End of the road for the White Helmets
Motorcycle display team on final tour after army chiefs deemed the show too old-fashioned
THEY’VE been entertaining with precision stunts since 1927, but now the White Helmets are reaching the end of the road.
The Royal Signals Motorcycle Display Team, which featured in a Texaco TV ad in the 1980s, is due to be disbanded after army chiefs decided the performance no longer reflected the modern military.
The decision was announced earlier this year and the team is now on its final tour before being disbanded at the end of the month.
Speaking to the Mirror at one of the final shows, team leader Jon McLelland, 31, said: “We are just privileged to have been White Helmets in the first place.
“We recently celebrated our 90th anniversary with our young lads in their 20s and some 90-odd year-old veterans all chatting. It was great.
“It’s sad it’s ending, but at least we got to see it out to the final show, to make those who’ve done it over the years proud of us.
“We say: ‘Once a White Helmet, always a White Helmet.’”
The Royal Signals Corps once carried messages across battlefields on motorcycles and horses.
Announcing the decision to disband the White Helmets in February this year, an Army spokesman said: “The Royal Corps of Signals have come far since using motorbikes to carry messages across the battlefield, and are now highly trained ‘Leaders in a Digital Age’ with expertise in cyber operations. This modernisation means that 2017 will be the last season for the iconic ‘White Helmets’ Royal Signals Motorcycle Display Team.”
The team was originally formed by officers employed as despatch riders, who performed horse-riding as well as motorcycle demonstrations.
They're the oldest motorcycle display team in the world and probably best-known for their human pyramid stunt.
They use 750cc 1970s Triumph Tiger T140s to leap through hoops of fire and modern machines like Kawasaki’s KX450F for bigger jumps.
