I started riding in 1975 at about 10 yrs old on old field bikes then trail bikes, progressed to some trials riding once I could afford a decent bike, started racing Motocross when I was 22 yrs old in the AMCA with Leeds Motocross club, voted Rider of the Year in 1988, won singles points club championship 1988 and doubles points championship in 1988.

When I started my racing career in 1988 I progressed from Junior through Senior to Expert class rider in about 16 weeks hence all the awards, I was getting plenty of time to practice then because I still lived at home which was in the country side and had started working in telecoms in the same year for Direct Telecom in Huddersfield as a direct sales guy selling London PABX's and Panasonic New GX, soon replaced by the A Series and DBS of which I sold a few!

Honda CR500RG - 500 Seniors Race at Brierly Garden Centre Track - I was always quick off the line!

I raced for about five or six years, primarily as a 500 Expert on a Honda CR500 but had a one year 'foray' into 250 Experts on a Kawasaki KX250 just to prove I could compete in this very competitive class. I preferred the hugely powerful 500 though and went back. If anyone has ever ridden a 500cc single cylinder two stroke crosser they will realise the power is just awesome. Makes a modern sports bike seem positively tame to about 70mph.

My first Motocross bike was a 1986 Honda CR500RG, well known in the racing fraternity at the time to be a viciously powerful machine due to its very small flywheel and tuning, consequently a lot of Motocross side car riders sought out that engine for their heavier 'two up' rigs.

When I went to the shop and told them I'd never raced and was planning to ride it around the field a bit and then maybe have a go at racing the salesman did his best to talk me into a 125cc machine. I was having none of it.

Honda CR500RG - leading 500 Seniors race at Garforth race meeting

The bike was duly delivered with the delivery driver refusing to even start it stating these were 'complete bastards' to start and 'he knew someone who broke his leg doing it because the kick back could be so bad'. After an hour I had to ring a mate who did motocross to come over and start it. I then rode it up the field struggling to keep the back wheel behind me!

I've had over forty motorbikes from off road field bikes, trials bikes, trail bikes (which used to be brilliant fun until they closed most of the green lanes down in the Dales) to road bikes. I did the plastic rocket thing and luckily lived to tell the tale. I was a complete nutter on my Fireblade and R1's etc.

Now I've settled on the BMW R1200GS. It's a great bike and to me it's the best all rounder; on the country roads it's as fast and handles as well as my ability will allow and is just brilliant fun but easy to ride and maintain.

My normal rides are a little less challenging than Ewan McGregor or Charlie Boorman's on their Adventure versions of the same Beamer R1200GS as mine, my usual ride is a Sunday afternoon blast around the Yorkshire Dales with a cuppa and a butty in Hawes en route.

It's great to take your mind off the cut and thrust of everyday life at the sharp end of the telecoms market and you can take in some great scenery and have a laugh with your mates - without taking the silly risks we used to do on the road. To me racing around at break neck speed is for track day enthusiasts - not that we exactly tootle around you know.
I've broken a few bones, including my back, wrist shoulder and ruptured the odd kidney falling off bikes so my main ambition nowadays is to stay on them and get home in one piece and not to mention get to work on a Monday morning!

My bike is for fun not for getting me from A to B so I guess I'm not a proper biker but a bike enthusiast, my four wheel transport is a BMW 530d M Sport so you could say I've bought into the brand!

Some Questions

First ever race, first ever trophy! Huntington, York 1988

1. Best Ever Ride (competitive or otherwise)

It's hard to pin point this, I think my best race meeting was one of the first when I was riding 500 Juniors, it was a place called Fridaythorpe in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It was a two day race meeting so we all took tents and caravans. The course was in a valley and it literally weaved up and down the sides of the valley so you would blast down the steep sloping sides of the valley through the trough in the bottom and up the other side, there were drop off's, jumps but all in all out and out speed was the key, I always loved the really fast tracks.

It was tremendously fast and the more power/torque you had the better to get up the steep and long incline on the upward slope, hence the 500cc bike came into it's own. Not many of the Motocross tracks in the UK lend themselves to the bigger cc bikes, this track could have been a GP track - it was fantastic. We never rode there again as some rare species of butterfly was found in the area!

My best non-competitive ride was a day out with the local TRF lads (Trail Riding Fellowship), I was on a big Husqvarna 610 4-stroke crosser that kept backfiring and blowing the carb off, luckily for me my 20 stone mate who'd sold me the bike lent me his Suzuki DR350z and he rode the Husky. It was so much easier to ride and just the job for the mixed terrain, I bought one the week after and sold the Husqvarna. We went from near where I live all the way to the East cost on the green lanes, we blasted through forests on fire track's, we went through rivers, up rocky paths, over big hills, it was brilliant. To me it was a big change because I'd been used to a practice and three fifteen minute races at break neck speed where as this was a full day out where you rode so many different terrains over the period of the whole day.

No road rides stand out - riding on the dirt is the best fun you can have with your trousers on, unfortunately the National Parks have closed down all the decent green lanes to motorized transport under pressure from ramblers and farmers. As with most things the nutter's and irresponsible riders spoilt it for the rest of us.

Honda XR600 rebuild project, my mate broke his back on this. My first daughter and a few of my trophies - now relegated to the garage!

2. Worst Crash

I've lost count but my worst was when I went over the bars at about 70mph and broke my back and ruptured a kidney, that hurt (and still does 27 years later!). A spectacular one was when I was racing at Kawasaki's Team Green track down in Newmarket. I crashed in mid air with another bike and completely parted company with my bike, I must have looked like the cartoon characters with arms and legs wide apart flying through the air for what seems like an eternity. I had time to think "oh shit, this is going to hurt", but it didn't - well not that much anyway, just a few bruises.

3. Dream Motorbike and Why

BMW R1200GS - the one I own now. Without sounding glib having owned over 40 bikes it would be a bit daft to own something now that I'm not happy with and within reason most bikes are affordable to the average working man. If my dream bike changes or I get bored then I may change it, who knows…. In all honesty though I've never had as much fun on a bike as I did when I was ten or eleven on old field bikes.

4. What is a 'plastic rocket'?

A sports bike - all colorful and plastic ridden by blokes looking like Mutant Ninja Turtles. Actually I really love them and was that man once upon a time (not in the flamboyant leathers though), I just went too fast on them and would have lost my license or my life (still could I guess but the chances are less - at least that's my line and I'm sticking to it, you can take the piss out of me if I scrap myself big time). Whatever's your bag is fine by me though….. I do take some pleasure though in pissing all over (biker's term) a sports bike on the twisty roads on my old fart's GS. For any of you Ninja Turtles out there take a GS for a spin - you'll be quite surprised :)