Steve riding to find the American dream

Motorbike-mad Steve Starling is back in Lancashire once more to tell the tale of a 5,000 ride through some of the most iconic countryside in the States

Steve, who was born in South Shore and went to Hawes Side and Highfield schools, now lives in Perth in western Australia having emigrated in 1971, aged 23, as one of the so-called £10 Poms looking for a new life down under.

Steve was an electrical engineer working for Norweb and rode to work on his beloved motorbike every day.

His love of bikes continued when he worked as an engineer in Western Australia and other places around the world specialising in mining and later as a consultant.

Steve, who regularly returns to Blackpool to see relatives, his wife Sally is also from Blackpool, said the road trip in the US was a dream for him and his two mates Jim and Peter. He said: “We are members of a motorcycle club for older riders called Ulysses.

“We had this idea to go to the US and ride Harley Davidsons through some of the legendary locations and also to see how the ordinary people in the USA are faring. To see if the American Dream is still alive and well.

“As a kid a I grew up in Blackpool listening to Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America programme on Radio 4 and was fascinated by the lifestyle over there. So on the ride we sought out real Americans - trappers in Utah to millionaires in Southern California.

“The different people and places could be almost countries from different parts of the world instead of living in the same country.”

Steve’s book is available at Waterstones and on Amazon.