Barry Sheene Biography

On motorcycling:
“Endless motorbike talk can and does bore me.”

“I vowed I would do everything I could to stop the Isle of Man counting towards the World Championship. And it was stopped, so they love me in the Isle of Man.”

“Nobody within motorcycling has or deserves any respect.”

“They were ridiculous times. After I won my World Championship in 1976, I went to Japan.”

On women:
“All I was doing was racing a bloody motorbike and before I met Steph [his wife], it was great for crumpet."

On his health:
"Although this is a complete pain in the arse, it happens to a lot of people and a lot of people get over it." [On being diagnosed with cancer]

“I broke my leg, forearm, collarbone, a couple of vertebrae, some ribs, and took a lot of skin off.”

“I thought: This is not racing, it’s a suicide mission.”

"I’d get to within a yard of that door you walk through and the thing would go mad. I used to carry an X-ray in my briefcase, to show them. But I had it all taken out.”