The Shadow the Hedgehog Motorcycle Toured the UK, And Nobody Knew About It

[Dreadknux]

You'd be forgiven for thinking that next week's Gamescom event in Germany would be the first non-US appearance of the custom-built Shadow the Hedgehog motorcycle. We even thought so too, until last night - turns out the Dark Rider-style vehicle has in fact attended another show in the UK earlier this month. Except, nobody knew about it!

Photo by @Badnik Mechanicon social media

Eagle-eyed Sonic fan, Dave (aka @Badnik Mechanic) managed to attend the MotoGP British Grand Prix in Silverstone, which took place on Sunday 4 August, after noticing a motorcycle racing enthusiast randomly claim that the Dark Rider would be in attendance there some months ago.

The strangest thing is that SEGA, for its part, did not advertise the bike's presence at the event at all. The Sonic Stadium didn't receive any invitations about it, nor even any press releases about it. This is despite SEGA America previously promoting a US tour that included San Diego Comic Con just a few short weeks ago.

It really just feels like its appearance in Silverstone was something of an accident.

Photo by @Badnik Mechanicon social media

Still, we're grateful that at least one Sonic fan was able to go, even if it was by mere chance - Dave told the Sonic Stadium he felt that, because all he had to go on was one random bike fansite and its webmaster, there was only a slim chance of the Dark Rider actually being at the show. We're glad his efforts weren't in vain - as a reward, he received some special Shadow-themed pin badges, which he shared pictures of online too.

Photo by @Badnik Mechanicon social media

Were you at Silverstone's MotoGP event, and did you see the Shadow motorcycle? Let us know in the comments below! Otherwise, if you're heading to Germany for Gamescom next week, be sure to spend some time with the Dark Rider at SEGA's booth there (we know we will - we have a lot of photo time to catch up on, it seems!).

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[MGA_Gamer]

I live not that far from Silverstone. If I had known the bike would be there I would've bought tickets to see it (And the racing of course, even if I'm not that into monocycle racing).

[Sonic_Speedster]

That's pretty awesome It came here In the UK going unnoticed and nobody knew about It In secret expect Badnik Mechanic was there to experience It and enjoyed It too. 

It Is strange that the Sonic Stadium never acknowledge some sort of a invitation from Sega about It thought  

If Silverstone was a bit closer I wouldn't of gone even I'm not a motorcycle type person but still awesome thought.

[Blue Blood]

What's the point in doing promos if you don't tell anyone about them? Like, fine, I'll happily accept that this was a low-priority event for Sonic demographic compared to something such as Gamescom or SD Comic-Con. But to get not so much as an official social media post? Fucking pointless.

[MGA_Gamer]

At least we got this at the MotoGP COTA race:

 

Edited August 13 by MGA_Gamer

[Dreadknux]

20 minutes ago, MGA_Gamer said:

At least we got this at the MotoGP COTA race:

Has Sonic got a crick in his neck or something 

[Maple Syrup]

I guess SEGA didn't want a mob of fans hogging the tickets!

2 hours ago, Dreadknux said:

Has Sonic got a crick in his neck or something 

His neck melted in Austin itself. Seriously. It was hot that day. 

Spoiler

AGHHHH I SHOULD'VE SEEN ITTTTTT THIS WAS THE ONLY THING SEGA DID FOR AUSTINITE SONIC FANSSSSS

 

[Dreamcasted Soul]

3 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

What's the point in doing promos if you don't tell anyone about them? Like, fine, I'll happily accept that this was a low-priority event for Sonic demographic compared to something such as Gamescom or SD Comic-Con. But to get not so much as an official social media post? Fucking pointless.

If the whole point of the Shadow bike is just for short-term promotional purposes, then yeah I agree it’s pretty pointless.

However, the optimist in me wants to believe that this could be Sega wanting to get MotoGP fans naturally accustomed to seeing a Sonic-themed sponsorship for riders, considering how Sega used to do the same in F1 racing in the early 1990s before the turbulent economic times of the Sega Saturn, and that they might be trying to do the same thing with MotoGP today given how Sega has been prioritizing Sonic a lot nowadays.

Still though like you said, it’s weird that they didn’t even make a social media post about the thing.

