My life in bikes: Nick Knowles

‘I stupidly tried to do a runner from the police’

IY SOS star talks about scrapes with the law, a lifetime on bikes, and why Honda’s CBR600RR is the perfect motorcycle for him

 

How did you get into bikes?

I’ve been riding most of my life, and it all started – as it did for so many people of my age – riding a battered old Honda C90 as a 14-year-old in Suffolk with me and my mates just pinging about in my friend’s granddad’s field. It was really good fun back then.

And your first road bike?

It was a Yamaha FS1-E – and I crashed it a lot. I ended up with a Honda 250 Dream on L-plates, but that feels like a million years ago. The Super Dream was a lot sleeker, and that came next for me. I also had a big crash on a bike where I stupidly tried to do a runner from the police. I switched off my lights and went flying into a road to try and lose them. I thought it was a through-road, but it turned out to be a cul-de-sac. A resident in one of the houses that I passed called 999 as I flashed by almost flat-out, because they knew that at the speed I was travelling I was going to crash. I refused to get into the ambulance that was sent out, and in the end I was laid on a wooden door in the back of a Fiat 127 and taken to hospital.

First Bike
Yamaha FS1-E ‘Fizzy’
‘I had an FS1-E, and I crashed it a lot’

Then came ‘Ridge Riders’

Yeah I rode so much stuff throughout the eight series of that show being made (a celebrity green laning TV series aired between 1993 and 2001 on ITV Meriden). Some of the them were amazing dream bikes like a Norton 500 single, Scott, Brough Superior SS80, and a Norton Commando 750. The sound of the Norton 500 booming off the hedgerows on a British country road can hardly be beaten by anything, in my opinion.

What about your own road bikes?

I always rode sportsbikes back when everyone else did too. I think lots of people are over-confident in their own abilities but I always tried to be aware of my limitations. I thought a 600 supersports bike was perfect for me because the 1000cc bikes made the speed all come a little bit too easy and you always ended up going much faster than was sensible. I loved the look of the Ducati 916, but I knew my abilities were not up to it.

Any mistakes along the way?

Apart from the cul-de-sac incident? Only one really. I went and bought a Honda CBR900RR FireBlade, but I didn’t get on with it at all as it was just way too much for me. I sold it after three weeks for a Honda CBR600 and took a decent loss on the value of the FireBlade. I much preferred the 600 because it just gave you a bit more warning about what was going on, and the speed didn’t build so fast.

The Ideal
Honda CBR600RR
‘Probably as perfect a bike as can be’

Was that your favourite?

Yeah, the Honda CBR600 was great. I had a fair few of those from the earlier F models and then latterly the CBR600RR, which I think is about as perfect a bike as there can be. Unfortunately I’ve sold mine now because I have an 18-month old child, and with work being so full-on I just wasn’t finding the time to ride it. So I don’t have a bike right at this moment, but I’m thinking of getting something like a Harley-Davidson or a Norton. I’m just debating whether I want to ‘retire’ onto something like that, but I think that’s looking like the most likely outcome right now.