Bikers: game for anything and afraid of nothing

When I was presenting the Channel 4 TV series called “Fortean TV” back in the late nineties, I never knew what wildly unusual ideas the Director would come up with next. We went to haunted houses; we filmed haunted castles; we made programmes about hypnotic dogs; we recorded conversations between cats and experts who claimed they could speak cat as if it was a real language. We took on miniature skeletons that were allegedly cursed. Our Director had a pretty sound idea that most bikers were game for anything – and afraid of nothing. He also suspected that most bikers shared a way-out sense of humour — like mine. I think he had that right too! So with a biker-presenter, who was also a martial arts instructor, the Director felt confident that there was practically nothing he couldn’t do. Maybe he also knew about the wide range of first class replacement bikes available from Webuyanybike in case I needed one.

Castles of Horror

On the way to Cabo de Especial
on my Harley

A few years ago, when I was doing a lot of TV work, some friends and colleagues at BBC Wales were approached by the Discovery Channel to make a series for them which was scheduled to be called “Castles of Horror” on one channel and “Bloody Towers” on another. I was delighted when the BBC Wales production team asked if I would present these castle shows for them, and use the Harley I then owned to visit the various castles they hoped to include in the series. That was what we had always done when I was presenting “Fortean TV” my unsolved mysteries show on Channel 4.

To make this new castles series, we went all over England, Scotland and Wales, as well as large areas of Europe, and then it was decided to visit Cabo de Especial in Portugal. We took in several other Portuguese castles first and then went down to Sesimbra to look at the spectacularly scenic Cabo de Especial.

A way of life

My first bike a BSA 500cc

As far as I’m concerned riding a motorbike is more than just a great means of transport: and it’s more than the most exhilarating form of travel. It’s a 100% way of life. You and the bike together become a sort of totality. I bought my very first bike, a BSA 500cc, way back in 1951 when I was just sixteen. I passed my test - first time - the following year.

Negotiate the fog

The night before the test, I’d been riding home in a thick fog along a twisting Norfolk road between Norwich and Dereham. My headlight was trained down on the verge, where tarmac and grass produced a sort of guiding line that made it just about possible to negotiate the fog. The council sand lorry had been that way a few hours earlier and had obviously been unwilling to stay broadside across the road in the fog for any longer than was absolutely necessary to tip the sand. Consequently, the tipper had left a heap of very loose sand about four feet deep a good yard out into the road.