Fuelling Around podcast: Si King on 25 years of crazy adventures as the Hairy Bikers

Hairy Bikers presenter Si King joins hosts Jason Plato and Dave Vitty to discuss all things bikes, baking and how he and his co-star Dave Myers got their start on television.

King, who has been on UK television screens for over 25 years, discusses his and Myers’ on-screen career with Plato and Vitty, an opportunity he has been incredibly thankful for. “We’re just naturally enthusiastic men, who are normal blokes who have had the privilege to be put in extraordinary circumstances” explained the 55-year-old.

Elsewhere on the podcast, King gives a short update on Myers’ health, the crazy situations he and Myers have got themselves into, and the Hairy Bikers’ new book.

Si King on his love of motorcycles

“For Dave, it started with his dad, because working class people back in those days – in the 50s – couldn’t afford a car; they could only afford a motorcycle, and the same for me really,” explained King. “My dad was in the second world war in the Arctic convoys and when he came back on leave, he rode a motorcycle and was a dispatch rider for the Royal Navy.

“But my auntie Hilda and uncle George were formative for me because they lived in a big industrial area with large engineering firms, most of which are still there, and there was a notorious crossroad there. Hilda always had sheets ripped up for bandages because the lads would come out from work and just crash all the time. And somehow all of the debris that was left on the road from these accidents would end up in my uncle George’s backyard.

“So we would fix up all these motorcycles and scooters for folk, and George would often tell me to have a go on these bikes saying things like ‘they still work’. So I’d be up and down the back lanes on all these wobbly-wheeled bikes. And from there I just became completely fascinated with two wheeled vehicles and was fascinated with the engines, which were completely different to the engineering of a motor car.”