My Story.
Under the helmet | Behind the camera
Childhood Fascination.
It happened at eight years old. The first time I sat on a motorbike. A 1978 Italjet JC5C. Something permanently shifted in my brain. Whatever happened in that moment has sculpted my life since. I couldn’t concentrate on anything else; I simply needed motorcycles in my life.
My parents yielded an absolute 'No', so I had to feed the obsession elsewhere. I spent my weekends in the library devouring motorcycle books and taking the bus into Newcastle just to walk up Westgate Hill, staring into the shop windows at machines that would be out of reach for at least another decade.
It wasn't until I left home that the brakes finally came off. I worked, saved, and finally achieved my childhood dream. The smell of 2-stroke oil became my freedom, and my first bike, a 1991 Suzuki RGV250, was everything I dreamed it would be.
Recently whilst riding Route 66 I saw the same model Italjet in one of the many museums we visited and I tried to buy it but the owner was having none of it. I’ll have one in the garage someday just for pure nostalgia.
Cameraman by Trade.
Hailing from Newcastle Upon Tyne, I have lived my life through a viewfinder for the last 38 years. 15 of those were spent with the BBC, documenting everything from land mines in Angola to Polar bears in the Arctic, collecting many accolades along the way.
Today, I reside in Ireland, working as a DOP/Lighting Cameraman for State Broadcasters on acclaimed documentaries, and filming hundreds of episodes of shows like ‘Come Dine With Me’ for Channel 4 back in the UK.
Outside of my day job, I'm a cross between an adrenaline junkie and just a curious soul. I've piloted light aircraft, played in many bands, created award-winning movies, and of course, ridden many motorcycles.
Ready for Take-Off.
With so many interests, it was just a matter of time before I would think to combine one passion with another. Giving way to my background in light aviation, anything that flies has fascinated me since I was a child. In 1994, after winning my 3rd 'Royal Television Society' award for best cameraman, I had an idea that would bring me my 4th. I employed my obsession with flight in my search for the perfect shot, and designed a gimbal for a radio-controlled helicopter I had built, that would allow me to operate a camera "in the sky" to capture aerial footage in a revolutionary way.
Long before DJI existed, this drone predecessor was near impossible to fly, and there was no such thing as 'auto hover' when you took your hands off the controls. When consumer drones finally arrived, I became Ireland’s leading Aerial Cinematographer. Today, my drone has a permanent place in my panniers when I tour.
The Ride That Changed Everything.
Thirty years is a long time to put a childhood passion on pause. While a fast-paced career in television took me around the world, motorcycles had been relegated to a quiet memory. In 2019, I had purchased a modest cruiser, thinking it would simply be a nostalgic, Sunday-afternoon hobby to ease me into my fifties. Then, the world shut down.
In early 2020, as a cameraman filming documentaries about the global pandemic, I held a media pass that allowed me to travel through a locked-down Ireland. One particular afternoon, I needed to urgently deliver a hard drive of crucial footage to a TV station in Dublin. Instead of taking the car, I grabbed my helmet. I still find it weird that this photo was taken that day, because what happened next changed my life forever.
Riding across an eerily empty country, something profound shifted. It was an absolute epiphany. The dormant fire didn't just reignite; it consumed me. I realised this wasn't just a hobby I was revisiting; it was a core piece of my identity that I had neglected for three decades.
I returned home that evening, high on the adrenaline of the wind and the isolation, and told my wife I was going full-throttle back into the motorcycle world, and the hunt began for a machine that would better facilitate my return. That single ride changed the trajectory of my life.
The Channel Begins.
After a few months of using every spare second to research the best bike to upgrade to, and watching countless hours of motorcycle content on YouTube to make sure I was making the right decision, I landed on the Yamaha FJR1300 as the perfect way back in. On the drive home from collecting the first clean example I came across, I had the idea to chart my return to the hobby by creating my own motorcycle content, maybe it would help others to get the bug again too? I created the channel that very night, and the rest, as they say, is history!
A childhood obsession, a lifetime behind the lens, and a habit of combining hobbies to be able to enjoy two at the same time. This is what the channel is born from. I don't just take videos of bikes, I turn the road into my film set, and try to tell a story with every ride.