When you decide to do dangerous things, you have to lessen the odds of injury and accident. When I decided that my chosen career path would involve jumping through the air at mental speeds, I also decided that to lessen the odds I would need two very important pieces of equipment. A good bike and a good mechanic....... The good mechanic was easy as I already had a fantastic friend who happened to be a fab mechanic, Ron Templeman, he not only looked after my bikes, but made sure that I didn't get in too much trouble when I wasn't in the riding seat.... The bikes that I have used in the past have been reliable and more importantly designed for the job they were intended to do. Not just any bike off the peg is good enough.... here's the Blue Peter bit..... Don't try this at home...

When I first started out, I used a James 125cc with a Villiers engine. It was a standard bike and no alterations were made. I learnt to do wheelies on this machine. When I got into jumping cars and trucks, I used a standard Suzuki 125cc. This was the bike that I jumped my first car with and a coach longways.

As the jumps got longer and harder, I had to think about a bike with more power and decided upon a standard CCM 500. This bike was responsible for helping me make a jump over 13 Double Decker buses.

The next bike that I used was a standard Suzuki RM370. Although the engine remained standard, we had to make a few modifications to the bike itself. We had to alter the seat and petrol tank and added Mag wheels. This was the bike that I used to jump the railway cutting for the film 'Hanover Street'.

A standard Honda CR250 was the next bike that I used. I used this bike for many of my jumps and this was also the bike that appeared on the Mercedes commercial that I made in 1981.

After the CR250 I switched to a Honda Mugen CR360. Originally this was a standard 250cc however, in order to make the bike faster, we converted it with a Mugen Kite to a 360cc engine.

My next bike was a Yamaha YZ400. This was a standard bike and the one used in the famous jump across a broken bridge in the film 'Riding High'. I then switched to a Yamaha YZ465. This was originally a 400cc bored out to 465cc. Nice and fast!!!

My Honda CR500, named SID, was also customised and the engine of this machine was well breathed on over the years, it has an FMF exhaust pipe and Pro Circuit Silencer. The bikes' frame was chromed and all Ali parts were highly polished. It had a Harley Davidson tank and seat and it was the machine that I jumped the Great Wall of China on. It also cleared 10 buses with 'no hands' in China. This is the machine that I was riding when I suffered my accident on. A bike similar to this was used in the jump off with Robbie Kneival and engine parts from this bike fitted. I still have this machine today.... This bike is affectionately known as 'SID'... Why?? because it is a vicious piece of kit!!

I have had many wheelie bikes over the years, but to be honest, the only one that is of any interest is the one that I still have today. My Honda XR500 was purchased specifically for my wheelie shows and was fitted with a 650cc Yamaha California petrol tank, front forks and front disc brakes. This was the bike that I was using during the show at the time of my accident.