre into one of the largest SOC Centres in the country. Dave then progressed to National Chairman of the SOC which saw him become involved in organising national and international events. Myself, Dave and Ronnie gave up a lot of our time and money to staff big events such as the International Motorcycle Show held annually at the NEC Birmingham. We would spend 10 days at the Show trying to persuade Suzuki owners and riders to join the SOC. The only reward for this commitment was the satisfaction of signing up new members to the Club and talking all day about motorcycles with like minded people. After Dave and myself had concluded our SOC National Committee membership we both continued to participate at local level. By this time Dave had discovered the Cavalcade and had purchased his first Cade. Dave was the first person to show a Cavalcade at the prestigious Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show held annually in Stafford every October. Dave wanted to know how many Cavalcades there were in the UK (they were not available to buy new in the UK and would be imported from the USA or Europe) so he formed the Suzuki Cavalcade Club UK (SCCUK). He gathered together a small but enthusiastic group of UK Cade riders and organised several national and international events. This included a tour of Scotland which was well attended by several Cavalcade riders from Sweden. After a few years of little activity in the SCCUK Dave was surprised to hear that I had purchased a Cavalcade which had been owned by a former SOC National Committee member. I had actually ridden with this Cavalcade on many rides not knowing I would eventually own it nearly 20 years later. This inspired Dave to organise more SCCUK events as Andy Wainwright had now contacted Dave and was keen to ride with other Cade owners. After several UK rides and meetings during which only one other Cavalcade had attended we thought it might be a good idea to try and organise a European event in a country where there were more Cavalcades. This led to the organising of the European Cade Raid 2007 in the Netherlands (Holland). We were only expecting a handfull of Cades to attend but we were pleasantly surprised to have 15 Cavalcades from 5 countries. The European Cade Raid attendance peaked in 2010 in Sweden where 31 Cavalcades came together. This was almost certainly the largest gathering of Cavalcades outside of the USA. Many of the regular attendees of the Cade Raids have now become good friends even though the meetings are only once a year. Dave has successfully encouraged other Cade riders to organise the European Cade Raid in their own countries. He has also assisted in organising the European Cavalcade website and now has a new project - The Cavalier E-Magazine . Dave is clearly a man dedicated to the Cavalcade - If Suzuki made a modern version of the bike Dave would own the first one in the UK. Thank you Dave and Ronnie for inspiring all Cavalcade riders to come together and enjoy their bikes. Tony Taylor, SCCUK

Yves Rummens

French translations SCCB - Driving two tone maroon Cade LXE 1988. My motto: If you don’t come to tomorrow’s Cade Raid, others will not come in the future and the Cade Raid’s will perish.

Nettisamurai

Webmaster SCCF - Driving red Cade LX 1986 since 2009. Webmaster of SCCF and Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club of Finland.

Markus Hämmer

German translations