Hundreds of motorcyclists who had attended a recent awareness day in Dalton stood a better chance of survival on the roads, according to traffic police, reported The Mail in 1993.

Under the headline ‘Dalton’s survival special is real winner with local motorcyclists and the police’, it was reported that police believed the Motorcycle Awareness Day, held in conjunction with the Dalton Round Table Gala, would go a long way to cutting down on accidents.

An estimated 250 motorcyclists arrived for the event to meet traffic officers and discuss road safety.

PC Barry Postlethwaite, traffic management officer, said: “In the first half of this year we have had 35 motorcycle accidents and 14 of those involved riders over 30 years old.

“These are the sort of people who turned up for the awareness day which was good.”

He added that anything which made bikers think about what was going on around them while out riding was good news.

“Motorcyclists came and talked bikes with police officers and the talk was worthwhile.

“If people have picked something up from this then it can only make them think while they are riding, and that is good.”

In 1994 Furness Harley Davidson biker Dave Summer entered the record books when he and 25,000 other bike enthusiasts brought Pairs to a standstill.

Dave, the Furness representative of Motorcycle Action Group, was in Paris with his wife Lisa and friend Geoff Rodd, to oppose proposals from the European Commission on motorcycle laws.

The proposed legislation would have restricted bike engines to a 100bhp limit.

The Mail reported that, mainly thanks to the protest, more than 200 Euro-MPs had voted against the legislation.

Dave, who worked at the Castlehead Field Centre in Grange, said: "The idea was to ride into Paris and shut the city down for the day and the plan worked very nicely.

"The event had massive international support and there were people there from just about every country you could think of."