[Dreadknux]

2 hours ago, Dreamcasted Soul said:

However, the optimist in me wants to believe that this could be Sega wanting to get MotoGP fans naturally accustomed to seeing a Sonic-themed sponsorship for riders, considering how Sega used to do the same in F1 racing in the early 1990s before the turbulent economic times of the Sega Saturn, and that they might be trying to do the same thing with MotoGP today given how Sega has been prioritizing Sonic a lot nowadays.

This would be a believable theory, if not for the fact that SEGA America invited a number of US-based Sonic community people to a Texas MotoGP event a few months ago where the Shadow bike was also in attendance. It was exactly the same type of event, casual Shadow bike placement at a mainstream event, but SEGA made sure to invite people to that one.

This feels like something that caught SEGA by surprise, somehow. It's the only way I can explain why I didn't get any notice or information about the thing, lol.

[Dreamcasted Soul]

18 hours ago, Dreadknux said:

This would be a believable theory, if not for the fact that SEGA America invited a number of US-based Sonic community people to a Texas MotoGP event a few months ago where the Shadow bike was also in attendance. It was exactly the same type of event, casual Shadow bike placement at a mainstream event, but SEGA made sure to invite people to that one.

This feels like something that caught SEGA by surprise, somehow. It's the only way I can explain why I didn't get any notice or information about the thing, lol.

Well dang, that’s weird for Sega to do.

Hopefully they remember to properly invite people next time, if they even plan on doing that.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Ah I didn't realise this had been posted so... Here's my side of this story. 

First big thing... I didn't actually go to the event, in fact the pins and the photos aren't from the event either. The pins are from a US convention and the photo is from another. 

But the bike was apparently there and yes I even got a press pass to attend it... but couldn't and... well...

Here's what happened.

When they announced the bike tour, myself and a few others were trying to find a list of locations, and we didn't... But we did find one reference to a UK event at "Silverstone in August!" The problem, there's 2 big events that month at Silverstone... so which one was it? Well the site we found the reference to was a MotoGP fansite, so go figure it was probably the MotoGP event.

First big problem, was it official? There was no official confirmation anywhere and that's a problem because... well... It's not a cheap day out....

The event is a pay to enter, and it was quite pricy. Especially if you have no interest in MotoGP. Second big cost, transport. Going by train means you have to go to Milton Keynes and then get a bus or taxi to the event...

This comes problem number 2. 

Taxi to the event is £50. So £100 for a taxi ride.

There is a shuttle bus service... That runs 4 times per day... First bus back to the train station... 4pm. So if you're getting the train home... that's a very late train ride if you live far away.

So it was a massive cost, for a short day with no confirmation....

Anyway... About 2 weeks before the event, the Bike was at another US event and I made a tweet about how annoyed I was that there was no list so nobody could plan... This caught the ye of someone at Sega who DM'd me saying "Oh it's in the UK in two weeks!"

They offered me a press pass and I said, "I'd look into going once I got it."

I did ask about them publishing a list of the venues, but she admitted, despite organising and coming up with the idea, she didn't have a confirmed list to public, it seems it's a very last min confirmation due to the logistics of the bike. In fact the one at Gamescom this week is a completely different one to the one touring the US.

So anyway, the press pass didn't arrive until 2 days before... Now a train ticket was over £100 just to go, let alone to get back... This was NOT Segas fault, this was 100% on MotoGP taking their time to send these out. Had they done it 2 weeks earlier when I said yes, there MIGHT have been a chance I could have figured something out.

But now the cost JUST to even get there and the tight time limit before I had to come back was so ridiculous, there was no way I could take the risk. 

And I may have dodged one HELL of a bullet by not going... The day I would have gone was Saturday... August 3rd... Oh... Yeah... The night the Nazi's decided to riot. And they decided to riot right at the train station in my town, so it got closet for the night. So I would have been stranded with... God knows how I'd get back.

 

Sooooo Why has there been no photos or video of the bike? 

Well..... It turns out MotoGP isn't that popular, this comes from r/MotoGPuk, people there openly state that the UK even is never sold out and there's literally tons of gaps in the stands for the races. The people that go to these events, are there for the track side races, not the fan zones.

So anyone who did go and saw the bike, either had no interest, or wasn't compelled enough to take a photo of it. In fact on the weekend of the event, I only found around 5 photos taken from the fan zone area... Every other picture was of the races.

 

Anyway, where's it going to be next? My guess, it may turn up to MCM/EGX in London later this year.