My Passion with Rob Ripley: Getting on to two wheels and leaving the routine of life behind

Rob Ripley, partner in the dispute resolution department at Langleys in York, talks about his passion for motorbikes.

My father was a police motorcyclist. He didn’t want me to take up bikes as a kid – no parent does. But once it’s in your blood…

I have a picture of him on the wall from the early 60s standing next to a couple of other bobbies. It’s enshrined in my memory.

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Motorbikes are a religion for me. It’s not just about the size of an engine. Hitting the open road allows you to explore the world in a visceral way.

It’s not surprising motorbikes have inspired cult books and movies. Riding a motorbike can be about stepping out of the routine of life, even if it’s just for a short ride into the hills.

As a solicitor, it’s not that I necessarily have that old Kerouac romance of life on the road. I heard a psychologist talk once in my last firm about stress management. What you need is something that commands all your attention and completely absorbs you. Biking works because you can’t afford to think of anything else but what you’re doing, it’s about being in that zone. Without complete focus, you’d fall off.

It’s not just about losing your worries on the road. I admit I also like the speed and adrenaline kick. Of course, as a solicitor, speeding is something I’d never condone off the race track.

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When I was 16 I owned a Gilera.50 and then a Yamaha 125 when I was 17 before my parents, wisely, took me off two wheels and put me in a 1968 Ford Escort until I went to university.

For those who aren’t fans, I can see why the letters and numbers may seem to lack certain poetry, but for me they speak of key moments in life. Aged 21, I was able to buy the bike of my boyhood dreams – a 1976 Norton Commando Mark III 850 Interstate. I rebuilt that completely, keeping it for six years or so before buying my first Japanese bike – a Honda VFR 750. That was the bike my wife and I toured together on before we had kids. After our children were born and it was just me on the road again, I moved onto more sports oriented bikes with a Honda CBR900 Fireblade in 1999.

I started to enjoy track days and track riding courses such as the California Superbike School. In 2005, I bought a Yamaha YZR 1000R1. In 2009 I changed my R1 for a Honda CB1300 – a ‘retro’ unfaired bike which is more comfortable.

But it’s more than just a hobby, it’s a passion, it’s in my blood. Whenever I watch motorcycle racing, it takes me back to a time when I was nine or ten years old seeing Barry Sheene race – the noise and the smells are those I associate with childhood.

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I’ve ridden round the famous Isle of Man TT circuit on a number of occasions and circuits such as Silverstone, Cadwell and Croft on more occasions than I can recall. The journey is exciting, but bikes always make me feel like I’m home.

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